The Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDA) has voted to terminate its cooperative agreement with American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) and to transfer ownership of a herd of estray horses from the NDA to a yet-to-be-named nonprofit organization. The AWHPC, however, believes the transfer violates public opinion and is not in the horses’ best interests.

The state of Nevada has jurisdiction over the estrays, called the Virginia Range herd, which descend from domestic horses turned out on the range by owners and are not protected under the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act. The herd became controversial when some in the area called for the horses’ removal to prevent them from wandering onto public roadways and private property.

In 2013, in an effort to manage the herd’s size, the NDA entered into a cooperative agreement with the wild horse advocate group Return to Freedom (RTF), whereby the RTF could purchase the collected horses for $100 per head on an as-is basis.

Later the NDA and RTF signed another cooperative agreement that used an American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals grant to allow RTF to work with agricultural authorities to develop birth control, fencing, and diversionary feeding strategies to eliminate the need to remove horses from the range. Also, under the Virginia Range Cooperative Agreement, RTF worked with local organizations to implement the horse management programs