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Nevada Revives Wild Horse Birth Control Program

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Nevada horse advocates are looking forward to getting back to their work in the field after the state agreed to resume a birth control project for a herd of free-roaming mustangs near Reno.

The Reno Gazette-Journal reports the volunteers are returning to the field in large part because Assembly Minority Leader Jim Wheeler, R-Gardnerville, convinced Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak to restore a program to enable volunteer darters to work with the Nevada Department of Agriculture.

Darters are volunteers with air rifles that fire darts with birth control into female horses' haunches.

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The project fell apart on Oct. 25, 2017, when Nevada Department of Agriculture officials terminated a privately funded agreement that enabled volunteers associated with the American Wild Horse Campaign to manage horse issues on the Virginia Range.