Stallion castration plan halted

US land managers have agreed to postpone their precedent-setting plan to castrate hundreds of wild stallions in eastern Nevada pending a court's review of the issue.

The US Bureau of Land Management's action came a week after a coalition of conservationists and wild horse defenders sued the government in the US District Court in Washington, DC, to block the plan's implementation.

Under a compromise approved by the court, the agency will be allowed to begin a long-term removal of roughly 1,800 wild horses from the sprawling Pancake Complex near Ely beginning about January 12 as scheduled.

But the BLM agreed to postpone its plans to castrate 200 wild stallions before releasing them back to the complex.

Horse activists think the court will rule in their favour.