The Navajo Nation officials are considering a wild horse hunt in an effort to curb the number of free-roaming equines of the country’s largest Indian reservation.

The proposal by the Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife would allow permitted hunters to shoot and kill some of the 48,000 wild horses on the range, which spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife director Gloria Tom has said that the horses are competing and winning over other wildlife like deer and elk “for natural resources like forage, water and space.”

Instituting a hunting program is just one of the horse population control efforts that the department is mulling over. Finding suitable adopters has been limited.

“A hunt is not the single approach we’re looking at,” said Tom, noting that many other approaches will be looked at to solve the problem.

Historically, Indian reservations have valued their wild horses very much.

The horses on the range need to be treated humanely, noting that killing one horse has an effect on the entire herd.

They cherish their family, Americans can very closely relate to wild horse herd dynamics.