As the growing population of wild horses is straining public lands throughout the U.S. West, birth control will be an option to thin the herds, authorities said.

Wild horses are seen on the at the Pryor Mountain National Wild Horse Range in south-central Montana. [File photo]

A plan to give mares birth control in hopes of diminishing the need for controversial horse roundups is being discussed at the Summit of the Horse conference in Las Vegas, according to a report by The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.

Bob Abbey, director of the federal Bureau of Land Management ( BLM), said at the meeting that the BLM also will continue promoting adoption and seeking locations to place captured horses other than its holding pens.

He told supporters of horse processing plants that slaughtering wild horses for food isn't a viable option to stem the growing population of the herds.

"Make no mistake, they deserve to be treated the best way that we can treat them," Abbey was quoted as telling dozens of people who support the opening of a horse processing plant in Wyoming.

The BLM, said Abbey, is obliged to talk to various stakeholders in the debate, including those suspicious of the agency, which they regard as an ineffective landlord of federal lands.

Horse trainer Dave Duquette, the president of conference sponsor United Horsemen, dismissed the BLM's view as shortsighted and a waste of government dollars.

"What's palatable to public opinion and what needs to happen are two different things," he said after Abbey's hour-long appearance.

But Duquette's remarks drew criticism.

Those who "wish to profit from the butchering of America's horses must find another way to earn a living," said Suzanne Roy of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign in a statement.

With virtually no natural predators, about 38,000 wild horses and burros have been galloping across 10 Western states, with most scattering across Nevada, according to the BLM.

The herds are thousands more than the land can handle, the agency said.

For years, the BLM has run "horse gathers," in which tens of thousands of animals have been captured and transferred to holding areas -- a labor-intensive and costly process, according to the report.

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