ASPCA Awards $7,500 Grant to Science and Conservation Center, Inc. in Billings

NEW YORK— The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®) today announced that it will provide a $7,500 grant to the Science and Conservation Center, Inc. of Billings, Montana. The funds will be used to provide below cost immunocontraception for 300 wild horses living on tribal land, public land or in private sanctuaries.

In 2010, the Center ultimately expects to treat between 1,500 and 2,000 wild, tribal and sanctuary horses, providing the vaccine at two-thirds the cost of production. The grant funds will help support vaccine production, training of individuals to use the vaccine and travel to field sites to administer it.

"It is extremely important to manage the populations of these wild mustangs whether on public land, tribal land or in the care of private sanctuaries," said Jacque Schultz, ASPCA Senior Director of Community Initiatives. "The Science and Conservation Center works directly with the Navajo Nation, the US Forestry Service and sanctuaries such as the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary and Return to Freedom among others on behalf of these legendary animals."

The Science and Conservation Center, Inc. advocates the humane control of wildlife populations by means of fertility control and is the world's only dedicated facility for the development of wildlife contraceptives and methods of application. The Center produces and carries out quality control for a wildlife contraceptive vaccine, distributes the vaccine and is the repository for all records and data required by the Food and Drug Administration. Additionally, the Center and its staff coordinate and in some cases carry out field-based application of contraception to wildlife populations.