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GLOBAL CULTURE As Step 1, HSUS sent a team of experts to Puerto Rico to evaluate the situation. ey determined the small island is home to about 2,000 wild horses and growing—too many for its 134 square miles when also accounting for the human population and developed areas. ey tracked the bands of horses and watched how they interacted with the town. en they chose the best way to help—a five-year program administering a porcine zona pellucida (PZP) immunocontraceptive vaccine to mares so they don't foal every year. "After year five, the locals will be ready to take over," said Loller. It's similar to a system that's been used on Assateague Island, off the coast of Maryland and Virginia, but the Vieques one would be on a much larger scale. ere was just one major problem: funding. e program costs about $200,000 for one year, and HSUS had exactly zero dollars allotted for it. "It's something that popped up that wasn't in our budget whatsoever," said Loller. "I knew anyone who loves horses would want to be part of this. e capacity for change is immense since use of PZP for equine populations could help countless other populations in the future. I gathered 24 horse enthusiasts I knew would fall in love with the project, and I asked them to make a donation to come on the trip." Loller's known top show jumper Georgina Bloomberg for years, so she gave her a call. Bloomberg's been involved with an HSUS Puerto Rico program helping spay and neuter dogs and cats for about two years now, and she was eager to jump into this project too. Fellow show jumpers Stephanie Riggio Bulger and Ariana Rockefeller signed on as well, and the crew made a trip to Vieques in January. "ey spent three days on the ground with us, and they got to be part of the darting team work, part of a horse festival we ran, and then two parts involved domestic animals—dogs and cats," said Loller. "Each donor participated in two hands-on projects twice a day over the course of three days. We had team dinners, and they went out on Bio Bay. It's something I'll run over the next couple of years because it basically pays for the entire darting program. It was my way of not turning away from something really needed, something that will be exemplary work for horses." "I'm a huge horse lover, and this seems so sensible to me," said Tara Loller, director of strategic campaigns and special projects for the Humane Society of the United States, of the organization's immunocontraceptive program in Puerto Rico. After careful notation of their markings, wild mares on Vieques are shot with dart guns to administer the immunocontraceptive vaccine that'll prevent them from getting pregnant for one year. MEREDITH LEE/HSUS PHOTO 94 M AY/J U N E 2 017 U N TAC K E D

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