BLM Advisory Board recommends sterilization of wild mares

THE CLOUD FOUNDATION PRESS RELEASE

SALT LAKE CITY (October 30, 2012) – The Cloud Foundation opposes the recommendation of spaying wild horse mares in their native western rangelands. During its meeting in Salt Lake City today, the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board recommended that the agency implement spaying wild horse mares in the field.

“They talk about this mutilation of mares as an immediate response to a crisis,” explains Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation (TCF). “How can they recommend a procedure that is proven to be dangerous and invasive?”

The Arizona-based Conquistador Program obtained information regarding field-testing of mares via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request (pdf). The invasive sterilization procedure was tested on wild horse mares from the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada, and resulted in 10% mortality rate, with recovery taking at least a month.

“This is a very invasive procedure and most veterinarians are reluctant, at best, to even recommend it,” states Donald Moore, DVM, of Fruita, Colorado who questions the ability of BLM to conduct such a dangerous technique. “It is not feasible to perform this surgery in the field. Even if this ill-advised surgery were to be performed, BLM is not equipped to house and handle the mares in a manner that meets an acceptable level of care required for their recovery.”

Even BLM’s vet, Dr. Al Kane USDA-APHIS, expressed concerns regarding this protocol: “It’s a lot more complicated and the potential for complications and side effects is much greater,” he reported to the Advisory Board last year. “The potential effects on herd behavior or individual mare behavior are an issue.”

Spaying mares was proposed in the summer of 2011 on two herds in southern Wyoming. This proposal was met with public outcry and was withdrawn from the table.

The Advisory Board also brought up concerns regarding the ineffectiveness of the immunocontraceptive drug known as PZP. “BLM used PZP on only 1000 mares this past year, and proposes to only use it on 1000 again in 2013,” explains wild horse advocate and TCF board member Linda Hanick. “They have set PZP up for failure and instead are opting for permanent sterilization.”

Spaying of mares largely stems from concerns over the lack of space in BLM holding facilities. BLM faces increased scrutiny since it was revealed that more than 1,700 wild horses being sold to one man, Tom Davis, who apparently sold the horses to slaughter.

“BLM approved Davis’ applications for the purchase of wild horses. The man is a known kill buyer,” states Lauryn Wachs, Associate Director of TCF. “How do you authorize the sale of truckloads of horses and not question where they’re going?”

BLM Assistant Director Ed Roberson confirmed this week that the Department of Interior’s Office of the Inspector General is going to investigate the slaughter allegations. BLM won’t comment on the subject. Meanwhile the Advisory Board continues making dangerous recommendations for the management of wild horses on their native rangelands.

“Ken Salazar should be proud,” says Kathrens of the Secretary of the Interior. “This is an advisory board he has created to manage wild horses to extinction.”

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LINKS OF INTEREST

– The Atlantic: Are We Leading Our Wild Horses to Slaughter?

– All the Missing Horses: What Happened to the Wild Horses Tom Davis Bought from the Gov’t?

– Wild Horses targeted for possible slaughter

– Nevada policy change sells its wild horses by the pound

BLM concludes Pancake emergency wild horse gather

BLM NEVADA PHOTO
A wild horse specialist applies a freeze-brand to the horse’s neck indicating that the mare has received the fertility control drug PZP.

BLM PRESS RELEASE

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ely District, Egan Field Office concluded the Pancake Herd Management Area (HMA) Emergency Wild Horse Gather on Thursday, Sept. 13. The BLM gathered and removed 124 wild horses from the southern end of the HMA in south-central Nevada, about 30 miles west of Ely or 80 miles northeast of Tonopah, Nev. The animals were at-risk of death if they remained on the range because of minimal forage growth and reduced water availability due to severe drought conditions.

The horses were transported to the Palomino Valley Center outside Reno, Nev., to be prepared for the BLM’s adoption program. Un-adopted wild horses will be placed in long-term pastures where they will be humanely cared for and retain their “wild” status and protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The BLM does not sell or send any wild horses to slaughter.

The emergency gather began on September 12. An Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) veterinarian was on site daily through the gather to evaluate animal conditions and provide recommendations to the on-site BLM wild horse and burro specialist for care and treatment. BLM staff utilized the Henneke body condition scale to classify gathered wild horses. On a scale from one to nine (one being poor condition and nine being extremely fat), the horses were generally a body condition score of two and three, with a few wild horses observed to be higher or lower.

The BLM’s Pancake HMA Emergency Wild Horse Gather website can be accessed at this address: http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/ely_field_office/blm_programs/wild_horses_and_burros/pancake_hma_wild_horse.html

For more information, contact Chris Hanefeld, BLM Ely District public affairs specialist, at (775) 289-1842 or by email at chanefel@blm.gov.

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Will someone explain to me if these roundups are so necessary and the program so successful, why are there 15,000 to 18,000 wild horses left on public lands and a reported 75,000 in long-term holding.

The only success we see is the decimation of our wild horse and burro herds. There was a day when there were millions of wild horses on America’s public lands who survived wonderfully well without human interference.

Emergency indeed? What about the cattle? There seems to be plenty of forage and water for them on the public lands set aside for our wild horses and burros. Eat a burger, kill a mustang. –Ed.

Outrage over EPA calling iconic wild horses “pests”

PROTECT MUSTANGS PRESS RELEASE

Protect Mustangs opposes pesticides for indigenous horses and calls for change

WASHINGTON (May 11, 2012) — Protect Mustangs, a San Francisco Bay Area-based wild horse preservation group, opposes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) categorizing indigenous wild horses as “pests”. This classification would allow the EPA to approve the restricted-use pesticide, ZonaStat-H, for use on wild horses for birth control. Protect Mustangs maintains there is no scientific proof that wild horses and burros are overpopulated on the more than 26 million acres of public land and states that science proves wild equids heal the land—reversing damage and desertification. Today Protect Mustangs has asked the EPA to retract their wrongful categorization and halt the use of the drug. Besides the environmental hazards of using ZonaStat-H, the group is concerned the potentially dangerous pesticide could permanently sterilize and lead to the wild horse and burro’s eventual demise in the West.

After decades of research, ZonaStat-H, the EPA registered name for PZP-22 (porcine zona pellucida), has not been approved for human use. China has been testing PZP for years but research shows damage to the ovaries so the drug remains in the test phase. Protect Mustangs is concerned the pesticide will permanently sterilize America’s indigenous wild horses after multiple use or overdosing, and that the use of PZP-22, GonaCon, SpayVac and other immunocontraceptives are risky.

“Americans across the country love wild horses,” explains Anne Novak executive director of Protect Mustangs. “We are outraged that the EPA would call our national icons ‘pests’ to push through an experimental contraceptive under a pesticide program!”

Under provisions of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, the EPA can consider nonhuman animals to be pests if they harm human or environmental health.

“This is an example of the government ignoring good science that proves wild horses heal the environment and create biodiversity at virtually no cost to the taxpayer, when left out on the range,” says Novak. “Vermin don’t repair the environment and reduce global warming but wild horses can.”

Two Princeton studies prove wild herds repair the land as seen in Wildlife and cows can be partners, not enemies in search for food.

The first study, “Facilitation Between Bovids and Equids on an African Savanna,” was published in Evolutionary Ecology Research in August 2011, and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Keller Family Trust and Wageningen University, the Netherlands.

The second study, “African Wild Ungulates Compete With or Facilitate Cattle Depending on Season,” was published in Science on Sept. 23, 2011, and supported by grants from the National Geographic Society, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the International Foundation for Science.

The Savory Institute, a proponent of holistic management, states wild herds heal overgrazed grassland and uses livestock to mimic wild herds to bring the land back to life.

Public land grazing allotment holders might call free roaming wild horses a nuisance but they have an obvious conflict of interest—they want all the grazing and water rights for their livestock that outnumbers wild horses 50 to 1. It appears they would like to eliminate the rights of the free roaming wild horses and burros.

Protect Mustangs hopes the EPA will not buy into their game.

There is no scientific proof wild horses are overpopulating on the range. Despite years of requests from members of the public and equine advocacy groups, the government refuses to make an accurate head count on public land. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been accused of inflating estimates to justify costly wild horse roundups and removals—paid for by the American taxpayer.

Indigenous wild horses do not reproduce like rabbits—many die before the age of two. Life on the range can be hard and most wild horses never reach the age of 19. As a wildlife species, this is normal. Left alone, they will self-regulate as an integral piece of the ecosystem.

Recent scientific discoveries prove wild horses are native wildlife. The horse evolved here and must be respected as indigenous before they risk extinction at the hands of the American government.

Wild horses have natural predators such as mountain lions, bears and coyotes to name a few. BLM goes to great trouble to downplay the existence of predators to foster their overpopulation estimate-based myths.

Another frequent argument for the use of pesticides as birth control for wild horses and burros is that they would reduce the need for roundups. However, birth control would not end roundups because it would be difficult to dart wild horses in remote regions and lost darts become biohazards. Trapping in accessible herd management areas and roundups would continue in order to administer the drug.

In the early 1900s there were two million wild horses roaming freely in America. Today there are only about 40,000 captured mustangs living in feedlot settings—funded by tax dollars. Due to the government’s zealous roundups and removals, less than 19,000 wild horses remain free in all the western states combined. The BLM is caving into corporate pressure from the livestock, energy, water and mining industries who don’t want to share public land with America’s indigenous wild horses.

Novak says that, “we want the EPA to apologize for classifying American wild horses as ‘pests’, acknowledge the classification error and cancel approval of ZonaStat-H and any other pesticides for mustangs.”

“By classifying our wild horses as ‘pests’ the EPA is fostering the dangerous belief that wild horses are a nuisance, something destructive that needs to be wiped out,” says Vivian Grant, President of Int’l Fund for Horses. “We call on the EPA to correct this categorization of the American mustang now.”

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Source: Protect Mustangs Press Release