Source: Wild Horse Freedom Federation
Home of BLM sterilization experiment lab at Hines, OR holding facility – photo by R.T. Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation
“We are all, collectively, disgusted and dismayed at the concept of the Oregon State University (OSU) partnering with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to conduct cruel and unnecessary sterilization experiments on federally protected wild fillies and mares. It is unconscionable and we do NOT want it to proceed and we surely don’t want to watch/observe it. We want to STOP IT!!!
Many times our readers ask what they can do to help, how can they make a difference, what can be done to stop the madness…well here is your chance to speak out.
Printed below is a letter, minus your personal contact information, that you can update, print out, snail mail or email electronically to OSU and even cut and paste into the United States Department of Agriculture – Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s web form page. We also have provided a link where you can download the letter in Word along with the contact information.
So have at it and please proceed with haste; enter your contact information and let it fly…the wild mares are running out of time.
If you need any assistance, feel free to contact me, personally, at rt@rtfitch.com or rtfitch@wildhorsefreedomfederation.org.
Get after it, my friends, spread the word…you have the tools!” ~ R.T.
Send To:
1.) Oregon State Veterinary Medical Examining Board
800 NE Oregon Street, Ste. 407
Portland, Oregon 97232
Attn: Veterinary Board Investigator
Re: Leon Peilstick, DVM
https://www.oregon.gov/OVMEB/Pages/howtofile.aspx
2.) United States Department of Agriculture
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (web form)
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalwelfare/complaint-form
July 22, 2016
Oregon State Veterinary Medical Examining Board
800 NE Oregon Street, Ste. 407
Portland, Oregon 97232
Attn: Veterinary Board Investigator
Re: Complaint – Medical Malpractice Related to Unnecessary Surgery
Medical Malpractice Related to Unnecessary Surgery
By Law Offices of Barry G. Doyle, P.C.
“Unnecessary surgery is a type of medical malpractice. A form of medical malpractice that has become an alarming and growing problem in the U.S. is unnecessary surgery.
This type of malpractice can lead to life-threatening complications and completely alter an individual’s life. When a surgeon performs an unnecessary surgery, it is an act of medical negligence. Doctors should take every precaution before deciding to prescribe any type of invasive surgery to a patient. When there is a failure to do this and it results in unnecessary surgery, they may be held legally liable. Unnecessary surgery can lead to serious or even life-threatening complications. Some of the risks include hemorrhaging, damage to organs, infection, amputation and anesthesia errors. Putting animals through unnecessary surgery where they face complications that could significantly alter their life is a form of medical negligence.”
The facilities in violation include the Oregon State University (OSU) & the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM facility locations are the Burns Oregon and Hines Oregon wild horse holding locations but this complaint is in conjunction with any and all other government or private facility under direction of the BLM.
The Oregon State licensed veterinarian in violation of this medical malpractice related to unnecessary surgery is Leon Pelistick; and others – names of which are unknown to me at this time.
| Name: | PIELSTICK, LEON G DVM |
| Location: | BURNS OR 97720 |
| License Type: | Veterinarian |
| License #: | 1282 |
| License Status: | Active |
| Initially Licensed: | 7/20/1973 |
| License Expires: | 12/31/2016 |
The United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in conjunction with the Oregon State University, is planning a cruel and completely unnecessary sterilization “research” which includes dangerous experimentation on pregnant wild horse mares. The surgeries will be overseen by the University’s Veterinary School. In coordination with BLM, veterinarians have been assembled by Oregon State University (OSU) to conduct these unnecessary and dangerous surgeries. Three additional veterinarians licensed in the State of Oregon will conduct the procedures.
Dr. Charles Mayo, of the famous Mayo Clinic, stated:
“I abhor vivisection … it should be abolished … I know of no discovery that could not have been obtained without it…”
What is vivisection? Vivisection is the practice of animal experimentation. This can include administering drugs, infecting with diseases, poisoning for toxicity testing, brain damaging, maiming, binding, and other painful and invasive procedures.
Don Moore, DVM is a respected Veterinarian who has extensive knowledge about wild horses and wild horse behavior. He states, “The three surgical procedures for permanent sterilization of mares described in the mare sterilization research project, ovariectomy via colopotomy, tubal ligation and hysteroscopically-guided laser ablation of the oviduct papilla all require certain pre-operative and post-operative considerations for aseptic surgical protocol and pain management.
Pre-operative bloodwork and a thorough examination are always performed on the relatively few domestic mares which are spayed. Other options other than surgery are always considered first due to the risk involved with any of these procedures. Aseptic surgical protocol and pain management is the standard of care for each and every surgery or the performing veterinarian would undoubtedly be sued by the owner and reprimanded by the state veterinary board.
Wild mares will not have their surgeries performed in a sterile surgical suite. Their surgery will be performed in a non-sterile chute or standing in stocks at the local BLM facility without the benefit of the routine standard of care. Unlike domestic mare who are easily handled, the very handling of these wild mares presents additional pre-operative stressors, which cannot be mitigated.
The BLM does not possess the statutory authority to treat America’s wild free roaming mares as research test subjects to perform surgeries which are not the standard care for domestic mares.
This type of trial and error butchery is a violation of the least feasible management clause of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
Mass experimental surgeries performed under these conditions outlined in the proposal amounts to negligence and abuse. I believe experiments such as this proposal are unethical, inhumane and unwarranted. Any veterinarian(s) who would perform these experiments is in violation of the oath taken as a graduating veterinarian, ‘above all else, do no harm’. If a veterinarian in private practice performed these procedures in the manner described in this document, they would most certainly be reported to and disciplined by the regulatory board of that state. Discipline would likely mean suspension of that veterinarian’s license to practice in that state.”
Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, is the human infliction of suffering or harm upon any nonhuman animal, for purposes other than self-defense or survival. Experimenting on wild horses and burros is cruel, inhumane and absolutely unnecessary. BLM and Oregon State’s cruel, inhumane torture of and experimentation on our wild horses is absolutely not acceptable. In no way does this sterilization proposal conform to the minimally intrusive management on the range that the Congressionally Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 demands to protect these wild creatures.
Sterilization is a term referring to any process that eliminates (removes) or kills (deactivates) all forms of life. Sterilizing a wild horse or burro herd is the opposite of the intent of the 1971 Wild Free-roaming Horse and Burro Act (WFRHBA) and it fails to analyze an alternative that follows the Congressional Act that states, the wild horses and burros shall be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death’. It would be anomalous to infer that by authorizing the custodian of the wild free roaming horses and burros to “manage” them, Congress intended to permit the animals’ custodian to subvert the primary policy of the statute by harassing and experimenting on the very animals that congress sought to protect from being killed and harassed and captured and removed from the wild.
The thinking, feeling animals who are used in experiments are treated like nothing more than disposable laboratory equipment. They are not only physically traumatized but they are psychologically traumatized and all of this is done unnecessarily. Animal experimentation is an inherently unethical practice. Under conceptual approaches to animal cruelty, performing unnecessary experiments or demonstrations upon animals that cause them substantial pain or distress may be viewed as cruelty.
There is nothing sterile about a holding facility, and these are wild mares that are going to be absolutely terrified by being confined in this chute and having an incision made in their vaginas so the veterinarian’s arm can reach in and rip out their ovaries. The possibility of the mares panicking despite the sedation is high, and they could break their necks in the chute. They can also die from sedation, or their hearts can stop from sheer terror. The sterilization procedures that BLM is proposing to conduct on federally protected wild mares are dangerous, costly and impractical for use in the field, including any BLM holding facility due to the serious health risks they pose to the horses and their unborn foals. BLM’s cruel, inhumane torture of and experimentation on our wild horses is absolutely not acceptable and in no way conforms to the minimally intrusive management on the range that the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971 was passed to ensure.
More information:
Your action is urgently needed to prevent the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) plans to conduct cruel and unethical and unnecessary sterilization experiments on wild horses, including painful and life-threatening surgeries on pregnant mares and young fillies in non-sterile environments. The first sterilization experiments are slated to occur any day now in partnership with Oregon State University and under the direction of Leon Pelistick, DVM. Unless halted, these unnecessary and brutal experiments will begin immediately.
Sincerely,
To download in Word: https://app.box.com/s/5ivxbqs9kpdsxl1d4qkf5i3l46bmvjfx