Unreported Death in Experimental Wild Mare/Burro Sterilizations

Posted on May 18, 2016 by Denise Brown
May 18 2016

New Information Reveals Unreported Death in Experimental Wild Mare/Burro Sterilizations performed by Dr. Leon Pielstick

Source: The Cloud Foundation

Dr. Pielstick is scheduled to perform mare sterilization research at Oregon State University

photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Colorado Springs, CO – On May 10, The Cloud Foundation (TCF) received a call from an unnamed Phoenix resident who had witnessed deadly burro and mare sterilization operations performed in Arizona last month by Dr. Leon Pielstick, DVM, the veterinarian slated to perform such procedures on hundreds of wild mares and foals, currently being held in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Hines, Oregon corrals. The BLM funded mare sterilization operations would be undertaken through a BLM grant to Oregon State University (OSU).

“I received a call last week from a person who attended the surgeries,” explains Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of TCF. “According to the caller, the burros formerly roamed wild on the Lake Pleasant Herd Management Area north of Phoenix. The caller, who wishes to remain anonymous, had hoped that the surgeries might be a humane and effective field population control for burros, stating that there have been burros involved in accidents on highways near Lake Pleasant. The caller said that Dr. Pielstick told them that the procedure was ‘safe.’  The caller said, – “now we’ve done that (the ovariectomies), there are too many complications.”

The ovariectomy surgeries on the handful of female burros and one mare resulted in one of the burros bleeding out (evisceration) and the mare dying two days later. To date TCF has been unable to find out whether the other burros are alive. They were believed to have suffered serious infection.

In an ongoing effort to halt BLM-funded, inhumane sterilization research on wild mares (procedures rarely used on domestic mares that can be easily handled and given necessary after care), the Cloud Foundation, other humane organizations, and thousands of Americans have been in communication with OSU, urging them to abandon the research project.

Dr. Lisa Jacobson, DVM from Berthoud, Co states.  “As an equine veterinarian I’m in shock that the BLM, veterinarians, and OSU are even considering the mare sterilization techniques being proposed. These techniques are abusive & incredibly negligent.”  Dr. Jacobson has worked with both wild and domestic equines for years. According to Jacobson, “The Colpotomy procedure is so barbaric and risky that I have never been behind it–with domestic mares–let alone wild mares. Laproscopic spaying is in no way a procedure to be done in a non-clinical environment, with no follow up management (the least being pain management. How can this even be considered for wild mares? . . . As far as I’m concerned, this is a deadly cocktail of risk factors.”

Dr. Don Moore, equine veterinarian with decades of experience stated, “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 (Page 3) taken as a graduating veterinarian, ‘above all else, do no harm.’ ”

TCF continues to encourage BLM to finally embrace “on the range management” of wild horses and burros with economical, safe, effective, non-invasive fertility control vaccines, namely PZP. Herds being managed on the range are avoiding roundups and removals. “The idea is that any foal born wild, is allowed to live its life in precious freedom,” Kathrens concludes. “What OSU and BLM are preparing to do to these wild mares and foals is unthinkably cruel.”

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BLM Shifts Blame – Hiding Mismanagement of Wild Horse Program

Posted on May 16, 2016 by Denise Brown

Press Release for Immediate Release

Federal Agency Shifts Blame – Hiding Their Mismanagement of Wild Horse Program

Agency has ignored humane fertility control for decades

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO. (May 16, 2016) – The Federal agency responsible for controlling wild horse populations is seeking to rewrite their mismanagement of this program spanning the last 30 years. The Bureau of Land Management claims wild horses in holding are busting their budget, yet failed to address economic tools that have been at their disposal for decades to keep horses out of holding and on their legal ranges in the West.

“BLM’s recent press release fails to address economical tools that have been at their disposal for decades which can control wild horse populations in a humane manner on their home ranges as the Wild Horse and Burro Act intended,” said Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of the Cloud Foundation. “BLM’s lack of on-the-range management has come at a very high price. Helicopter contractors make millions. Wild horses lose their freedom. And the American public foots the bill for large scale incarceration.”

Kathrens noted that contraception alternatives have been available since the late 1980s. Known as “PZP and PZP-22,” the vaccines render a mare infertile for one to two years or even longer. “Unfortunately, less than 1% of the BLM budget is allocated to these non-invasive tools, much to the frustration of equine professionals, wild horse advocates, and even public land permittees,” states Kathrens.

The National Academies of Science (NAS), in their 2013 in-depth analysis of the Wild horse and Burro Program (Using Science to Improve the Wild Horse and Burro Program) states ”. . .the committee considers the three most promising methods of fertility control to be PZP vaccines (in the forms of PZP-22 and SpayVac), GonaCon, and chemical vasectomy”.

“BLM has ignored this recommendation by the NAS. Instead they are now proposing dangerous sterilization surgeries on wild horse mares, operations considered risky even for domestic mares in a sterile environment.” Kathrens continues. “And they are proposing to change the Act, allowing wild horses to be transferred to other government agencies without limitation.”  Many fear the wild horses will end up being sold to slaughter as they would lose their protections under the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971.

“This legislative proposal has no place in an annual funding request and bypasses key House and Senate Committees with oversight of BLM,” Kathrens stated. “If enacted, it would completely undermine the Wild Horse and Burro Act.  All Americans should voice their opposition to this radical and unnecessary change to this landmark law, and demand that the BLM use humane tools to manage wild horses on the range immediately.”

FACTS:

-78% of herds are not genetically viable as they contain fewer than 150 wild horses in the entire herd. Lack of genetic diversity puts herds at risk of extinction.

-Wild horses and burros have lost 41% of their habitat since passage of the Wild Horse and Burro Act even though the Act specifies that the horses are to be “managed where presently found.”

-Of the 339 herds designated after the passage of the Wild Horse and Burro Act n December of 1971, only 179 herds remain.

-On the 179 wild horse herd areas remaining, cattle are allocated 82% of the forage. The horses and burros get 18%

-An estimated 2 million wild horses roamed the West in the early 1900s.

###

Links:

Wild Horses and Burros on Public Rangelands Now 2.5 Times Greater than in 1971

BLM’s 2017 Wild Horse and Burro Budget:

Using Science to Improve the Wild Horse and Burro Program

Media Contact:

Paula Todd King

The Cloud Foundation

843-592-0720

paula@thecloudfoundation.org

The Cloud Foundation (TCF) is a Colorado based 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of wild horses and burros on our western public lands.

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US agency ends Nevada mustang fertility project 2016

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Denise Brown

Idaho

May 11, 2016 1:24 AM

http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/state/idaho/article76772797.html

APNewsBreak: US agency ends Nevada mustang fertility project

By SCOTT SONNER Associated Press

RENO, Nev.

Under the threat of another legal battle, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has pulled the plug on a public-private partnership in northern Nevada aimed at shrinking the size of a wild horse herd through the use of contraceptives, according to documents The Associated Press obtained on Tuesday.

BLM officials confirmed they have suspended the pilot fertility-control project southeast of Carson City pending completion of additional environmental analysis.

Unlike most conflicts over mustangs that pit protection groups against ranchers, the dispute in Nevada’s Pine Nut Mountains has divided horse advocates themselves over the appropriate use of fertility-control drugs on the range.

The federal agency approved the pilot project in 2014 working with the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign and the Gardnerville-based Pine Nut Wild Horse Advocates to treat a herd that a federal judge in Reno has forbidden the agency from gathering.

BLM suspended the project Monday after Friends of Animals threatened to sue based on claims the drug, PZP, harms horses and violates the judge’s order, according to an internal email obtained by AP.

“Administration of PZP to these wild horses is hereby suspended, pending further review,” BLM Sierra Front Field Manager Bryant D. Smith wrote in informing his staff he had revoked the decision record for the Fish Springs Wild Horses PZP Pilot Project.

While some groups advocate fertility control as a preferred alternative to government roundups, others say scientific research suggests PZP can have long-lasting physical, behavioral and social effects on wild horses. Among other things, they say mares that cannot get pregnant choose to leave their bands, creating instability that affects the health of the entire herd.

“We are extremely happy to have killed the pilot project and to put a stop to the forced drugging of Pine Nut mares with the fertility control pesticide PZP for a second time,” said Pricilla Feral, president of the Connecticut-based Friends of Animals, an international advocacy group founded in 1957.

The BLM maintains the Pine Nut herd is seriously overpopulated, and it intended to round up more than 300 horses last year before U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks sided with wild horse advocates and blocked the effort. He ruled the BLM failed to conduct the necessary analysis required under the National Environmental Policy Act, and soon after the agency voluntarily withdrew its roundup plan.

Meanwhile, the BLM had been stepping up its efforts in concert with the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign — a coalition of more than 60 groups nationally — and the local group to administer PZP to members of the herd that wander into nearby neighborhoods.

Michael Harris, Friends of Animals’ wildlife law program director, said arming private landowners with rifles to dart mares appears to violate the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which prohibits landowners from intentionally harassing wild horses.

“It now looks as if BLM’s withdrawing its 2014 management plan involving a roundup and PZP, was somewhat disingenuous,” Harris said Tuesday. “Instead, they dusted off an even older plan — the Fish Springs PZP Pilot Program — in an attempt to drug the Pine Nut mares without complying with the court decision or NEPA.”

Deniz Bolbol, the preservation campaign’s programs director, confirmed local residents have been “instructed to temporarily halt the program because of the lawsuit.” She hopes the project will resume once the BLM completes the necessary review, but she fears some horses may end up in U.S. corrals.

“This is a lawsuit filed by people sitting in an office in Connecticut against the folks in Nevada doing the hard work on the ground to keep wild horses free on the range,” Bolbol said. “If this group wants to help wild horses they need to focus on the BLM’s current effort to conduct barbaric spaying of wild mares and the castration of stallions on the range rather than target this type of humane birth control.”

Smith said in a statement Tuesday afternoon that the BLM is “proud of our partnership” with the preservation campaign and the local group.

“It has been an attempt to control the Pine Nut herd’s population to keep the mustangs off neighborhood lawns and ultimately out of government holding pens,” Smith said. “Although we have decided to end the pilot program for now, (BLM) is currently in the process of preparing a new Environmental Analysis to guide long term wild horse and burro management in the Pine Nut Mountains.”

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/state/idaho/article76772797.html#storylink=cpy
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Dangerous Radio Collars put on Wild burros in Nevada — will suffer abuse and inhumane treatment 5/2016

Posted on May 7, 2016 by Denise Brown

https://rtfitchauthor.com/2016/05/07/blm-completes-sinbad-wild-burro-roundup/

BLM Completes Sinbad Wild Burro Roundup

By STEVE CHRISTENSEN as published on the Sun Advocate

“The BLM and the news article, below, failed to include the tragic details of the BLM fiasco that resulted from implementing radio collar research on wild horses in Nevada in the 1980s In the 1980s similar so-called “research” was done on wild horses with devastating results including collars being embedded into the wild horses’ flesh and some ultimate deaths caused by this collaring procedure. Collars were first fitted in the fall of 1986, and problems were not discovered until the spring of 1987. In some cases, the horse grew into the collar material, so that the collar became embedded in the animal’s neck. In other cases, the collar abraded the skin under the neck where the radio unit was attached, causing an open sore that subsequently became infected. Loose collars rode up on the animals’ necks and over their foreheads, causing sores on the ears. “The wounds caused by tight collars were unquestionably grim in appearance.” One 25-year-old mare died at Stone Cabin after being darted to treat a tight collar. A stallion died when it fell off a cliff after being darted to “adjust” its “research” collar. Other animals with collars were found dead. One had a collar embedded in its neck. Another animal was found dead 12 days after she had been darted but failed to succumb. The research team discovered an additional 21 collared horses that were found dead before August 1988. The summary report states, ‘There is no doubt that some of the collared animals suffered large and painful wounds.’

Collaring wild horses and burros is dangerous and inhumane treatment. Any knowledgeable equine owner or manager knows to never leave a halter even on a domestic horse or burro in a controlled environment, let alone a wild horse or wild burro. Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse or animal neglect, is the intentional infliction by humans of suffering or harm upon any non-human animal, for purposes other than self-defense or survival.” ~ Grandma Gregg

“The Abuse and Inhumane treatment is staggering…”

The Sinbad Burro roundup is over. In all, 236 burros were captured and transported to Axtell where they were sorted and DNA samples taken.

BLM captured Wild Burros at Palomino Valley ~ photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

Then 103 were returned to the desert, half jacks (male) and half jennies (female). Burros of all ages were returned. The other 133 burros will be available for adoption at the Axtell facility. An adoption application can be picked up at the Price Bureau of Land Management (BLM) office.

BLM Range Specialist Michael Tweddell estimates there were about 20 burros that were not caught. That will put the total herd left in the San Rafael area at about 120 animals.

Radio collars were installed on 30 jennies. That will allow them to be followed and monitored to better understand habits and movement.

Two methods were used to trap the burros. About 125 were trapped using a baited corral. Grain and water were placed in the corral and the animals could come and go for five days. At the end of five days the gates closed automatically. Those burros were loaded in a truck and the bait was again set.

About 110 were caught using helicopters, which herded the burros into a corral. It was necessary to rope some of the more obstinate animals. Tweddell explained that burros, unlike horses, will settle down when corralled. They are much easier to deal with than horses.

DNA will be compared to samples taken in the 1990s. That will tell management people about things such as in-breeding.

Burros have been around a long time, but they aren’t indigenous to North America. Columbus may have brought the first donkeys (just another name for burro) here in the late 15th century on his second trip to the New World. The Spanish Conquistadors used donkeys extensively in the 16th century as they explored the American West.

Later burros were used by miners who were looking for uranium and minerals that would make them rich. It didn’t. The Sinbad burros are probably descendants of donkeys brought to the area by those miners in the 1920s.

Burros adapted to the desert existence and flourished. There are now thousands of wild burros roaming the American West in six states. Besides Utah, they can be found in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oregon, and California.

The herds are increasing at an alarming rate. They are overrunning their own territory.

They are remarkably adapted to such a harsh environment. They are said to be able to tolerate water loss of as much as 30 percent of their body weight and can replenish it in only five minutes of drinking. Humans require medical attention if they lose as little as 10 percent of their body weight rehydration can take more than a day of intermittent drinking to recover.

Nevertheless, water still determines where burros live.

Ranchers don’t necessarily like burros. Burros eat the same thing cows eat. Burros also don’t respect the water trucked in for cows. It’s just drinking water to them. So, in reality, ranchers are helping burros by providing a source of water. Some ranchers grit their teeth when they say that.

Burros and wild horses are protected under The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971.Basically the law says burros and horses are part of the history of the west and are protected.

Harsh penalties, including prison sentences, await people who violate the law.

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Wild Horse Education (WHE) Nevada Report Part 1

Posted on May 1, 2016 by Denise Brown

https://wildhorseeducation.org/2016/05/01/nevada-the-heart-of-wild-horse-country-part-one/

Wild Horse Education

Laura Leigh is one of the greatest warriors for wild horses and burros. Here is her recent report :

Nevada, The Heart of Wild Horse Country (part one)

 

By on
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Wild Horse Education (WHE) is an organization based in Nevada, yet we deal with wild horse and burro issues nationwide. WHE does travel to multiple states yet we made NV our home. We are often asked why?

We know that there are multiple herds in other states that often get more publicity, funding, visitors than any area in NV, yet this state is home to more than half the population of all wild horses that are left in the United States. Making this our central location made perfect sense.

When the public thinks of NV they think of Reno and Las Vegas, but those are actually only two small areas in a state that is comprised of nearly 85% of public land. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages 83 Herd Management Areas in NV comprising nearly 15.8 million acres. The next on the list is CA with 22, on about 2.5 million acres (several of the HMAs managed by CA actually physically exist in the NW corner of the state of NV, not in CA). Montana manages only the Pryor Mountain wild horse Range (not an HMA) comprising a little over 33,000 acres.

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The BLM is only one jurisdiction that manages free roaming horses on state and federal land. The NV Department of Agriculture, as an example, manages the Virginia Range on a public and private land base of about 200,000 acres (larger than the Pryor Mountain Range).

blmpopchart

blm map clean

So when you hear that WHE “only covers NV,” think again. WHE covers a broad territory and watches a lot of horses. Covering an area of 110,562 square miles, NV is the seventh-largest state in the US. Many other advocacy organizations have nicknamed WHE “the bag lady of wild horses,” because we often live, literally, out of a moving vehicle and a suitcase.

Wen we talk about the wild horses and burros in the state it is good to keep the landscape they live in mind. NV is one of the most arid states in the nation. Many states have seasons that are drier than those seasons in NV, but overall NV comes up as the driest state year round with an average yearly rainfall statewide of about 8 inches. The average annual number of days with precipitation (rain or snow) of 0.01 inch or more varies considerably; Las Vegas averages 23, Reno 49, Winnemucca 67, Ely 72, and Elko 78.

So that might lead a lot of people to wonder “Why would you ever pick a state like NV to run domestic livestock or move your family?” Because there was money to be made as our nation defined itself.

Nevada did not become a state until 1864. The wealth coming out of the ground in NV through extraction, and the ongoing financial needs of the Civil War, saw NV “Battle Born” into statehood. The vast majority of the land base was not privately owned and the Constitution of Nevada was written to give federal authority over those lands in exchange for the benefits of statehood. To feed troops and miners the federal government began multiple programs to enhance and manage livestock. If you are interested in learning more about “how we got here” you can read about mining history HERE and about livestock and the federal grazing program HERE.

The man made push for resource, power and wealth led to sever degradation of our landscape. It also led to violence, people throughout history have always killed each other “for a dollar.” The last broad sweep in legislation in the West came in 1976 through the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), in the timeline of human history this is still a recent development and a lot of people resent the restrictions.

The modern horse evolved on the North American continent (not some three-toed relative). Tooth structure, digestion, fecal compatibility and thermoregulation in Equus (the modern horse) all evolved in cohesion with the grass plains of North America. Currently science is determining if and when Equus became extinct on the North American continent, trade records with Asian societies may show that horses never truly went extinct. But for the sake of this discussion we will abide by the recent consensus that horses went extinct about 8,000 years ago in North America.

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In the 16th Century Spainish explorers brought horses with them. When they escaped, they thrived.

When livestock operators released horses to breed on the open range for use in their operations, they thrived.

This led to our western landscape becoming occupied by nearly 2 million wild horses as multiple interests engaged in a resource grab for profit.

Wild horses are extraordinary survivors. The physical and political landscape they live in creates a multitude of hardship. Wild horses and burros were used to fight in our wars, work our livestock, work in mines as well as being hunted down for use in fertilizer and chicken feed. Yet they survived all of that and still remain a symbol of the resilience and beauty of their species on our open range.

In Nevada the political and physical landscape is becoming increasingly treacherous to their continued survival. We will cover more in part two.

To help Laura Leigh stay in the fight please go to this link: https://wildhorseeducation.org/ways-to-support-the-work-of-whe/

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Oregon State University to sterilize 225 wild horse mares as brutal experiment for BLM

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Denise Brown
Apr 29 2016

Letter to the editor: Oregon State University should focus more on ways to benefit lives of horses

written by Charlotte Roe and published on OSU’s Daily Barometer

“Livestock outnumber wild horses and burros by at least 37 to 1 on federal lands.”

I am saddened that OSU, a pioneer in environmental sciences, would become involved in unethical, highly controversial experiments on protected wild horses. This issue has already brought unfavorable publicity to a great University. We can all do better.

photo by Terry Fitch of Wild Horse Freedom Federation

The Daily Barometer’s April 18 article on Wild Horse Sterilization Research stated that “BLM first contacted OSU and the School of Veterinary Medicine and asked them to examine three potential sterilization methods as a third party researcher and determine which one is the most safe and effective, according to VP Clark.” BLM cannot pre-pick its research partners. OSU competed for and won a grant of its own design to participate in these experiments.

The proposed sterilization experiments would be performed on 225 wild mares and young fillies in a non-sterile outdoor pen without pre-operative or post-operative standard care . Invasive and highly risky surgeries using “inferior” veterinary methodologies would be performed on these already highly stressed animals. Many will die, according to the BLM’s own estimates. The subjects of these brutish experiments, if they survive, would no longer be wild by nature.

The experiments violate the guidelines of AAALAC, which accredits OSU’s animal research activities. They would also violate the law. The Bureau of Land Management has no statutory authority to conduct invasive experimentation on protected wild horses.

Assistant Professor Dawn Sherwood asserted that wild horses are overpopulating, ruining the range and competing with other species. This is an old canard. Wild mustangs have long been accused of ruining the rangelands by commercial interests that treat federal lands as their private domain. Yet BLM statistics count 47,329 wild horses on federal lands totaling 31.6 million acres in 2015. On average, that amounts to 667.6 acres per horse — hardly an overpopulation. Dr. Gus Cothran, the leading U.S. specialist on equine genetics, maintains that the majority of BLM-managed wild horse herd areas are far below the population levels required for genetic viability.

Livestock outnumber wild horses and burros by at least 37 to 1 on federal lands. Cattle typically congregate around water holes; predator-wary wild horses drink and move on. Cattle and sheep, having no upper teeth, use their palates to rip the grass and often uproot forage. Equines’ teeth clip the grass down. Unlike cattle, horses do not digest grass seeds but distribute them like “seed farmers.” They coexist with livestock and with many wild species.

The Administration maintains that by simply observing and evaluating the proposed experiments, OSU will distance itself from the outcomes. Yet by enabling research that abuses protected animals, the University’s good name and the credibility of its students will be badly compromised.

There’s time for a reset: reject this bogus research, and instead examine ways to better the lives of wild horses and burros through humane management practices by perfecting reversible methods of fertility control and by improving the range ecology for all species.

Sincerely,

Charlotte Roe

http://m.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/letter-to-the-editor-oregon-state-university-should-focus-more/article_bae9973c-0da6-11e6-a673-03802c1dd20e.html?mode=jqm

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Oregon State University responses to Inhumane Sterilization Experiments on wild horses for BLM

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Denise Brown

Re: Stop the inhumane sterilization experiment on America’s wild mares now– Your opinion counts on this grave matter!

 

From: “Clark, Steve” <Steve.Clark@oregonstate.edu>
Date: Tuesday, April 19, 2016 at 1:43 PM
To: Denise Brown
Subject: RE: Stop the inhumane sterilization experiment on America’s wild mares now
Denise:

Thank you for reaching out and sharing your concerns. President Ray is out of the office and asked me to respond to you on his behalf.

By way of background, Oregon State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine has been asked by the Bureau of Land Management to research safe and effective alternative mare sterilization procedures.  The role of the university research would be to evaluate and report on the safety and result of these procedures. Not to utilize these procedures as a continued practice. At this juncture, Oregon State has not yet determined whether to proceed with this research.

Oregon State’s first priority will always be the safe and humane treatment of all animals involved in any research we conduct. If the research was to occur in this matter, doctors in the College of Veterinary would lead this work. And the care of the mares would be ensured by other veterinarians, who are not engaged in the actual research, but who only would observe the research to fully ensure humane treatment, safety and proper care of the mares.

Once any research is completed, the findings of the research will be provided to the BLM and shared with the public. I understand that the BLM will then make publicly-reviewed decisions about next steps.

I understand and appreciate that you have very strong concerns about this matter. As a public university, it is not OSU’s role to enter that debate by providing our opinion on the overall matter of wild horses, but only to provide research-based information that includes evaluation of the mares’ safety for the BLM and public to be aware of.

Sincerely,

Steve Clark
Vice President
University Relations
Oregon State University
541-737-3808

 

——

Dear Steve,
Thank you for your email.

I hope your peers at the University research more about wild horses and mares before you enter these precarious experiments. You don’t want to be known as the university that brought about and contributed to the final downfall and end of America’s wild horses. It will be the nail on the coffin for America’s iconic wild horses and burros if BLM determines anything like these 3 procedures are safe, necessary or useful for the extermination of the wild herds. Overall the herd populations are not viable numbers to sustain healthly herds for the future. Most are under 150 members which makes them genetically unstable and at risk of inbreeding like the Corolla herd horses.

Please investigate everything before accepting this inhumane and barbaric way of accepting money for the university.
It is totally unnecessary. There is no overpopulation of wild horses. The cattle ranchers are behind the elimination of all wild horses on public lands.  They want you to believe they are multiplying like rabbits and over populating the whole country. They treat wild horses as feral cats and want to send them all to slaughter. Their cattle are the most destructive creatures on public lands and the cattle ranchers get practically free use of millions of acres of leased lands that were to protect the wild horse and burro in the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act started by Wild Horse Annie when the ranchers were running the wild horses off of cliffs and tying tires and ropes to the horses and let them drag them til they died.

It is all about money and if you don’t learn more about this and get on the side of the protection of the wild horses and burros, there will be no more mustangs for future generations to see. You will only see them in the movies.

It is a tragedy that so many wild species have been eliminated by man’s greed during the last 50 years of our existence.

Please research more about why this is such a wrong decision to involve yourself and the university and ally yourself with the Bureau of Land Management and cattle, gas, oil fracking, mining and hunters who want to eliminate the wild mustangs and burros so they have rights to the public land which they are buying up leasing rights all over the west, right in front of your eyes. Check the aerial photos of gas fracking…over 63,000 sites are operating on public lands now.

Please investigate this multifaceted string of events and management of our public lands so you will not be responsible for the end of the wild horse, America’s iconic symbol that both you and I and the American public own.

Shame on you, the BLM and OSU for being involved in these extermination techniques.
The future of the earth, where the wildlife are valued above money is so important.
Please choose the right side.

Thank you for your time. I am sure if you learn more you will see the importance of not conducting these inhumane experiments.
These wild mares will NO LONGER BE WILD when you take their reproductive organs out and make them useless to their families and future generations. Don’t let the foals be aborted. It is a terrible deed for you to be responsible for this and turn away from any feelings or caring about the animals as a purely scientific view with no opinion of the damage it will invite for the mustang’s future.
Please make the right decision and do the right thing and say NO to this project.
The BLM wants to utilize these procedures as a continued practice. Please read between the lines. They are using you for their plan to eliminate the wild horse.

it is the OSU’s duty to enter that debate by providing your opinion on the overall matter of wild horses, NOT to only provide research-based information that includes evaluation of the mares’ safety for the BLM and public to be aware of.
Shame on you if you think otherwise. I am sorry that you don’t value your own opinion better than your statements. Please reconsider what you wrote to me and:

Visit my ‘Wind’ blog to learn more about the plight of America’s wild horses and burros today and current events and research.
I have studied this plight for 12 years.

Denise Brown
Wild horse advocate
www.windwildhorse.com

 

 

—————–

From: Denise Brown  
Sent: Monday, April 18, 2016 7:46 PM
To: IACUC <IACUC@oregonstate.edu>; Clark, Steve <Steve.Clark@oregonstate.edu>; Tornquist, Susan <Susan.Tornquist@oregonstate.edu>
Cc: Ray, Edward <Ed.Ray@oregonstate.edu>; Trustees <Trustees@oregonstate.edu>
Subject: Stop the inhumane sterilization experiment on America’s wild mares now

Please do not participate in this barbaric and inhumane experiment on America’s wild horses.
1. there is no overpopulation of wild horses across the country.
2. cattle overgrazing is causing more damage to the range, plus produce methane gas and global warming  climate change…all about the money from cattle ranchers and public land leasing by BLM. Oil, gas fracking, mining and cattle overgrazing are the most damaging acts on our public lands today.
3. horses graze to the ground due to the structure of their teeth but do not kill the grass, whereas cattle rip out the grass by the roots so they cause more damage to grasses and create competition between other horses, deer and elk. Horses one stomach passes the grass seeds out to refertilize the range. Cattle’s multiple stomachs digest the seed so do not benefit the land. Cattle ranchers put up fences so the wild horses cannot get to the watering holes. The 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act is supposed to protect them from this bad management.
4. equines first originated on the American continents and travelled north on route to Europe.
5. wild horses don’t roam the country nationwide today. There are estimates of only 20,000 left in the wild.
100 years ago there were over a million wild horses.
6. there are no positive outcomes from sterilizing the wild mares. They will abort there foals up at all stages of their pregnancy. There is no need for the barbaric sterilization. BLM already gelds the stallions they round up.
There is no need for the sterilization experiments because PZP eventually has sterilized the mares it has been used on after several years. These mares no longer get pregnant. They need to research why this is turning out to be non reversible. The wild horses need to have 150 or more healthy breeding stock to be a viable herd for the future of the wild horses and not deformed, imbreeding numbers like most herds are at risk of today.
7. Sherwood wants this program for the wrong reasons….all about money and politics, not for protection of America’s wild horses. They are the American public’s, yours and mine, wild horses and not the Oregon State U or BLM’s wild horses. THEY WILL NO LONGER BE WILD HORSES!
Stop this barbaric inhumane experiment on over 200 wild mares.
Protect the wild horses and burros for future generations to see in the wild and not just in the movies.
It is a right as a citizen to protect our wild horses. They are not owned by the BLM or OSU.
Many of these wild mares will die from infection from lack of sterile environment in a dusty, filthy corral on the range and lack of veterinarian care because they will be set free after the operation. There will be no pain management and many will continue to bleed.The stallions might not accept them back to the family unit. They will suffer, abort their foals at all stages and die on the range from lack of care that is give to domestic mares.

Denise Brown
Portsmouth NH
Owner of America’s wild horses and burros

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Stop the BLM’s Illegal Plans for the Checkerboard Roundup II – Comment by Friday April 22, 2016

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Denise Brown

Stop the BLM’s Illegal Plans for the Checkerboard Roundup II – Comment by Friday April 22, 2016

by Carol Walker, Director of Field Documentation, WHFF – as published on WildHoofBeats.com

Checkerboard Roundup 2014

Less than 2 years ago, the Bureau of Land Management illegally rounded up and removed 1273 wild horses from 2.4 million acres of public and private lands in Wyoming. 71% of this land is public land. At least 100 federally protected wild horses were killed during the roundup and in the months following it as they were warehoused at BLM facilities. The BLM is proposing to do this again this fall, and are using the same precedent that they did last time. They are using their right to remove wild horses from private land to justify and enable them to remove wild horses from public lands as well. This is illegal and must not be allowed to stand.

This plan to remove wild horses from the Checkerboard lands in the Herd Management Areas of Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek and Greek Divide Basin is driven by the greed of the ranchers in the Rock Springs Grazing Association who seek to treat the public land as if it were their private land. Permit grazing is a privilege, not a right. Land swaps should be forced to occur in this area to consolidate private holdings and public ones separately in order to enable grazing of wild horses on public lands.

In this action the BLM is also violating the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) by lowering the numbers of wild horses allowed to live in these three Herd Management Areas (Appropriate Managegent Levels) without using a land use planning process to amend the governing Resource Management Plans (RMPs).

The BLM is using flyover data from their counts of wild horses in April 2015 to justify this removal:

http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/wy/field-offices/rock_springs/hma.Par.7748.File.dat/2015-RS-CensusReport.pdf

Here is what the BLM told us in October, 2014  – the remaining numbers of wild horses in Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin after the Checkerboard Roundup:

Adobe Town: 519
Salt Wells Creek: 29
Great Divide Basin: 91

All of these figures are below Appropriate Management Level, or AML for each of these Herd Management Areas.
The new figures from the 2015 April flyover are:

Adobe Town: 858
Salt Wells Creek: 616
Great Divide Basin: 579

And what exactly is the explanation behind this massive discrepancy? Even with all the mares and stallions in each Herd Management Area giving birth to twins, there is no possible way that there was such a huge jump in population sufficient to trigger this roundup. Conveniently there are no photographs during the flyover “The survey lead indicated his reluctance to use photography,as it requires additional circling around groups that could cause air sickness.”

Here is how you can comment – please do this by April 22 4:30 pm Mountain Time:

Written comments should be received by April 22, 2016, and should be emailed only to blm_wy_checkerboard_hmas@blm.gov

(Please include “Checkerboard Scoping Statement Comments” in the subject line),

or mailed to BLM Rock Springs Field Office, Checkerboard Scoping Comments, 280 Highway 191 North, Rock Springs, WY 82901.

Here is the Scoping Document:

http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/news_room/2016/march/24rsfo-checkerboard.html

Please DO NOT sign an online form letter. All of these will be counted by the BLM as 1 comment. If you actually want your comments to be read, counted and make a difference you must write your own letter and send it yourself.

Some points to cover:  It is illegal to use section 4 of the Wild-Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act which covers removal of wild horses from private lands to remove wild horses from public lands.

It is a violation of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to remove wild horses from three Herd Management Areas to below AML for those areas.

There is a need for a census done by an independent, outside agency, not paid for by the Rock Springs Grazing Association, that includes photographs of the horses that are counted.

There needs to be a plan for land swaps to be made to consolidate private lands separate from public lands in the Checkerboard.

Any horses removed from the Checkerboard Area of their Herd Management Areas need to be returned to the public, non-checkerboard areas of their Herd Management Areas, not permanently removed and sent to BLM holding facilities.

Regarding conflicts between livestock grazing and wild horse use of lands in Wild Horse Management Areas:

  • 4710.5 Closure to livestock grazing.

(a) If necessary to provide habitat for wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros, to implement herd management actions, or to protect wild horses or burros from disease, harassment or injury, the authorized officer may close appropriate areas of the public lands to grazing use by all or a particular kind of livestock.

(b) All public lands inhabited by wild horses or burros shall be closed to grazing under permit or lease by domestic horses and burros.

(c) Closure may be temporary or permanent. After appropriate public consultation, a Notice of Closure shall be issued to affected and interested parties.

If the Rock Springs Grazing Association cannot come to an agreement on how many wild horses can live on the unfenced areas of the Checkerboard, then all of the public land within the Checkerboard and outside it in these three Herd Management Areas should be closed to livestock grazing.

The American public wants these wild horses to remain in their Herd Management Areas on public land, and to live out their lives wild and free, not suffering death and injury in roundups and stockpiled in holding facilities.

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USA: Protect the Wild Horses of the Outer Banks!

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Denise Brown
 http://www.aspca.org/take-action/advocacy-center/usa-protect-wild-horses-outer-banks?ms=em_ade_USA-equine-article-advocacy-alert-20160418&initialms=em_ade_USA-equine-article-advocacy-alert-20160418&utm_source=USA-equine-article-advocacy-alert-20160418&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=advocacy&spMailingID=8802906&spUserID=NjA1MjA5NTI3MTUS1&spJobID=901939270&spReportId=OTAxOTM5MjcwS0

ASPCA

USA: Protect the Wild Horses of the Outer Banks!

Burr-Tillis Amendment (# 3175) to S. 2012—Corolla Wild Horses Protection Act
Sponsors:  Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Thom Tillis (R-NC)
ASPCA Position:  Support
Action Needed:  Please call and email your U.S. senators to ask for their support of the Burr-Tillis Amendment.

Update—April 14, 2016:  We’ve just learned that the full Senate will vote on this bill Tuesday or Wednesday of next week (4/19 or 4/20). There’s no time to lose: Even if you’ve done so before, please contact your senators right now and urge them to support the Burr-Tillis Amendment to protect wild horses!

At any moment, the U.S. Senate will vote on the Burr-Tillis Amendment, which would protect the free-roaming wild horses in and around the Currituck National Wildlife Refuge. Increasing the number of horses allowed in the Outer Banks herd will preserve their genetic viability. The language of the amendment was originally introduced by North Carolina Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis as the Corolla Wild Horses Protection Act.

This treasured herd of horses can be traced to the arrival of Spanish explorers on the Outer Banks in the sixteenth century. These horses roam across 7,500 acres of public and private land in coastal Currituck County, yet current law caps the maximum number of horses at 60—a population deemed too low to maintain the herd’s genetic viability. The Burr-Tillis Amendment will allow the population to increase to not fewer than 110 horses, with a target population of 120-130 horses. This modification recognizes that the Corolla wild horses need an adequate herd size to survive in the event of a disease outbreak, natural disaster or similar threat.

Please contact your U.S. senators and urge them to support the Burr-Tillis Amendment (#3175) and preserve these wonderful horses on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for generations to come.

What You Can Do

We need you to take two actions for horses.

First, use the form below to email your U.S. senators. Don’t forget to add your own message in the box provided!

Second, follow up with brief, polite phone calls to your two senators in Washington, D.C. Tell them that as a constituent, you care about the preservation of the magnificent Corolla wild horses. You can refer to the text on this page for talking points if you wish, but keep it short and simple. Don’t be intimidated by making the calls—calling is easy, fast, and by far the most effective thing you can do! You can find your U.S. senators’ names and numbers here.

Thank you for your help, animal advocates!

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ALERT: OSU considering partnership with BLM to research wild horse sterilization

Posted on April 18, 2016 by Denise Brown

http://www.orangemedianetwork.com/daily_barometer/osu-considering-partnership-with-blm-to-research-wild-horse-sterilization/article_6e7166e0-050a-11e6-a94c-8b0fdfa002fc.html?utm_source=The+Daily+Barometer+Headlines&utm_campaign=67006a6228-RSS_EMAIL_DAILY_HEADLINES&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_741317f58b-67006a6228-128419649&mc_cid=67006a6228&mc_eid=4804dc0270

The Daily Barometer

Oregon State University Newspaper:

OSU considering partnership with BLM to research wild horse sterilization

Posted: Monday, April 18, 2016 5:00 am

By Sarah Weaver News Reporter |

Under fire by horse activist groups, the Oregon State University School of Veterinary Medicine and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are looking to collaborate on the sterilization of wild mares in Hines, OR.

Carol Walker, director of documentation at the Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF) finds OSU’s involvement in the possible experimentation not only unethical and inhumane, but in direct violation of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

The act states that if there’s an overpopulation of wild horses and burros in a given area, sterilization can be used as a means to control the wild horse and burro population. This can only be done with approval by the BLM Secretary of the Interior.

According to Walker, the BLM is violating the act on the grounds that the BLM would be utilizing medically invasive procedures on the animals.

“It 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,” Walker said in an email.

Walker also takes issue with the environment in which the possible research would take place in, arguing that the holding facility would not be truly sterile and that the horses would be scared of being contained and tested on.

Currently, the BLM is asking OSU to test three different methods of sterilization on the mares, according to Walker.

While the School of Veterinary Medicine would be conducting research on these sterilization methods upon approval, OSU Vice President of University Relations and Marketing Steve Clark is handling all calls and emails concerning the project.

The BLM first contacted OSU and the School of Veterinary Medicine and asked them to examine three potential sterilization methods as a third-party researcher and determine which one is the most safe and effective, according to Clark.

OSU has yet to decide if they will collaborate with the BLM on this project, Clark said. However, the research endeavors the BLM is proposing must first be accepted by a committee within the university.

The university is currently evaluating the proposed project for the safety of the animal subjects, Clark stated.

“Dependent upon whether this research is accepted by this independent university committee, then it would be up to the BLM to accept our requirements for safe and appropriate research methodologies,” Clark said.

According to Clark, OSU as a whole has no opinion on the issue of horse sterilization.

Clark emphasized that OSU takes this matter and community opinions, such as those from Walker very seriously.

“Everyone who sends us an email, we respond in writing. As we receive phone calls, we respond with phone calls,” Clark said.

Clark stated that the groups opposing the project are concerned with the humane treatment of the animals and that OSU agrees with those concerns.

In light of the recent tuition increase that was passed on March 31, Clark emphasized that no tuition dollars will go towards the research project and that funding would come directly from the BLM.

“The funding would provide for the work to be done by the researcher and the care of those animals that are involved in the research,” Clark said.

Clark is unsure of how much student involvement there would be in the project and if there will be any at all.

Clark also stated that OSU’s role in the project is solely research based and has no part in shaping or implementing public policy concerning wild horses and population control. OSU’s role in the project does not relate to any motives the BLM may have.

“The role of a research university, whether it’s about public health and human sciences or engineering or the liberal arts or veterinary medicine, is to both teach and conduct research in an unfettered way and provide information to students and the public in the case of research,” Clark said.

According to Clark, the research will be primarily conducted by Michael Huber, an associate professor of veterinary medicine at OSU and licensed large animal surgeon.

Huber’s work will be monitored by another third-party committee to ensure the safety of the animals and people involved in the project as well making sure that the project is conducted in an ethical way, Clark said.

Clark stated that Huber is concerned about the well-being of the horses and the impacts that overpopulation has on their health.

Huber could not be reached for comment.

Charlotte Roe, a founding member of the Wild Equine League of Colorado, is in opposition of OSU’s potential collaboration with the BLM on the sterilization research project and argues that there are alternatives to testing the three medical procedures, suggesting the possible use of the porcine zona pellucida (PZP) vaccine.

The PZP vaccine is an immunocontraceptive vaccine that is given to mares in as a means to control the population of wild horses in a given area and decrease foal production numbers over a given time period according to the National Center of Biotechnology Information.

According to Dawn Sherwood, an assistant professor in animal and rangeland sciences at OSU, while the PZP vaccine has seen success in other areas, there are few alternatives to mare sterilization in the case of Hines.

Sherwood believes that the sterilization project will affect herd behavior and dynamics in addition to the population of horses in the Hines area.

While wild horses travel in herds, they also have subgroups within the herds called harems. These harems which are comprised of one stallion, a lead mare, and between four and 20 other mares could change in size depending on the outcome of the sterilization research, Sherwood said.

According to Sherwood, the horses’ overpopulation is causing problems within Hines’ ecosystem. 1 see below

“I don’t have exact numbers as of this year but I do know that the numbers are out of control. They are running out of vegetation, watering holes are going dry – you have things along those lines where the land is just not sufficient enough to provide enough food and water for those horses,” Sherwood said. 2 see below

Since horses graze to the ground due to the structure of their teeth, they cause damage to grasses and create competition between other horses, deer and elk. Additionally, because of the structure and design of their hooves, an overpopulation of horses is causing damage to Hines’ lakes and riverbanks, according to Sherwood.   3 see below

When a large group of 20-40 horses are around a single watering hole, their hooves can trample down the edges and cause damage to the area’s riparian zones, according to Sherwood.

Sherwood mentioned that wild horses are a species that were originally introduced to the United States by humans, but as agriculture became more industrialized and the use of tractors became more common, the horses were often set free by their owners.  4 see below

“That’s really the basis of our wild horses, that they are feral horses and they’ve replicated, they’ve reproduced, and that’s where it needs to be taken care of is reducing their reproduction,” Sherwood said.

As a result, the horses reproduced on their own and began roaming countrysides nationwide, Sherwood said. 5 see below

According to Sherwood, there are positive outcomes that could come from sterilizing the mares including decreasing foal production numbers and the environmental problems that come with overpopulation. 6 see below

Sherwood takes issue with opponents of the sterilization research project because she believes that some groups are advocating to maintain the status quo for the wrong reasons. 7 see below

“It’s nostalgia, that’s why people are fighting to keep them,” Sherwood said, “They don’t see the starving horses, they don’t see them dying of dehydration.”

While Sherwood understands the sentimental attachment people have to wild horses, she believes that people don’t realize the pain horses go through as a result of a lack of population control.

“That’s what frustrates me as a horse person,” Sherwood said.

baro.news@oregonstate.edu

______
BLOG COMMENT:

1. there is no overpopulation of wild horses across the country. Sherwood needs more info.

2. cattle overgrazing is causing more damage to the range, plus produce methane gas and global warming  climate change…all about the money from cattle ranchers and public land leasing by BLM. Oil, gas fracking, mining and cattle overgrazing are the most damaging acts on our public lands today.

3. horses graze to the ground due to the structure of their teeth but do not kill the grass, whereas cattle rip out the grass by the roots so they cause more damage to grasses and create competition between other horses, deer and elk. Horses one stomach passes the grass seeds out to refertilize the range. Cattle’s multiple stomachs digest the seed so do not benefit the land. Cattle ranchers put up fences so the wild horses cannot get to the watering holes. The 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act is supposed to protect them from this bad management.

4. equines first originated on the American continents and travelled north on route to Europe.

5. wild horses don’t roam the country nationwide today. There are estimates of only 20,000 left in the wild.

100 years ago there were over a million wild horses.

6. there are no positive outcomes from sterilizing the wild mares. They will abort there foals up at all stages of their pregnancy. There is no need for the barbaric sterilization. BLM already gelds the stallions they round up.

There is no need for the sterilization experiments because PZP eventually has sterilized the mares it has been used on after several years. These mares no longer get pregnant. They need to research why this is turning out to be non reversible. The wild horses need to have 150 or more healthy breeding stock to be a viable herd for the future of the wild horses and not deformed, imbreeding numbers like most herds are at risk of today.

7. Sherwood wants this program for the wrong reasons….all about money and politics, not for protection of America’s wild horses. They are the American public’s, yours and mine, wild horses and not the Oregon State U or BLM’s wild horses. THEY WILL NO LONGER BE WILD HORSES!

Please write to the president of OSU, Sherwood, Dr. Huber, President Obama, Congress and Senators to stop this barbaric inhumane experiment on 200 wild mares.

Protect the wild horses and burros for future generations to see in the wild and not just in the movies.

It is a right as a citizen to protect our wild horses. They are not owned by the BLM or OSU.

Many of these wild mares will die from infection from lack of sterile environment in a dusty, filthy corral on the range and lack of veterinarian care because they will be set free after the operation. There will be no pain management and many will continue to bleed.The stallions might not accept them back to the family unit. They will suffer, abort their foals at all stages and die on the range from lack of care that is give to domestic mares.

 

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