Mustang holding facility open for rare public tour in Fallon October 28th

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Failed adoptions result in America’s wild horses and burros becoming at-risk of ending up at slaughter

RENO, Nev. —The Bureau of Land Management (BoLM) will host two free public tours of the Indian Lakes Off-Range Wild Horse and Burro Corral in Fallon, Nevada, on Friday, October 28. The private corral is one of three in Nevada that fattens up wild horses and burros removed from the range so they are attractive to kill buyers in the end. Tour attendees will have the opportunity to view native wild horses recently rounded up from public lands in central and eastern Nevada when the federal agency could have brought them water on the range to save taxpayer dollars. Instead they rounded them up, will offer them for adoption 3 times for $125 in order to “strike them out”. Then to dispose of them, the federal agency sells them off for $25 to horse traders who eventually flip them to kill buyers for slaughter.

“The Bureau claims they don’t sell wild horses to slaughter but they don’t seem do any post sales checks to make sure the mustangs aren’t sent to Mexico or Canada to be butchered for human consumption abroad,” explains Anne Novak, executive director or Protect Mustangs. “What about all the wild horses that aren’t accurately accounted for that aren’t sold yet? What happened to them?”

The rare public tours are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and each will last about two hours. Each tour will accommodate up to 20 people. The public can sign up to attend and get driving directions to the facility by calling the BoLM at (775) 475-2222.

About a 90-minute drive east of Reno, the Indian Lakes Off-Range Corral is located at 5676 Indian Lakes Road, Fallon, and is privately owned and operated with a big money contract. Tour attendees will have limited access to the captives. They will be taken around the facility as a group on a wagon to learn about the facility, the wild horses and burros available for adoption, and BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. These tours should be happening every weekend at least to encourage adoptions out of the Fallon facility.

The Indian Lakes corral can provide care for up to 3,200 wild horses or burros. The facility encompasses 320 acres containing 43 large holding pens, each pen measuring 70,000 square feet that will safely hold about 100 wild horses or burros. The wild horses receive a lot of feed to fatten them up, along with a constant supply of fresh water through automatic watering troughs. Free choice mineral block supplements are also provided to the wild horses and burros in each pen. A veterinarian routinely inspects the wild horses and burros and the BoLM claims they provide necessary veterinary care as needed.

The Bureau of Land Management is failing at adoptions because of lack of marketing and poor customer service.

“If the U.S. Congress only realized how hard it is to adopt wild horses and give them homes they might make the bureau change their ways,” says Novak.

For example the wild horses at the Indian Lakes facility with limited access to the public are almost impossible to adopt despite looking like they are available for adoption or sale at off-site adoption events and through BLM’s Internet Adoption program. Too many 3-Strikers are coming out of the Fallon facility so it’s proof their system is failing.

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Sign and share the petition to investigate the head count of wild horses and burros: https://www.change.org/p/u-s-senate-investigate-the-wild-horse-burro-count-in-captivity-and-freedom

Keep in mind that the BoLM’s main focus is making money off public land the wild horses and burros are supposed to have for principle but not exclusive use. The BoLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BoLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. In Fiscal Year 2015, the BoLM generated $4.1 billion in receipts from activities occurring on public lands. They fail at environmental stewardship and are irresponsible towards all the wild horses and burros they removed to make billions in profit. In 20 years the BoLM will make more than 200 billion dollars as long as their planned #fracking boom moves forward.

Contact Protect Mustangs (Contact@ProtectMustangs.org) if you want to adopt a pair of wild horses and save their lives. We help adopters navigate the Bureau of Land Management’s red tape to get to success.

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of native and wild horses. www.ProtectMustangs.org




#BREAKING: Protect Mustangs calls for nationwide protests against killing and sterilizing wild horses and burros

© 2014 Anne Novak, all rights reserved.

© 2014 Anne Novak, all rights reserved.

Protect Mustangs, a 501c3 nonprofit organization calls for protests against the Bureau of Land Management’s (BoLM) Wild Horse Advisory Board’s decision today to euthanize all the allegedly “unadoptable” wild horses in long-term holding. They also voted to push more wild horses through advertised adoption events to strike them out quicker! Under former Secretary Salazar, the BoLM has irresponsibly rounded up more wild horses than they could ever adopt out at once. Is it because Salazar is a fifth generation rancher paying back a promise to the Cattlemen’s lobby? Since then the federal agency has been hoarding America’s wild horses in captivity at huge tax-payer expense without correcting the failed adoption program. Now they want to kill the mustangs they call “unadoptable” and sterilize all the wild horses living in freedom on the range. Protect Mustangs is calling for the Bureau of Land Management to #PutThemBack on the 1971 herd areas in the West and stop sterilization. More than one-third of the herd areas have been zeroed out.

“We will fight this outrageous plan to kill and sterilize America’s icons of freedom and we will win,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “The public is not going to tolerate this. The Bureau of Land Management is a rogue agency and their advisory board is made up of people favoring the livestock industry except for one person. The bogus board of mustang haters needs to be dismantled and recreated with wild horse and burro experts–not cattlemen with a huge conflict of interest. It’s time to put America’s wild horses and burros back on public land where they belong.”

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Who are the wild horses in long-term holding? Are they mostly 3-Strike mustangs from the BoLM’s failed adoption program with rotten customer service? Others are over 10 years old and should have been left out on the range to live their lives out in peace.

Check back here for updates and donate to Protect Mustangs for legal fees to fight with the law by clicking here www.PayPal.me/ProtectMustangs  or go here to donate on the crowd-funding site: https://www.gofundme.com/FightwithLaw

The fight is on!

 

Update on Cleo April 2012: We found an adopter for Cleo but the BoLM had already shipped her out. When we told the Nevada BLM that the adopter was willing to go to long-term holding (Midwest) to get her they said that was impossible. They said they would only sell 100 horses at a time out of long term holding. The adopter could only take Cleo. The BLM said it was impossible.

 

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Fear mongering pushes to kill and sterilize America’s wild horses and burros

PM Oct 2014 PVC Mirror

Beware of fear mongering and stand strong for wild horses to remain wild and free as the 1971 law protects them to be. YOU are needed by the wild horses to stay grounded and fight for them.The PESTICIDE PZP PUSHERS have created a big mess by pushing fertility control on wild horses in the West. They falsely claim Americans want fertility control when the truth is Americans want our wild horses protected on public land so they can be wild and free. Free is not forcibly drugged with Pesticide PZP made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries or any other form of fertility control.

Wild and free needs to be free as nature intended.

We all agreed on stopping the roundups but the PZP PUSHERS took that one step further to push their PZP management goal. They hired salaried employees to manipulate the public. Before long people were signing online letters and petitions without reading the whole thing–especially where it called for “humane management” the buzz phrase for Pesticide PZP. Even Robert Redford seems to have been fooled into asking for “humane management” because of the way the PZP PUSHERS twisted the information claiming it’s just “birth control” and not telling people about the dangers found here: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=6922

Pushing for Pesticide PZP as fertility control went along with the Bureau of Land Management’s (BoLM) and Cattlemen’s lobby’s overpopulation LIE. Pushing for fertility control was Pandora’s box and down a slippery slope. Now the Bureau of Land Management has jumped on the false claim that the public wants “fertility control” and so they are calling for experiments to find new ways to quickly sterilize America’s wild horses as a result. The Cattlemen’s have issued a statement against mare sterilization for their Pro-Kill agenda and you can read it here: https://www.scribd.com/mobile/doc/315053204/Cattleman-Statement-Against-Mare-Sterilization-Exp Isn’t it time we pull back and fight for America’s wild horses to be protected so they can live in freedom not buy into an overpopulation myth to sterilize, kill or slaughter them.

Please sign and share these petitions:

Moratorium to Stop the Roundups: https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-studies

Stop sterilizations and Slaughter of 100,000 wild horses: https://www.change.org/p/president-of-the-united-states-congress-president-stop-sterilization-slaughter-of-100-000-wild-horses-burros

Defund the Roundups: https://www.change.org/p/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups

Send a handwritten letter to your confessional representative and your 2 senators and include the top page of these 3 petitions. Ask them to protect them from being wrongfully treated as pests. Tell them people want to adopt wild horses but are discouraged because the Bureau of Land Management’s adoption program is a failure due to poor marketing and rotten customer service. Therefore the wild horses should not be punished for lazy government employees. Ask your elected officials to intervene on your behalf to stop halt all roundups and all fertility control–including experiments because there is no independent accurate census of wild horses and burros in the wild. Tell them to stop spending taxpayer funds to pull native wild horses off public land for commercial livestock grazing and welfare ranching. Let them know that all the wild horses and burros should be put back onto public land in herd areas that have little to no wild equids left and to stop killing predators to save taxpayers one billion dollars over the next 20 years. That is the truth.


This mare waits in the alley before being led into the chute where her age and body condition will be checked. After being treated with the PZP fertility control agent, this mare will be released back to the Owyhee HMA.

This mare waits in the alley before being led into the chute where her age and body condition will be checked. After being treated with the PZP fertility control agent, this mare will be released back to the Owyhee HMA.

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Official request to end GonaCon™ Experiment and others

The War on Wild Horses

The War on Wild Horses

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Official request to stop experiments on Water Canyon wild
horses and others
From: <X@protectmustangs.org>
Date: Thu, January 28, 2016 6:30 pm
To: nvsoweb@blm.gov, eyfoweb@blm.gov, “Tom Gorey” <TGorey@blm.gov>,
director@blm.gov, mtupper@blm.gov, bnoyes@blm.gov

Dear Sirs,

The public is outraged that the small Water Canyon herd is being harassed and ruined for an experiment with GonaCon™–paid for with tax dollars. American wild horses are an indigenous species aka “returned-native” as well as being a national treasure. The public loves them.

Protections given to America’s free roaming wild horses and burros–according to the law–must be enforced.

The federally protected Water Canyon herd was underpopulated–with less than 60 wild horses of various ages on the herd management area (HMA). The herd is located on the western side of the vast Antelope Complex in northeastern Nevada, north of Ely.

This herd is already threatened with low genetic viability because the population is so small. American wild horses are not overpopulated on public land and are not “pests”. They should never be experimented on with an EPA restricted-use pesticide, or anything else.

PZP, another EPA restricted-use pesticide, was originally proposed by Nevada RAC member Jeanne Nations for a Water Canyon Pilot Program.

Now, according to your website, Ms. Nations is the Project Coordinator (volunteer) of the GonaCon™ Experiment. How did her previous PZP proposal flip into the GonaCon™ Experiment? Was the public allowed to comment on the proposed GonaCon™ Experiment?

Protect Mustangs is against forcibly drugging wild mares with risky pesticides, used for birth control, such as GonaCon™ (sterilant) or PZP (made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries) because they eventually sterilize the mares, ruin natural selection, negatively effect the herd’s immune system, cause abnormal herd behavior, etc.

The Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) overpopulation claims are fraudulent and any action taken based on fraudulent information is wrongful. There are no “excess” wild horses on public land today. Read more about that here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8551 There are too many herd management areas that currently have no wild horses on them.

Commercial livestock often outnumbers wild horses on public land at more than 50 to 1. Native wild horses must no longer be the scapegoat for range damage.

53 Water Canyon wild horses were trapped last fall for this controversial experiment. Public observation was discouraged. 15 mares were harassed and forcibly drugged with GonaCon™. Then 15 mares along with 7 studs were returned to the Water Canyon federal herd management area (HMA).

Evidently one Water Canyon wild horse has already died during the experiment. Please provide information and photos/video documenting the Water Canyon wild horse who died as a result of this experiment. Have any other wild horses died since then? Will you be killing wild horses as part of the GonaCon Experiment?

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has broken up family bands, branded, harassed and permanently removed half of the small herd to forcibly drug and experiment on 15 wild mares with GonaCon™. The BLM has also harassed and endangered wild horses with radio collars who were returned to the range for the experiment. This is outrageous and all paid for with American tax dollars.

Ultimately the BLM plans on spending $11.5 million tax dollars on various experiments on wild horses over the next 5 years. The various experiments are listed here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8657

Adoption

The Water Canyon and other wild horses available for adoption are “wanted” but BLM’s adoption publicity, marketing and interface with the public is failing. If adoption rates are falling in the last decade it’s because BLM is removing more wild horses than they can adopt and doing a poor job at customer service with adopters. BLM’s failing adoption program does not justify experiments of any sort on wild horses and burros. Your adoption program needs an overhaul and the first thing you need to do is fix your rotten customer service.

Protect Mustangs and our members are very interested in the Water Canyon wild horses. We have visited the 11 orphans at the Palomino Valley Center (PVC), outside Reno, several times per week since December 18, 2015. Our members are shocked the weanlings and yearlings each have one strike against them after the failed trap-site adoption on December 5th.

We are is committed to ensuring the 11 Water Canyon orphans (#WC11) will not receive a 2nd or 3rd strike. The 3rd strike would strip away their federal protections according to the Burns Amendment of the Free Roaming Wild Horse & Burro Protection Act (1971). Legally this would allow the BLM to euthanize the youngsters or engage in unlimited sales to kill buyers for slaughter.

We have been regularly evaluating the youngsters, documenting their situation, publicizing the need for them to find good homes in pairs–to get them out of the pen at PVC with no shade or shelter while helping adopters navigate the BLM red tape and BLM’s slow adoption communications.

Did you realize the public wants to adopt the Water Canyon wild horses because they know about them now and like them? As of this writing, all but 2 orphans at PVC have been adopted.

According to an August 2015 BLM news release, “The BLM plans to remove 30-40 excess wild horses and offer them to the public for adoption through its Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program.” Where are all the other Water Canyon wild horses who have been permanently removed from their home? How many have been adopted as of today?

Are the other Water Canyon pregnant mares, studs and colts at the Broken Arrow facility in Fallon, Nevada–which is closed to the public? If so we officially request you immediately open the facility for public observation and to promote adoption.

Members of Protect Mustangs would like to view the Water Canyon wild horses, take photographs and video of the wild horses to promote them for adoption. One of our videos had more than 24,000 views in a few days which sparked a huge interest in adopting the Water Canyon wild horses.

The American public wants to adopt and/or purchase the remaining Water Canyon wild horses removed from public land–including the pregnant mares. Those over 10 can be purchased outright through the BLM’s sale program.

The public is outraged the BLM is experimenting on America’s icons of freedom and symbols pioneering spirit of the West.

Protect Mustangs wants to ensure no other wild horses will be used for any kind of experimentation. America’s wild horses are naturally fertile for the species to survive through natural selection. Using federally protected wild horses as lab animals for population control experiments is cruel and unusual treatment and must stop now.

We officially request you cease the Water Canyon GonaCon™ Experiment and all the other experiments listed here http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8657 now.

Federally protected wild horses and burros are to be protected from harassment according to the law. You can read the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_and_Free-Roaming_Horses_and_Burros_Act_of_1971

Sincerely,
Anne Novak

Anne Novak
Executive Director
Protect Mustangs
Tel./Text: 415.531.8454
X@ProtectMustangs.org

Read about native wild horses: http://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs
In the news: https://newsle.com/AnneNovak

www.ProtectMustangs.org
Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization who protects and preserves native and wild horses.




Background:
Water Canyon Wild Horse Growth Suppression Pilot Program

http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/ely_field_office/blm_programs/wild_horses_and_burros/Water_Canyon_Growth_Suppression_Pilot_Program.html

Public observation of gather, etc was discouraged:
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/fo/ely_field_office/blm_programs/wild_horses_and_burros/Water_Canyon_Growth_Suppression_Pilot_Program/publicviewing.html
12/16/15 Adopt a Water Canyon Foal Press Release
http://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/info/newsroom/2015/december/ely__blm_offers_public.html

Release Date: 12/16/15
Contacts: Chris Hanefeld , 775-289-1842 , chanefel@blm.gov
News Release No. ELY 2016-006

BLM Offers Public Unique Opportunity to Adopt Water Canyon Wild Horses

ELY – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is offering the public the opportunity to adopt a foal gathered from the Water Canyon portion of the Antelope Herd Management Area in eastern Nevada. Nine weanlings and two yearlings are being held together at the National Wild Horse and Burro Center at Palomino Valley, north of Reno, Nev.
The horses are available for walk-up adoption from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturdays. All of the horses have received vaccinations and their bloodwork is completed. Brand inspections will be performed and health certificates issued on all adopted horses.
Pictures of the horses are available online on the BLM’s Flickr album “Water Canyon Foals Available for Adoption” at http://bit.ly/1N85QV1. Applications are available for download (.pdf) at http://on.doi.gov/1A0eAfw.
For more information, contact Jeremy Wilhelm, BLM public contact person, at (775) 475-2222.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM’s mission is to manage and conserve the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations under our mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2014, the BLM generated $5.2 billion in receipts from public lands.
–BLM–

Ely District Office 702 North Industrial Way Ely, NV 89301

Water Canyon Wild Horse Growth Suppression Pilot Program: https://eplanning.blm.gov/epl-front-office/projects/nepa/47287/57875/62666/Final_Water_Cyn_Preliminary_EA_508.pdf

USDA-Developed Vaccine for Wild Horses and Burros Gains EPA Registration (Feb 13, 2013): https://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/2013/02/pdf/horse_vaccine_approval.pdf

GonaCon™ the EPA restricted use pesticide information sheet: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/registration/content/Speciman%20Labels/speciman%20label56228-41%20GonaCon%20Equine%2001-13.pdf

GonaCon™, PZP and SpayVac® have all previously been used in experiments and should not be used because America’s wild horses are underpopulated–especially the Water Canyon herd. Here is some scientific data. The experiments were called for based on an overpopulation myth: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/publications/10pubs/miller103.pdf

Abstract
Context. Contraception is increasingly used as a management technique to reduce fertility in wildlife populations; however, the feasibility of contraceptive formulations has been limited until recently because they have required multiple treatments to achieve prolonged infertility.

Aims. We tested the efficacy and evaluated potential side effects of two contraceptive formulations, a porcine zona pellucida (PZP) formulation, SpayVac® and a gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) formulation GonaCon-B!, in a population of free-roaming feral horses (Equus caballus). Both formulations were developed to provide several years of infertility with one injection.

GonaCon™ experiment is already going on at Theodore Rossevelt National Park so no need for a Water Canyon experiment: http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/park-s-wild-horses-an-experiment-in-birth-control/article_a13a157e-816a-11e4-a261-ffd6de663204.html




Does PZP result in wild herds with lower immune systems and potential for die-offs?

PM Tule Elk Males FIghting by austlee

PZP is an immunocontraceptive and pesticide which causes an immune reaction to reject fertilization, while the females still come into estrus. Besides wrecking havoc on the immune system, injecting herds with PZP results in more fighting between males and many other behavior abnormalities.

Tule elk in Pt. Ryes National Seashore (Marin County, California) were part of a PZP (Porcine Zona Pellucida) experiment. Several years later there was a strange die-off.

Wildlife groups blamed park service management for leaving the elk fenced in during a drought–claiming that was the reason for the die-off.

Park service officials said the tule elk had water during the die-off.

“Some wildlife advocates have termed the situation a “die-off” and accuse the park service of allowing the elk to perish behind the fence that prevents them from finding enough food and water. Park service officials have a different view of what caused the population drop, and are hoping that new data will help address these concerns, especially as visitor interest peaks during the fall rutting season.” from: https://baynature.org/articles/on-the-fence/

Listen to Wildlife Ecologist Dave Press Discusses Tomales Point Elk and mention “there was water in the pond up there . . .” at 2:18.

 

It’s time to connect the dots and ask the obvious question: Did PZP lower the herds’ immune system and genetic diversity to the point of making them vulnerable to a die-off?

With suspect data regarding the long-term use of PZP on wild herds, more questions and answers are needed to prevent a similar die-off in America’s wild horses & burros.

With regards to wild horses, keep in mind what Marybeth Devlin wrote about PZP:

“PZP is a registered pesticide whose mechanism-of-action is to cause auto-immune disease. PZP tricks the immune system into producing antibodies that target and attack the ovaries. PZP’s antibodies cause the mare to suffer ovarian dystrophy, oophoritis (inflammation of the ovaries), ovarian cysts, destruction of oocytes in growing follicles, and depletion of resting follicles. Not surprisingly, estrogen levels drop markedly as the ovaries are slowly destroyed. But PZP’s adverse effects are not limited to the individual animal. As a recent study — which included the Little Book Cliffs, Colorado herd and the McCullough Peaks, Wyoming herd — found, PZP extends the birthing season to nearly year-round. Out-of-season births put the life of the foals and the mares at risk. Further, the same study disclosed that the pesticide causes a delay lasting 411.3 days (1.13 years) per each year-of-treatment before mares recover their fertility after suspension of PZP. However, some mares never recover — they are left permanently sterile, and quickly too. Indeed, yet another study found that sterility could occur in some mares from just three years of PZP injections or from just one treatment if the pesticide were given to a filly before she reached puberty. Because PZP messes with the immune system, it ironically works “best” — sterilizes faster — if the mare has a strong immune system. But, conversely, PZP may not work at all in mares whose immune function is weak or depressed. So, the pesticide discriminates against the very horses that Nature has best equipped for survival against disease while favoring and selecting for the immuno-compromised. Worse yet, tests performed via radioimmunoassay indicated that PZP antibodies are transferred from mother to young via the placenta and milk. The transferred antibodies cross-react with and bind to the zonae pellucidae of female offspring, as demonstrated by immunofluorescent techniques.”  [From: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8529]

 

Pm PZP Darts

Links of interest™:

Immunocontraception (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunocontraception

“Whenever an immune response is provoked, there is some risk of autoimmunity. Therefore immunocontraception trials typically check for signs of autoimmune disease.[17] One concern with zona pellucida vaccination, in particular, is that in certain cases it appears to be correlated with ovarian pathogenesis.[2] However, ovarian disease has not been observed in every trial of zona pellucida vaccination, and when observed, has not always been irreversible.[18]”

 

Autoimmune disease (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autoimmune_disease 

“Autoimmune diseases arise from an abnormal immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body (autoimmunity). . .”

 

ZonaStat-H is the EPA restricted-use pesticide–PZP–for wild horses and burros the registrant calls “pests”: http://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf

 

Tule elk: http://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/nature/tule_elk.htm

 

Tule elks at Pt. Reyes National Seashore (National Park Service): http://www.nps.gov/pore/getinvolved/supportyourpark/upload/volunteer_docent_info_tule_elk_elkmanagement_v5.0_1.pdf

 

Challenges face tule elk management in Point Reyes National Seashore  http://www.mercurynews.com/pets-animals/ci_28311296/challenges-face-tule-elk-management-point-reyes-national

“Earlier this year park service officials revealed that more than 250 tule elk died inside the fenced area over a two-year period, in part because pools that the herds rely on for water had gone dry. Meanwhile, ranchers are complaining about the free-range elk getting on their land and eating grass and drinking water intended for their dairy cattle and other agricultural operations.”

 

Paratuberculosis or Johne’s disease (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paratuberculosis

 

Testing for Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis infection in asymptomatic free-ranging tule elk from an infected herd.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12910759

“Forty-five adult tule elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes) in good physical condition were translocated from a population located at Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County (California, USA), to a holding pen 6 mo prior to release in an unfenced region of the park. Because infection with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (Mptb) had been reported in the source population, the translocated elk underwent extensive ante-mortem testing using three Johne’s disease assays: enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); agar gel immunodiffusion assay (AGID), and fecal culture. Isolation of Mptb was made from fecal samples in six of 45 elk (13%). All AGID results were negative while ELISA results for 18 elk (40%) were considered elevated. Elevated ELISA results or Mptb isolation from fecal samples were obtained for 22 of 45 elk (49%); these elk were euthanized and necropsied. Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis was isolated from tissue in 10 of 22 euthanized elk (45%); of these 10 cases of confirmed infection, eight had elevated ELISA results (80%) and four were fecal culture positive (40%). One of 10 cases had histopathologic lesions consistent with Mptb infection. Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis was also isolated from tissue from one of eight fetuses sampled. The number of tule elk found to be infected was unexpected, both because of the continued overall health of the source herd and the normal clinical status of all study animals.”

 

Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium infections in a tule elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes) herd. 2006. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17255437 

Abstract
“Between 2 August and 22 September 2000, 37 hunter-killed tule elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes) were evaluated at the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area, California, USA, for evidence of paratuberculosis. Elk were examined post-mortem, and tissue and fecal samples were submitted for radiometric mycobacterial culture. Acid-fast isolates were identified by a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) that discriminates among members of the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). Histopathologic evaluations were completed, and animals were tested for antibodies using a Johne’s enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and agar gel immunodiffusion. In addition, 104 fecal samples from tule elk remaining in the herd were collected from the ground and submitted for radiometric mycobacterial culture. No gross lesions were detected in any of the hunter-killed animals. Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) was cultured once from ileocecal tissue of one adult elk and was determined to be a strain (A18) found commonly in infected cattle. One or more isolates of Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium (MAA) were isolated from tissues of five additional adult elk. Gastrointestinal tract and lymph node tissues from 17 of the 37 elk (46%) examined had histopathologic lesions commonly seen with mycobacterial infection; however, acid-fast bacteria were not observed. All MAC infections were detected from adult elk (P = 0.023). In adult elk, a statistically significant association was found between MAA infection and ELISA sample-to-positive ratio (S/P) > or = 0.25 (P=0.021); four of five MAA culture-positive elk tested positive by ELISA. Sensitivity and specificity of ELISA S/P > or = 0.25 for detection of MAA in adult elk were 50% and 93%, respectively. No significant associations were found between MAC infection and sex or histopathologic lesions. Bacteriologic culture confirmed infection with MAP and MAA in this asymptomatic tule elk herd. The Johne’s ELISA was useful in signaling mycobacterial infection on a population basis but could not discriminate between MAA and MAP antibodies. The multiplex PCR was useful in discriminating among the closely related species belonging to MAC.
Between 2 August and 22 September 2000, 37 hunter-killed tule elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes) were evaluated at the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area, California, USA, for evidence of paratuberculosis. Elk were examined post-mortem, and tissue and fecal samples were submitted for radiometric mycobacterial culture. Acid-fast isolates were identified by a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) that discriminates among members of the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). Histopathologic evaluations were completed, and animals were tested for antibodies using a Johne’s enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and agar gel immunodiffusion. In addition, 104 fecal samples from tule elk remaining in the herd were collected from the ground and submitted for radiometric mycobacterial culture. No gross lesions were detected in any of the hunter-killed animals. Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) was cultured once from ileocecal tissue of one adult elk and was determined to be a strain (A18) found commonly in infected cattle. One or more isolates of Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium (MAA) were isolated from tissues of five additional adult elk. Gastrointestinal tract and lymph node tissues from 17 of the 37 elk (46%) examined had histopathologic lesions commonly seen with mycobacterial infection; however, acid-fast bacteria were not observed. All MAC infections were detected from adult elk (P = 0.023). In adult elk, a statistically significant association was found between MAA infection and ELISA sample-to-positive ratio (S/P) > or = 0.25 (P=0.021); four of five MAA culture-positive elk tested positive by ELISA. Sensitivity and specificity of ELISA S/P > or = 0.25 for detection of MAA in adult elk were 50% and 93%, respectively. No significant associations were found between MAC infection and sex or histopathologic lesions. Bacteriologic culture confirmed infection with MAP and MAA in this asymptomatic tule elk herd. The Johne’s ELISA was useful in signaling mycobacterial infection on a population basis but could not discriminate between MAA and MAP antibodies. The multiplex PCR was useful in discriminating among the closely related species belonging to MAC.”

 

Epizootic of paratuberculosis in farmed elk http://www.johnes.org/handouts/files/Elk_outbreak.pdf

 

TESTING FOR MYCOBACTERIUM AVIUM SUBSP. PARATUBERCULOSIS INFECTION IN ASYMPTOMATIC FREE-RANGING TULE ELK FROM AN INFECTED HERD (Journal of Wildlife Diseases, : http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.7589/0090-3558-39.2.323

 

Immuno-Contraception Research for Managing Tule Elk Population – Phase I Scheduled to Begin on August 6, 1997 http://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/news/newsreleases_19970805_elkimmunocontraception97.htm

“. . . Funding for tule elk projects has come from a variety of sources. To date, monetary support and in-kind services for the tule elk project has been received from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Point Reyes National Seashore Association, Committee for the Preservation of Tule Elk, California Department of Fish and Game, The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), University of California at Davis, the National Park Service Natural Resource Preservation Program and In Defense of Animals.” [Evidently Suzanne Roy, currently the Director of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign–who pushes PZP based management–was working for IDA at the time.]

 

Immuno-Contraception Research for Managing Tule Elk Population – Phase II Scheduled to Begin on June 15, 1998  http://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/news/newsreleases_19980615_elkimmunocontraception98.htm

“. . . During the second phase of the contraceptive research project, the first vaccine will be administered by direct syringe injection. To administer the injection, 30 elk will be captured from a helicopter and hobbled by ground crews. Scientists will gather data on the individual elk and place a radio collar on each of the elk. The collar will allow scientists to follow the individual elk to determine the effectiveness of the contraceptive. After several weeks, a booster shot will be remotely administered, from ranges of 30 to 150 feet, by means of self-injecting darts. The darts are brightly colored and easily retrieved. A single annual booster inoculation will be administered to continue contraceptive effects for successive breeding seasons.”

 

Use of porcine zona pellucida (PZP) vaccine as a contraceptive agent in free-ranging tule elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes). published 2002: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12220156 

Abstract (note only a 5 year study. Why aren’t they studying the truly long-term effects?)
The potential for the application of porcine zona pellucida (PZP) immunocontraception in wildlife population management has been tested over a 15 year period and promises to provide a useful wildlife management tool. These studies have provided evidence indicating that the use of PZP immunocontraception in wildlife: (i) is effective at both the physiological and population level (Liu et al., 1989; Kirkpatrick et al., 1996; Turner et al., this supplement); (ii) is deliverable by remote means (Kirkpatrick et al., 1990; Shideler, 2000); (iii) is safe in pregnant animals (Kirkpatrick and Turner, this supplement); (iv) is reversible (Kirkpatrick et al., 1991; Kirkpatrick and Turner, this supplement); (v) results in no long-term debilitating health problems (Kirkpatrick et al., 1995; Turner and Kirkpatrick, this supplement); (vi) has no implications for passage through the food chain (Harlow and Lane, 1988); and (vii) is reasonably inexpensive (J. F. Kirkpatrick, personal communication). This report presents the results of a 5 year study in tule elk (Cervus elaphus nannodes), 3 years of which were on the application of PZP immunocontraception to an expanding elk population living in a wilderness area of Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County, CA…”

 

Copyright Protect Mustangs.org 2016





Stop experiments, sterilization and risky birth control on America’s wild horses in Wyoming

 

Take Back the Power (© Protect Mustangs with Photo © Cynthia Smalley)

Take Back the Power (© Protect Mustangs with Photo © Cynthia Smalley)

URGENT: Comments against experimentation, sterilization and birth control on a nonviable herd are due by 5 pm January 14

SUBJECT: “White Mountain & Little Colorado EA Comments”

EMAIL TO: blm_wy_whitemtn_littleco_hma@blm.gov
FAX: (307) 352-0329.

BLM Rock Springs Field Office
WMLC Scoping Comment
280 Highway 191 North
Rock Springs, WY 82901

In your own words tell the BLM the following:

1.)  I object to using my tax dollars to experiment on, forcibly drug with PZP and / or sterilize America’s wild horses.

2.)  I do not want federally protected wild horses to be used for a research experiment using radio collars, devices in tails and spaying America’s federally protected wild mares. Sterilization is a form of harassing wild horses and against the law.

3.)  The wild horses found in the White Mountain and Little Colorado HMA’s are not excess according to the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. There is only 1 wild horse per 6,000 acres in White Mountain. The BLM fraudulently inflates population growth (http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8551) and never performs a real headcount.

4.)  I support natural selection and I am against fertility control of any kind because wild horses deserve to live on public land set aside principally but not exclusively for their use. Allowing more than 50 to 1 units of livestock to wild horses is unfair and goes against the 1971 wild horse protection act.

5.)  Fertility control, such as with PZP and spaying, will destroy the herd’s genetic viability, wreck havoc on their behavior and social structure so therefore I am against it.

6.)  I want to be able to come to Wyoming to see and photograph the White Mountain and Little Colorado wild horse bands with foals exhibiting natural behaviors–without radio collars and other devices–and definitely not sterilized.

7.) PZP sterilizes after multiple use and I do not want these wild horses sterilized.

Signed,

 

_________________________________________________

 

Date _________________________





Fear of sterilization used to push PZP on free roaming wild horses

BLM’s plans for sterilization include the slow extinction drug called PZP which sterilizes after multiple use

PM PZP Syringe FB

Since 2009 and surely earlier, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has always said they want to sterilize wild horses and burros. BLM and Secretary Sally Jewell want to use other forms of birth control besides PZP even though Congress has paid BLM to let Big Pharma experiment with PZP on our wild mares for decades.

At least one pharmaceutical company was hoping to use PZP for human contraception but since it’s not safe for the ovaries and makes wild horses sterile after multiple use, it’s not ideal for a human product.

PZP, Porcine Zona Pellucida, is made from slaughterhouse pig ovaries and mixed with adjuvant.

BLM never said they liked PZP for wild horse management. The truth is BLM thinks PZP is impractical and they don’t believe it works well. BLM doesn’t want to round up wild horses every 1 or 2 years (for native PZP or PZP-22) and be bothered with drugging wild mares at the “right time” of year. 90% of the herds on public land need to be rounded up to be darted with PZP. Only the ones who are almost domesticated and let people close can be darted in the field. The feds would rather use a one shot deal to sterilize wild horses or just geld (castrate) or spay them and toss them back out to die off and not reproduce.

You might be hearing spin and rumors once again from the growing group of BLM collaborators/advocates who used to fight for wild horse freedom but who now fight for PZP. They have invested in PZP as their pillar of management. Some are applying for grant money to monitor the herds on PZP.

Their fear based spin goes like this:

  • “If the BLM doesn’t use PZP to manage population for a zero growth then they will sterilize them.” This statement is FALSE. BLM already wants to sterilize them and PZP sterilizes after multiple use.
  • “If the BLM doesn’t use PZP to manage population for a zero growth then they will sell them and they will end up slaughtered.” This statement is FALSE. BLM wants to dispose of as many wild horses as possible. PZPed mares have been seen in the kill pens.
  • “If the BLM doesn’t use PZP to manage population for a zero growth then they will kill them.” This statement is FALSEThe BLM would face a wave of public outrage and protests if they announced plans to kill alleged “excess” wild horses.

Then there is the outright lie: “PZP is only a temporary measure to use until we can stop horses from going to slaughter.” No policy the government undertakes is ever quickly undone. If BLM were to start administering PZP to all the wild mares from starting at 18 months old, then this would take years to undo. The herds’ genetic viability would be wiped out. America’s wild horses would be managed to extinction for sure.

PZP = Slow Extinction

The coalition working for PZP-based management of wild horses called The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) used Return to Freedom sanctuary as their 501c3 fiscal sponsor for donations up until 2016. It seems Return to Freedom has also received a lot of money from BLM in the past. Was that for decades of PZP research?

PZP was approved by the EPA in 2012 as a “restricted use pesticide” based on The Humane Society of the United States’ (HSUS the AWHPC coalition member) application stating that wild horses are “pests” and a threat for various reasons.

The Humane Society of the United States and their wild horse partner known as The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign have been throwing a lot of money at PR and marketing campaigns to push PZP on an emotional public. At some point it’s believed they spent a lot of money hiring a PR firm to get their “PZP for human management”, #Justice4Mustangs, #KeepWildHorsesWild message out. AWHPC uses a fundraising and advocacy program for their website, alerts, petitions, etc. called SALSA. Their pricing is outrageously high and rises based on the number of supporters connected to the platform. Their website is www.SalsaLabs.org

Even the docudrama AMERICAN MUSTANG pushes PZP on their target audience. It was made by a major donor and player at AWHPC. How can they push PZP pesticide on what they say in the film is a native species? Was the footage taken at 1:02–1:08 and 2:13–2:21 of wild horses in the care and control of Return to Freedom while being boarded at the feedlot in Fallon Nevada for close to 2 years?

The truth is wild horses are not overpopulated. BLM fraudulently releases crazy population numbers to fool your elected officials into giving them more money to wipe out America’s last federally protected wild horses on public land. You can read more about that here: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=8551 .

According to a press release from National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released June 5, 2013, “The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) current practice of removing free-ranging horses from public lands promotes a high population growth rate, and maintaining them in long-term holding facilities is both economically unsustainable and incongruent with public expectations, says a new report by the National Research Council.”

The NAS report states there is “no evidence” of overpopulation. Only tobacco science and spin backs up BLM’s population claim to justify roundups and fertility control/sterilization.

Pm PZP Darts

Sadly BLM collaborators like The Cloud Foundation–one of the leading PZP pushing groups and an active member of the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, doesn’t seem to be fighting BLM’s overpopulation myth anymore. They lost their way in 2011 when the group named after the Cloud the Stallion films on PBS seems to have abandoned the fight for America’s wild horses’ right to real freedom. It appears the Cloud Foundation and the filmmaker caved into pressure and the seduction of PZP–as being the “lesser of two evils.”

Now the Cloud Foundation is enticing their followers to speak out for PZP instead of BLM’s proposed radio collars and sterilization of the White Mountain Herd in Wyoming. What ever happened to speaking out for the federally protected yet voiceless wild horses and stopping BLM from managing them to extinction?

Wild horses want their right to real freedom. Forced drugging with PZP pesticide is an infringement on the core of wild horse freedom. It violates their right to let nature decide the survival of the fittest, who breeds and tortures the mares who will be raped repeatedly because she isn’t fertile yet comes into heat monthly.

Other groups are hoping for grant money to participate in more PZP related research.

Accepting the need for any kind of fertility control is a slippery slope because BLM and the Department of Interior will pounce on the opportunity to tell elected officials that the majority of the public wants birth control to fix their counterfeit crisis. Of course this isn’t true. The majority of the American public has no clue that their tax dollars are being used to fund cruel animal experiments and manage a wild species to extinction.

The Las Vegas Review Journal reported on the Western Governors’ Association Conference in December 2015 where the Department of Interior’s Secretary Sally Jewell briefed those present on the wild horse issue:

Jewell said that by law the horses cannot be killed. The population has grown to about 100,000, with roughly half now in holding pens.

Jewell said the government will continue to work [with] birth control methods, noting that the horses are “very good at reproducing.”

“We believe that birth control is a path forward that will help satisfy people that feel passionately on both sides of the issue,” Jewell said.

No Secretary Jewell, birth control will not satisfy people that realize BLM has inflated the population data to support their goal to remove as many wild horses as they can. The public feels passionately about wild horses’ right to be protected in the true spirit of the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. We don’t want them forcibly drugged up with pesticides like PZP, Gonacon™, SPayVac®, brutally given chemical vasectomies and field spaying for birth control nor do we want wild horses and burros used for experiment and research.

The War on Wild Horses

The War on Wild Horses

Secretary Jewell basically informed the governors that wild horses are overpopulating like rabbits. When she spoke about birth control she wasn’t specifically talking about PZP. The head of the Department of Interior was talking about fertility control, period.

She worked as a power broker in the oil and banking industries before her stint as CEO of REI. Jewell’s goal seems to be to maximize resources on public land for profit. Wild horses and burros can slow down profit so they need to be wiped off the game board.

Secretary Jewell cast out an open invitation for universities and Big Pharma to experiment on our treasured wild herds with an incentive grant program.

The BLM is only out for big money. The federal agency can get more money from mining, fracking, for oil and gas as well as for renewables such as massive dirty solar farms, etc without wild horses out there.

The livestock and Big Ag lobbies are strong so BLM must be sure to leave them some crumbs. That’s why the Cattlemen’s lobby feels so threatened to share any grazing space or water–not that they ever liked sharing public land grazing with native wild horses.

 

Links of interest:

Wild horses may be spayed in Wyoming (Associated Press): http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29323218/wild-horses-may-be-spayed-wyo

PZP is an EPA approved RESTRICTED-USE PESTICIDE that sterilizes wild horses after multiple use so it’s risky for long-term herd survival. See information here: http://www3.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-Jan-12.pdf

Info on PZP sterilizing mares: The Effects of Porcine Zona Pellucida Immunocontraception on Health and Behavior of Feral Horses (Equus caballus), Princeton http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01vt150j42p

The Horse and Burro as Positively Contributing Returned Natives in North America (American Journal of Life Sciences): http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo.aspx?journalid=118&doi=10.11648/j.ajls.20140201.12 

Cloud Foundation collaborates with the BLM to drug Pryor Mountain wild horses with PZP: http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/mt/main_story.Par.31432.File.dat/TopStoryHorse.pdf

Protect Mustangs speaks out against the Cloud Foundation’s PARTNERSHIP with BLM using risky PZP that could terminate natural selection: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4941

Wildlife Ecologist, Craig Downer, speaks out against using PZP in the Pryors: http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4178

Secretary Sally Jewell claims the majority of Americans want fertility control for wild horses:  http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/homeland-security-wild-horses-among-topics-governors-conference

7 Questions About Wild Horses for Interior Secretary Nominee Sally Jewell (The Atlantic): http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/03/7-questions-about-wild-horses-for-interior-secretary-nominee-sally-jewell/273706/

Energy Think Tank calling the shots for public land: http://www.energyxxi.org/energy-works-us-0

Forum on PZP for Wild Horses & Burros on Federal Land: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ForumPZPWildHorsesBurros

Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_and_Free-Roaming_Horses_and_Burros_Act_of_1971

U.S. looking for ideas to help manage wild-horse overpopulation (Washington Post): http://wapo.st/1OOARTe





PZP Pushers are misleading the public as there is no evidence of overpopulation

PM PZP Auto-immune disease

PZP = Slow Extinction

While touted as a “vaccine,” porcine zona pellucida — PZP — is actually a perversion of a vaccine — an anti-vaccine — whose mode-of-action is to cause auto-immune disease. PZP tricks the immune system into producing antibodies that attack the ovaries, inducing ovarian dystrophy, oophoritis (inflammation of the ovaries), and ovarian cysts. Worse yet, per radioimmunoassay, the PZP antibodies are transferred from mother to young via the placenta and milk. The antibodies cross-react with and bind to the zonae pellucidae of female offspring. Although hyped as a “non-hormonal” method of birth-control, PZP causes estrogen-levels to plummet as the ovaries degenerate. Despite the manufacturer’s claim that PZP is “reversible,” its effects wear off unpredictably. In herds under PZP “management,” the birthing season extends to nearly year-round, putting the life of the foals and mares at risk. Because PZP messes with the immune system, it “works” best on the healthiest fillies and mares — those with strong immunity — ironically, rendering them sterile even with just a few treatments. Filles injected with PZP before they have reached puberty are particularly vulnerable to immediate sterilization. Conversely, PZP has little-to-no effect on fillies and mares with a weak immune system — they continue to become pregnant. Thus, a herd being treated with PZP is undergoing selective breeding for low immunity, which puts the population at risk for disease — and ultimately, extinction. ~Marybeth Devlin, member of The Facebook Forum on PZP for Wild Horses and Burros.

PZP = Slow Extinction

PZP advocates put wild horses at risk of sterilization after roundup

Stop the Roundups!

Protect Mustangs calls for a freeze on roundups for scientific reevaluation

Tonopah, NV (October 31, 2014)–The Battle Mountain District, Tonopah Field Office is rounding up about 120 wild horses from within the Reveille Allotment and Herd Management Area (HMA) located approximately 50 miles east of Tonopah, NV to remove alleged excess wild horses on 600,000 acres of public land.

“The BLM is wiping out America’s wild horses and taxpayers are paying for the abuse,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “We need to stop the roundups and protect our native wild horses.”

The roundup will stampede native wild horse families by helicopter over a fragile ecosystem and possible sage grouse habitat in the Great Basin Desert. Often wild horses are injured and die in roundups. The treacherous roundup is paid for with tax dollars, and began October 30, 2014. Most herds need to be rounded up before given PZP.

After the roundup, approximately 70 wild horses will be permanently removed, 60 wild horses will be sent to holding facilities in Ridgecrest, California and about 10 horses will be offered for adoption after the roundup in Tonopah, NV on November 8. The remaining 50 wild horses will be released back into the HMA for a post roundup population of 98 wild horses, putting the survivors at risk. The minimum number for genetic variability is 150 wild horses.

Often the BLM returns wild horses with conformation defects to the range, instead of placing them in adoptive homes or long-term holding where they will not breed. Apparently the agency doesn’t realize that by returning wild horses with defects they will ruin the breeding pool. The BLM claims mares selected to maintain herd characteristics will be released back to the HMA. The public must watchdog the agency to ensure wild horses with defects are pulled from the breeding pool and rehomed. Euthanizing them is not an option supported by the American public.

The informed public is outraged over an EPA approved restricted use pesticide called PZP, made from pigs ovaries, to be used on native wild horses. PZP advocates campaign rigorously to treat mares with the Porcine Zona Pellucidae (PZP-22) in order to temporarily sterilize mares. PZP advocates hail the use of PZP in spite of the fact that wild horses are underpopulated on millions of acres of public land.

Experimental research on ovary damage in mares given the immunocontraceptive PZP is used to hone the drug for eventual human use. This could be where the “follow the money” piece fits in. Wild horse advocates are furious America’s herds are being used as lab rats. Science has proven the drug sterilizes wild horses after multiple use. PZP advocates are pushing for BLM to manage wild horses “in the wild” using these risky drugs.

The devastation of wild horses in the Reveille Allotment appears to be subject to a 1987 District Court Order and two orders issued by the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) in 2001 and 2002, requiring BLM conduct an annual inventory of wild horses in the Reveille Allotment and initiate a roundup to remove alleged excess native horses from the Allotment when the inventory shows that population numbers exceed the out of date Appropriate Management Level (AML) of 138 horses.

Current AML does not represent healthy herd populations and lacks scientific merit. AML must be updated to ensure healthy herds remain on public land. The herd census must never fall below 150 wild horses to maintain genetic variability.

The current estimated population, based on previous inventory flights is 168 wild horses, according to BLM. This is the low end of the genetic viability scale. The orders need to be challenged based on scientific reevaluation of wild horses benefiting the ecosystem as a native species, livestock causing range damage and the minimum number of wild horses needed for genetic variability.

“We must ensure native wild horses can survive upcoming environmental changes,” states Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs. “The minimum population for a genetically variable herd is 150. Why are PZP advocates and the BLM allowing wild horse herds to fall below safe numbers?”

According to a press release from National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released June 5, 2013, “The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) current practice of removing free-ranging horses from public lands promotes a high population growth rate, and maintaining them in long-term holding facilities is both economically unsustainable and incongruent with public expectations,” says a new report by the National Research Council.

The NAS report states there is “no evidence” of overpopulation. Only tobacco science and spin backs up BLM’s population claim to justify roundups and fertility control/sterilizations. PZP advocates lobbied NAS to have fertility control recommended even though the herds are underpopulated.

Roundup activities within the Reveille HMA were analyzed in the 2010 Reveille HMA Wild Horse Gather Plan and Environmental Assessment (EA) and the 2014 Reveille Wild Horse Gather Determination of NEPA Adequacy (DNA). The EA, DNA, and Decision Record can be accessed on the Reveille Wild Horse Gather website: http://on.doi.gov/10qLBlh.

Members of the public are encouraged to witness the helicopter stampede and document America’s icons losing their freedom to spread awareness that cruel roundups must stop. Observation protocols and visitor information are available at http://on.doi.gov/1xAMeTp. The BLM will post updates, photos and other information about the roundup on the Reveille website and on the hotline at 775-861-6700 throughout the course of the roundup.

The BLM is wiping out wild horses for the extractive industry and New Energy Frontier in the West. The agency manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation. The BLM focuses on their mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2013, the BLM generated $4.7 billion in receipts from public lands.

BLM’s roundups disturb the thriving natural ecological balance by disturbing habitat dynamics. This crime against nature causes abnormally high birthrate and puts native wild horses at risk of inbreeding.

“We are calling for an immediate freeze on roundups and removals for scientific reevaluation,” states Novak. “Right now native wild horses are at risk of being ruined by bad policy.”

Protect Mustangs is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of native and wild horses. The group is against using PZP in the wild. Today most wild herds are threatened with low numbers and a lack of genetic variability. Using PZP in a sanctuary setting where acreage is limited is a different situation. Wild horses must not be managed in the wild as if they were a zoo exhibit.

# # #

Links of interest™:

Info on PZP sterilizing mares: The Effects of Porcine Zona Pellucida Immunocontraception on Health and Behavior of Feral Horses (Equus caballus), Princeton http://dataspace.princeton.edu/jspui/handle/88435/dsp01vt150j42p

Princeton study on the pros and cons of adoption and immunocontraception: http://www.equinewelfarealliance.org/uploads/IEC.Rubenstein.pdf Not sure about EWA’s position on PZP now they might have embraced it like some others have.

Jamie Jackson’s piece on PZP: http://protectmustangs.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/PM-Jamie-Jackson-Using_Science_to_Improve_the_BLM_Wild_Horse_and_Burro_Program.pdf

Management of Wild Horses with Porcinezona Pellucida Pellucide: History, Consequences and Future Strategies, Cassandra M.V. Nuñez, Princeton: http://bit.ly/1rJywKl

Restricted use pesticide info: http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/chem_search/reg_actions/pending/fs_PC-176603_01-de info: Jan-12.pdf

Injection-Site Reactions in Wild Horses (Equus caballus) Receiving an Immunocontraceptive Vaccine, By James E. Roelle and Jason I. Ransom, http://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2009/5038/

Pilot project to treat wild horses in Fish Springs communityhttp://www.blm.gov/nv/st/en/info/newsroom/2014/april/blm_approves_pilot.html

and http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/media/pzp-pilot-project-treat-wild-horses-fish-springs-community

BLM Nevada Advisory Council Endorses Fertility Control Plan (Oct. 20, 2014) http://www.returntofreedom.org/blm-nevada-advisory-council-endorses-fertility-control-plan-october20-2014/

BLM partners with The Cloud Foundation in the Pryorshttp://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/mt/main_story.Par.31432.File.dat/TopStoryHorse.pdf

Why end natural selection in the Pryors? http://protectmustangs.org/?p=4941

Are wild horses at risk of being sterilized due to an advocacy campaign? http://protectmustangs.org/?p=6356

Ecologist Craig Downer speaks out against using PZP in the Pryorshttp://protectmustangs.org/?p=4178

Horse contraceptive study raises concerns  Horsetalk, NZ: http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2010/10/220.shtml#ixzz3Hti8ioCv

Appeal to stop the wild horse wipe outhttp://protectmustangs.org/?p=6527

The Horse and Burro as Positively Contributing Returned Natives in North America by Craig Downer PhD candidate: http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo.aspx?journalid=118&doi=10.11648/j.ajls.20140201.12

Wild Horse Conspiracy by Craig Downer:  www.amazon.com/dp/1461068983

Conformation defectshttp://www.thehorse.com/articles/10115/conformation-in-horses

Genetic viabilityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_viability

Genetic variabilityhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_variability

J. Kirkpatrick team get $100K for wild horse fertility control drug PZPhttp://tuesdayshorse.wordpress.com/2012/04/17/jay-kirkpatrick-team-get-100k-for-wild-horse-fertility-control-drug-pzp/

Making PZP at The Science and Conservation Centerhttp://www.sccpzp.org

Native wild horseshttp://protectmustangs.org/?page_id=562

Petition for shelter and shade for captive wild horses and burroshttp://www.change.org/p/bring-emergency-shelter-and-shade-to-captive-wild-horses-and-burros

Petition for 10 year moratorium on wild horse roundups for recovery and studieshttps://www.change.org/p/sally-jewell-urgent-grant-a-10-year-moratorium-on-wild-horse-roundups-for-recovery-and-studies

Petition to defund and stop the wild horse roundupshttp://www.change.org/p/defund-and-stop-the-wild-horse-burro-roundups

Join the Walking Billboard Campaign to STOP THE ROUNDUPS in Nevadahttps://www.booster.com/protect-mustangs-nevada

Sample of viral news clippings: https://newsle.com/AnneNovak

Anne Novak on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheAnneNovak

Protect Mustangs on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ProtectMustangs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ProtectMustangs

www.ProtectMustangs.org

Press Release: Protests to stop roundups and sales to kill buyers

(Photo © Cat Kindsfather, all rights reserved)

For immediate release

Call for peaceful protests to stop the roundups and stop the BLM from selling federally protected wild horses to kill-buyers

American public outraged at cruel ‘management’

WASHINGTON (October 6, 2012)–Protect Mustangs announced on Facebook Friday their call for nationwide protests to stop the roundups and stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from selling federally protected indigenous wild horses to kill buyers.

“We are calling for peaceful protests as well as candlelight vigils so no more wild horses will die from roundups, be tortured by the helicopters or sold to kill buyers for delicacy meat abroad,” states Anne Novak, executive director for California based Protect Mustangs “The public is outraged.”

Last week ProPublica exposed the BLM selling at least 1,700 federally protected wild horses to known pro-slaughter buyer, Tom Davis, and the public is furious. The BLM is charged with managing and protecting wild horses–not selling them for $10 a head to a pro-slaughter middle man to reduce the numbers in holding due to years of fiscally irresponsible roundups.

“Members of the public who are active in their communities must let their friends, family and neighbors know they can contact Congress if they don’t like their tax dollars used to fund cruel roundups,” says Tami Hottes, Protect Mustangs’ outreach coordinator for the Midwest and South. “People are upset to learn about the BLM selling all those historic wild horses to a guy like Tom Davis. It’s disgusting.”

This week the Antelope roundup, in northeastern Nevada, started under the pretense of saving the wild horses from a drought stricken area.

“We are concerned the BLM is jumping on the drought opportunity to zero out herds for industrialization of public land–especially massive energy projects that could pollute the water,” explains Novak. “Our indigenous wild horses are environmental barometers. If they die from drinking the water then that’s a red flag something is poisoning the water out there.”

Novak continues,”If there is a real problem on the range then bring them aid in the field–don’t round them up and warehouse them at taxpayer expense. It won’t cost much to bring them hay and water for a few months to get them through a difficult time.”

In watching videos from the roundup it should be pointed out that these wild horses were actually in excellent shape and there is no sign they have been suffering from lack of water or forage this summer. They are efficient browsers.

Even though the BLM announced last spring they would bait trap, they are not keeping their word to the American public. The BLM continues with cruel helicopter roundups.

The contractor has been criticized in the past for deadly incidents that could have been prevented. Despite objections from advocates and members of the public, the BLM continues to hire the contractor.

At the Antelope roundup advocates from The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) recorded videos showing healthy horses stampeded into traps, foals terrorized by choppers and a terrified stallion jumping out of the capture corral breaking his leg and running away. He was then euthanized by the BLM.

During the roundup wild horses were traumatized with whips and a wild mare broke her neck and died in transport.

If these historic wild horses had not been rounded up surely they would be alive with their families roaming in the West.

Outraged members of the public are calling BLM officials requesting the roundups stop. Officials downplay the cruelty and trauma, claiming these were rare incidents and touting that roundups, also known as “gathers”, only have a 1% death rate.

“We disagree with their whittled down death rate,” states Novak. “For years we have caught the BLM avoiding the correct death count and misleading Congress about the true number of horses painfully dying in roundups. During winter 2010 more than 180 wild horses died or were euthanized as a result of the roundup but the BLM tried to rewrite the numbers.”

The federal agency, funded by Congress to manage wild horses and burros, attributes the gross majority of roundup deaths to pre-existing conditions when they are obviously roundup related. If the horses weren’t rounded up they surely would not have died at that time.

The BLM often kills indigenous wild horses for being “old” and claims it was a pre-existing condition. They also kill baby horses claiming they have leg deformities. The foals can’t tolerate being stampeded for many miles on their undeveloped baby feet and legs and suffer severe injuries and are euthanized. BLM resists taking responsibility for their heinous actions.

At roundups since 2009, advocates as well as members of the press and public have been pushed back from the trap site and the holding corrals. It appears the BLM wants to hide the cruel roundups and injured animals from public view.

“The Wild Horse and Burro Program avoids transparency because of their disgusting secrets,” states Novak. “The public has a right to know what’s happening at roundups and afterwards. The public wants to know how many federally protected wild horses have been sold to the slaughter middle men since 2005.”

In 2004, a stealth rider known as the Burns amendment was attached to the Congressional Appropriations Bill to allow unlimited sales of captive wild horses over the age of ten or those who have been presented at adoption venues (live or Internet) three times–even pregnant mares and one-year-olds called yearlings.

The recent ProPublica article, written by Dave Phillips, highlights a corrupt program and interviews a pro-slaughter middle man. According to ProPublica, ‘Tom Davis buys 100s of mustangs at a time, sight unseen, for $10 a head. BLM has sold him more than 1,700 wild horses and burros since 2009.

“Hell, some of the finest meat you will ever eat is a fat yearling colt,” he says.

“. . . but BLM’s Sally Spencer said it would be unfair for BLM to look more closely at him based on the volume of his purchases. “It’s no good to just stir up rumors,” she said.’

In 1997 Associated Press investigative journalist, Martha Mendoza, uncovered BLM’s internal corruption wherein adopted wild horses were quickly being sold to slaughter even by BLM employees who adopted them.

‘A multimillion-dollar federal program created to save the lives of wild horses instead is channeling them by the thousands to slaughterhouses where they are chopped into cuts of meat.

Among those profiting from the slaughter are employees of the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency that administers the program.’

Mendoza’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) research and the story she exposed, forced the adoption program to change their protocol and only give title to the mustangs after one year to prevent the wild horses from being sold into the slaughter pipeline.

Today the BLM sends America’s living treasures to slaughter by selling them to the middle men who sell them to slaughter. Protect Mustangs asks Congress for a freeze on roundups, a freeze on sales and a full investigation into the ‘sale authority program’ since 2005.

The roundups ramped up in 2009 with the stimulus package push for the New Energy Frontier on public land and a new mandate to wipe out the wild herds of the West known as The Salazar Plan.

Despite nationwide protests in 2009-10 against the Secretary of the Interior’s plan, the majority of wild horses and burros were ripped from their family bands, taken off their land and the stallions were sterilized. President Obama ignored public outcry and Congress eventually fell for the BLM pleas for funding to ‘help the wild horses’.

In 2010, 54 members of Congress joined Congressman Raul Grijalva requesting a moratorium on roundups and a National Academy of Science (NAS) investigation into the broken program. Somehow the BLM has taken charge of the NAS investigation now called a “study” and is feeding the NAS the information instead of the Academy conducting independent research.

Today more than 52,000 wild horses and burros are living in captivity–mostly in the Midwest as specified in the Salazar Plan. Last year the controversial Wild Horse and Burro Program cost the American taxpayer 78 million dollars. Next year the cost will increase.

Protect Mustangs requests that Congress work with advocates to find a way to return wild horses to their wild lands in the West–to create biodiversity on the range–a win-win for wild horses, livestock, landowners, tourism and energy development on the New Energy Frontier. Their presence also helps greatly to reduce wildfires.

“Shrinking the numbers of wild horses left on public land today could be dangerous,” explains Kerry Becklund, director of outreach for Protect Mustangs. “Giving already small herds fertility control will ruin genetic viability and could create inbreeding.”

The BLM’s reproduction rates don’t account much for mortality within the herd. Often foals don’t live to be two years old but the BLM spin on population has them multiplying like rabbits.

Studies show predators such as mountain lions and coyotes reduce the wild horse foal population. Last summer several young foals were killed by coyotes at a BLM holding facility near Sparks, Nevada. Even so, the BLM hides the truth about predators reducing the population and continues to repeat they have no natural predators despite the fact they do.

“Show me a real independent headcount before we talk about fertility control,”says Novak. “There aren’t enough wild horses left on the range any more. The truth is that the BLM will continue to roundup wild horses to treat them with fertility control. Roundups have been deadly so far. Roundups are NOT the answer. Biodiversity is the answer.”

Novak continues, “More than 52,000 indigenous wild horses have been captured and are warehoused in government holding. Selling ‘excess’ wild horses to kill-buyers is a heinous act and must stop now as well as the gluttony of roundups”

# # #

Media Contacts:

Anne Novak, 415-531-8454, Anne@ProtectMustangs.org

Kerry Becklund, 510-502-1913, Kerry@ProtectMustangs.org

Links of interest:

AP reports & Protect Mustangs speaks out against the roundups: 3,500 Wild horses going to loose their freedom starting October 1st Federal roundup of wild horses burros starts today http://www.lvrj.com/news/federal-roundup-for-wild-horses-burros-starts-today-172056591.html

ProPublica reports: All the missing horses: What happened to the wild horses Tom Davis bought from the government  http://www.propublica.org/article/missing-what-happened-to-wild-horses-tom-davis-bought-from-the-govt

Brutal report for day 1 of Nevada’s Antelope roundup. Two horses die. AWHPC video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne3ppBnbr7g&feature=youtu.be

Day 3 of Antelope roundup. Foals are terrorized by the helicopter and chased too long on their tender hooves. AWHPC video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N9LDAwZqyU&feature=youtu.be

Buffalo News (January 5, 1997) US effort to save wild horses leads thousands to slaughter as workers profit by Martha Mendoza http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=BN&p_theme=bn&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF99E45C1DF5CF&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

The Burns amendment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Burns#The_Burns_Amendment

Huffington Post (October 17, 2009) Ken Salazar’s wild horse plan fuels accusations that he’s in the pocket of ranchers by Martin Griffith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/17/ken-salazars-wild-horse-p_n_324799.html

News 4 KRNV Reno BLM selling to kill buyer? http://www.mynews4.com/news/local/story/BLM-selling-to-a-kill-buyer/s7svkl_zd0i1NVKHbd0ceA.cspx

Oct 5th Facebook announcement~Call to Stop the Roundups: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=418628774862814&set=a.240625045996522.58710.233633560029004&type=1&theater

Protect Mustangs on the web http://www.ProtectMustangs.org