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