5 Reasons Why Surgical Sterilization of Wild Horses Is a Bad Idea
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is planning painful, invasive, and dangerous sterilization experiments on captured wild mares at its Wild Horse Corral Facility in Hines, Oregon. Here are five reasons why you should oppose these barbaric procedures.
1. The procedures are risky and invasive.
Equine veterinarians call the “ovariectomy” procedure that BLM is proposing to conduct on wild mares “barbaric,” “archaic,” and “unconscionable.” The procedure — in which a veterinarian blindly inserts their hand and arms into a horse’s abdomen through incisions in her side or vaginal wall, then manually twists and severs the ovaries — subjects wild horses to the risk of death from bleeding, infection, or evisceration (intestines protruding through the incision).
2. Sterilization will take the wild out of wild horses.
Sterilizing wild horses will destroy the production of reproductive hormones that drive natural behaviors. These natural behaviors distinguish wild horses from domestic horses, are central to their complex social dynamics, and help them survive in their rugged high desert homes. In 2013, the National Research Council (NRC) reported that surgical sterilization on wild horses and burros would result in a loss of behaviors necessary for the maintenance of social organization, band integrity, and expression of a natural behavior repertoire.
3. The procedures will cause mares to lose their foals.
At least 75 percent of the mares that BLM intends to use in the ovariectomy experiments will be pregnant, and many of them will abort their unborn foals. Removal of the ovaries will cause pregnancy loss in the early to mid-stages, and the trauma of capture, confinement in a hydraulic squeeze chute, and the painful procedure itself will threaten pregnancy at all stages. In addition, pregnant mares are at a higher risk of hemorrhage when the ovaries are severed and removed.
4. Wild horses cannot be handled or given proper post-operative care.
In domestic mares, the proposed procedure is not common, but when performed, requires a post-surgical 4-7 days stall confinement, during which the first 48 hours are spent in cross-ties to prevent the mare from lying down. Careful post-operative monitoring, antibiotics, and pain relief are also necessary. Wild mares cannot be given necessary post-operative care. The BLM intends to turn them out to corrals after the surgery with open incisions, no restrictions on movement, no close monitoring for hemorrhage or evisceration, and no post-surgical pain relief or antibiotic treatment.
5. There is a better way.
It is unconscionable that the BLM is proceeding with these draconian experiments that endanger the lives of the un-consenting equine subjects and their unborn foals, particularly when a proven non-invasive and safe fertility control method exists in the readily available PZP birth control vaccine.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Demand that the BLM abandon the plans to surgically sterilize captive wild mares. Sign our petition today.