Interior Department Abandons Controversial Sterilization Surgeries on Wild Horses in Utah

(WASHINGTON, DC) June 25, 2021 — The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has officially dropped its plans to conduct inhumane sterilization surgeries on wild mares in Utah. The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) is declaring victory in its legal effort to block the government from conducting this controversial procedure. In a declaration filed with the joint stipulation of dismissal today, BLM’s District Manager for the West Desert District stated that the agency will not surgically sterilize any mares from the Confusion Herd Management Area with any surgical procedure.

This marks the third time that AWHC’s legal action has blocked the BLM from proceeding with the controversial surgeries, known as ovariectomy via colpotomy, which involves manually severing and removing the ovaries of female horses (mares).

“We are pleased that the Interior Department has in fact dropped the Trump administration’s barbaric plan to subject wild horses in Utah to this risky, painful, and invasive sterilization,” said Brieanah Schwartz, director of policy and litigation for the AWHC. “We remain hopeful that this decision bodes well for further humane and science-based decision-making across the West.”

Schwartz also noted that, as a member of Congress, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland signed onto a letter spearheaded by AWHC and the Animal Welfare Institute, endorsed by 57 other members of Congress, calling on the BLM to drop plans to conduct the sterilization surgeries. The declaration cited the change in administration as a reason for the withdrawal.

AWHC and Utah citizen Robert Hammer filed suit in December in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the Interior Department to stop the BLM from implementing the ovariectomy via colpotomy sterilization surgeries. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of AWHC by Eubanks and Associates, a top national public interest environmental law firm.

“The BLM’s decision to officially abandon its plan to subject the recently removed Confusion mares to dangerously brutal surgical sterilization is welcome news,” said Robert Hammer, a local photographer and plaintiff in the case. “I am hopeful that this decision signals a genuine BLM policy shift toward more humane approaches to wild horse and burro management.”

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The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) is the nation’s leading wild horse advocacy organization, dedicated to defending America’s wild horses and burros to protect their freedom, preserve their habitat, and promote humane standards of treatment. AWHC currently implements the largest wild horse fertility control program in the world for a population of 3,000 state-managed free-roaming horses in a 300,000-acre habitat in Northern Nevada.