Tell BLM 'No' to Dangerous Sterilization Surgeries on Wild Mares!

The Bureau of Land Management has proposed doing spay research on mares captured during an October 2018 roundup at the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in Oregon. BLM aims to determine the feasibility of performing ovariectomies via colpotomy.

This is a rare procedure which removes the ovaries by crushing and pulling them out with a looped-chain medical instrument called an ecraseur. This procedure opens the mares up to: serious risk from infection; evisceration (should intestines come through the incision); and hemorrhaging. There is a high frequency of post-operative complications affiliated with ovariectomy via colpotomy, some of which can be life-threatening.

BLM has gone down this road before: It's twice proposed sterilization studies on mares from Warm Springs only to drop the plan after a public outcry and lawsuits filed, or threatened, by advocacy organizations.

Return to Freedom strongly opposes costly, unproven sterilization surgeries for wild mares, which both threaten the lives of individual animals and the diversity and health of entire herds.

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Tell BLM 'No' to Dangerous Surgeries on Wild Mares!

Bureau of Land Management, Burns District Office, 19

Subject: DOI-BLM-ORWA-B050-2019-0013-EA

Message:

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the Bureau of Land Management's plan to spay wild mares from the Warm Springs Herd Management Area. The surgery that BLM plans to perform on captured mares, ovariectomy via colpotomy, is invasive and inhumane, as well as impractical to perform in the field.

The dangers posed by this procedure are unacceptable - especially when safe, proven alternatives for managing the wild horse population are readily available - and should not be pursued by the very agency tasked with protecting wild horses.

Ovariectomy via colpotomy is a rare procedure in which the ovaries are removed by crushing and pulling them out with a looped-chain medical instrument. This opens mares up to: serious risk from infection; evisceration (should intestines come through the incision); and hemorrhaging.

This surgery carries significant risk when performed by veterinarians using imaging equipment while operating on domestic mares -- risks that would only be multiplied by cutting blindly on wild and possibly pregnant mares not in a sterile surgery suite, but at a holding facility. The procedure also carries a high frequency of post-operative complications, some of which can be life-threatening. Most domestic horses upon which this surgery is performed are hospitalized for 3 to 7 days and carefully monitored for signs of hemorrhage.

In 2013, the BLM funded a $1 million scientific report from the National Academy of Sciences National Resource Council, "Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program: A Way Forward." "The possibility that ovariectomy may be followed by prolonged bleeding or peritoneal infection makes it inadvisable for field application," the report concluded.

The risk posed is made all the more needless by the availability of cost-effective and humane tools and policy solutions to manage wild horses. These tools include the fertility control vaccine PZP, which has long shown to be effective and safe. A non-hormonal vaccine, it has minimal effects on behavior. Its use should be part of a multi-pronged approach to managing wild horses humanely on their rightful ranges rather than pursuing a plan to experiment on wild mares likely to result in a public backlash and lawsuits.

Tell BLM 'No' to Dangerous Sterilization Surgeries on Wild Mares!

Tell BLM 'No' to Dangerous Surgeries on Wild Mares!

Thank You!