PETITION TARGET: Bureau of Land Management
UPDATE (6/22/2022): VICTORY! The plan for these cruel sterilizations was cancelled in November, following mounting legal pressure and public outcry. We thank everyone who signed our petition for these innocent horses, and we’ll keep doing all we can for animals everywhere! —Lady Freethinker Staff
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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has proposed a shockingly cruel plan to sterilize mares from Oregon’s Warm Springs herd – most of them pregnant – using a painful and dangerous procedure that involves crushing the horse’s ovaries and yanking them out with a wire loop instrument while the animal remains conscious.
After rounding up the herd with loud, terrifying helicopters, they plan to perform an experimental procedure known as ovariectomy via colpotomy on 100 mares. This highly invasive surgery comes with great risk of complications, such as prolonged bleeding, infection and premature birth or abortion.
Disturbingly, one of the goals of the experiment is to see how many pregnant mares abort their foals due to the procedure.
Despite partner Colorado State University (CSU) withdrawing from the project earlier this month, the BLM still persists with this appalling proposal instead of simply using proven, humane methods of population control such as the PZP birth control vaccine.
We must speak out on behalf of America’s wild horses.
Sign this petition urging the Bureau of Land Management to cancel the barbaric horse sterilization experiments and stop the needless suffering of these iconic animals.
UPDATE: The BLM has CANCELLED these cruel and barbaric experiments!! The wild horses of Oregon’s Warm Springs Herd are safe — for now — following a lawsuit filed by a coalition of animal advocacy organizations including the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC), the Cloud Foundation, and wildlife photographer Carol Walker. We hope the BLM has gotten the message loud and clear: Americans will not tolerate the torture of iconic wild horses and burros.
