Saturday, February 16, 2013

A must read on fertility control for wild horse advocates.

Gonacon is NOT a pesticide. It is a hormone. It is reversible. It is effective. Do more trial studies need to be done?  Of course. However, from this report, I would say it is preferable to SpayVac as the mares do not cycle and it does not produce the edema that PZP does.

If we want our wild horses to be continuously removed from the range, mares to abort in dirty short term holding facilities, stallions to be eviscerated by gelding and the constant worry over whether or not the 50K horses in holding are siphoned off to slaughter, then I say to advocates, continue to oppose reproductive control. The current screaming about our wild horses being given pesticides in the form of reproductive control is technically incorrect. While I am concerned that these methods of reproductive control were removed from the USDA and put under the EPA, the only pesticides that I know our wild horses are actually being given are wormers and no one seems to be contesting that.

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/publications/06pubs/miller062.pdfhttp://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife_damage/nwrc/publications/06pubs/miller062.pdf

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Bute residue showing up in UK horses even with vaunted "passport" system


UK vets have 'repeatedly raised concerns' over bute in food





An independent veterinary committee had "repeatedly expressed concern" about a drug found in UK horsemeat destined for export, the BBC has learned.
The discovery of horsemeat in UK foodstuffs is raising big concerns that UK testing regimes are not sufficient.
There are worries that if unregulated horsemeat is substituted for beef it could expose people to a drug called phenylbutazone - often called "bute".
Once used as an anti-inflammatory, its toxicity to some people led to a ban.
The drug in rare cases caused a serious blood disorder known as aplastic anaemia.
But it is still used widely to treat horses. Once treated these animals are not supposed to enter the food chain.  ..... 
Last July the UK's Veterinary Residues Committee, which carries out that testing, issued a report. In it, they showed that among 60 samples of horsemeat destined for export in 2010, there were five positive results for bute.

(My Note: 5 positive results out of 60 sampled is a 9% rate, not 5% as implied in the article)

A distinction without a difference

"The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been trying to convince the public that the BLM does not sell wild horses to slaughter, but the Wild Horse Freedom Federation has obtained proof that a BLM Long Term Holding contractor sold wild horses directly to kill buyer Joe Simon, who is well known for sending horses to slaughter, and who owns JS Ranch (“Farms”) in Perkins, Oklahoma. ... 


Friday, February 1, 2013

Eckhoff hits another home run ...


Five Reasons Why Tesco's Horse Meat Scandal Could Happen Here

http://www.forbes.com/sites/vickeryeckhoff/2013/01/29/five-reasons-why-tescos-horse-meat-scandal-could-happen-here/


Photograph by Keith Myers of the Kansas City Star for its feature, "Beef's Raw Edges," showing what goes into ground beef at a plant in Dodge City, Kansas.
While everyone is making jokes about the Polish horse meat that contaminated  Tesco’s ground beef patties in the UK, lawmakers in Oklahoma and other western states are busy introducing bills to open horse slaughter plants for human consumption here in the U.S.
Below are five reasons why the Tesco scandal could play out in rural America in the very near future if they succeed—and why food safety issues with contaminated horse meat are a far bigger threat to consumers than the 
industry is admitting. 

(Link for rest of article here)

Swazy, Utah - Gather

Will they actually do the PZP treatment on this gather? Several this FY (Desatoya and Owyhee) they have not bothered to treat the ones that were scheduled: Desatoya because the BLM stated the horses were hiding in the trees after the main gather, and at Owhyee because they had gathered over the number stated in the EA.

Of course, it's against the contractor's financial interests to do the treat and release. A lower birth rate means fewer horses to gather the next time (or fewer gathers) and that means less money for SunJ and Cattoor.


http://www.kcsg.com/view/full_story/21580677/article-BLM-to-Begin-Swasey-Wild-Horse-Catch--Treat--and-Release-Gather?instance=home_first_stories