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

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. ... 

http://www.nationofchange.org/blm-knowledge-wild-horses-sold-kill-buyer-blm-contractor-1360338544

Eckhoff hits another home run ...

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

38 comments, 33 called-out

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

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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

BLM Rock Creek, Wyoming closed for months, now strangles

Closed facility since October? Strangles three full months after the roundup? This is not the first incident of strangles though the others have been minor. Also, the BLM spokesperson's reason for closing it .. evidently they don't have enough staff to operate the facility when horses are being vetted, tattoed, etc. is another byproduct of the Salazar's failed massive roundup plan. How are they going to be able to adopt out the horses if people can't come to view them beforehand? And how does a public facility remain closed for six months and no one complain?

I have talked to a few of these folks and they think they are doing a good job, however, they are too casual in their rationale that "horses get strangles all the time." There are usually specific reasons (either its in the facility from previous cases or it came in from the outside on something as innocuous as the boots the staff was wearing.) Something needs to be looked at there so there is no repeat outbreak in future roundups.

Here is a comment by Sandra from the STTH site. It sums up the situation better than I can ...

"Strangles is not naturally occuring in wild horses..it comes from overcrowding in small areas, like all animals pigs chickens cattle that are being held for slaughter, they are consantly doused with antibiotics.It is inherant, and strangles remains in the soil and on the fences awaiting the arrival of new victims..you can sterilize the metal chutes but not the rest…the foals who are undergoing weaning are at the greatest risk because of the stress..in domestic horses they are exposed to many things they build up antibodies to, mares pass that to their foals in the colostrum..wild horses live in a open environment and do not come in contact with anything other than ranchers cows and sheep, those cows and sheep have brought disease to deer elk and bison, chronic wasting disease..which is very simular to mad cow..you should not eat nor butcher any animal that exhibits those symptoms..It appears to be radiating out from Colorado to other states..Any number of viral diseases will sweep like wildfire thru the hundreds of unprotected horses in those crowded pens"

http://www.blm.gov/wy/st/en/info/news_room/2013/january/23hdd-AdoptPostpone.html

Release Date: 01/23/13
Contacts: Serena Baker, 307-212-0197 BLM Rock Springs Wild Horse Adoption and School Field Trips Postponed
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) High Desert District (HDD) is postponing this week’s scheduled Sweetwater County School District #1 and #2 fourth grade field trips, wild horse adoption and reopening of the Rock Springs Wild Horse Holding Facility (RSWHHF) in Rock Springs, Wyo. due to illness. Approximately 30-40 percent of the weanling wild horses were diagnosed with Strangles during yesterday morning’s routine veterinarian check-up prior to the adoption. Strangles is an upper respiratory infection in horses. The bacterial infection causes fever, runny nose, swollen or enlarged lymph nodes and even abscesses in the neck and throatlatch. BLM veterinarian Dr. Paul Zancanella, who examined the young colts, says, “This is the cold and flu season for all of us, even horses. There are s everal reported cases of Strangles in southern Wyoming and this type of infection is common any time a number of horses are together.”

Update on Tumbleweed from Terri Farley

Terri Farley, wild horse advocate and author, keeps a great blog on both subjects.  Here is a link to her story about Tumbleweed, the little mustang filly infamously roped and dragged onto a trailer by the Nevada Department of Agriculture (NDOA).

http://terrifarley.blogspot.com/2013/01/tumbleweed-heart-mustang-fillys-first.html

I've seen this several times on the internet lately. Seems like words to live by as we start a New Year.

"You have done what you could - some blunders and absurdities have crept in. Forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered by your old nonsense."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson