One good decision here:   http://www.returntofreedom.org/murderers-creek-wild-horses/

Interesting article (part of which is below) on the use of PZP on wild horses, if you can ignore the title, that is. Read past the mention of one mare being darted and not having a foal for 10 years. She was actually darted at least 5 times.

http://www.eenews.net/stories/1059985227

WILD HORSES:

Taking back the West -- one contraceptive dart at a time

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

Greenwire: Monday, July 29, 2013

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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- Josie, a buckskinned mare that roams the Book Cliffs here, had given birth every year from 1996 to 2003.

First, there was Joker. And then came Classy, Teardrop, Jolene, Gunshy, Jolie, Haywire and an unnamed colt. All but one were removed from the range -- with federal taxpayers picking up the tab.

And Josie? She was spared the ravages of having that ninth foal by a retired teacher named Marty Felix.

A volunteer with the nonprofit Friends of the Mustangs, Felix crawled on hands and knees through sagebrush and around juniper pines to sneak within 40 yards of Josie and shot her with a 4-inch fertility dart. That was in April 2003.

"It's been 10 years since she's had a foal," Felix, 65, said during a recent visit to the range northeast of Grand Junction. "She's 22 years old and she looks like she's 10. She looks fantastic!"

High Country News ... provides more spin on wild vs feral

http://www.hcn.org/blogs/range/feral-vs-wild-horses

Feral vs. wild horses

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Monica Gokey | Apr 11, 2013 05:00 AM

The question of whether mustangs in the West are feral versus wild is a controversial one; it’s got a knack for appearing in the comment section of many a mustang story. Mustang advocates are adamant the wild horse is a bona fide North American wildlife species – on par with deer, elk, bison and pronghorn. Scientists, ever the party poopers, beg to differ.

Horse evolution is well documented in North America’s fossil record – first as a small dog-sized animal that walked on five toes over 50 million years ago, on to larger equines that bore their weight on single hooves. Horses went extinct on North America some 12,000 years ago – likely due to some cocktail of climate change and overhunting by man – but not before they migrated over the land bridge into Asia (where they further diversified into asses and zebras).

6 Million roundup contract awarded to Sun J.

Is this for one year? ugh.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/feds-sign-6m-helicopter-contract-wild-horse-and-burro_714436.html

From Food and Safety News 3/15/2013

A lot going on as we all know. Thought this information should be posted for review and reference:


http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2013/03/mostly-small-towns-in-five-states-compete-for-first-ok-for-horse-slaughter/#.UVSORI6i4TM

5 Applicants Want to Be USDA’s First Horse Slaughter Client

BY DAN FLYNN | MARCH 15, 2013

UPDATE:  Since originally published this morning, 
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) 
public affairs staff have provided Food Safety News 
with copies of the applications for equine inspection services.  
The FSIS officials did so in part to illustrate that most of the applications 
are not complete in the sense that items are missing 
or not filled out correctly, meaning, an  official says, 
they “are not even close to having a walk through with FSIS.”  
From those applications, some additional information 
has been added to this story.

One thing is certain. The future of horse slaughter
in the U.S. is being fought out mostly in small towns.

Some Not Bad News (for a change)

Agreement reached with Governor Sandoval. We may not be able to keep them on the ranges, but at least we can keep them out of the hands of the killers.

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