After the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced last year that it would abandon a heinous surgical sterilization study on captive wild mares it seemed they would be safe, but they're once again at risk.
Unfortunately, the agency has just put forward another proposal for a study aimed at managing herd size by performing outdated and inhumane sterilization surgeries that would remove the ovaries of 100 wild mares who were rounded up from the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in Oregon.
The actual procedure mares would be subjected to, which is officially known as ovariectomy via colpotomy, is described by the American Wild Horse Campaign as "literally reaching into a mare's abdominal cavity through an incision in the vaginal wall, blindly and without any tool to visualize the mare's organs, to identify the ovaries by touch and to remove them by severing them with a loop of chain."
If it sounds horrifying, that's because it is, and even though there has already been massive public outcry, multiple lawsuits and federal injunctions, this is the third time the BLM has tried this – even after two major universities also withdrew their participation.
The National Academy of Sciences has also warned against performing this procedure on wild mares, which is going to put them at serious risk of pain and potentially life-threatening complications, but that's part of the point of this study – to see how many of them potentially suffer and die as a result of this procedure.
It's unacceptable that the BLM continues to try to push this unethical and controversial procedure as a reasonable means of managing herd size, especially considering there are already humane alternatives available.
Fortunately, we now have a chance to speak out on behalf of these mares.
Please sign and share this petition asking the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to choose Alternative A, which will spare these mares from being subjected to this procedure.
