Newsdate: Wed 24 August 2016 – 07:00 am
Location: BELMONT, California

Thousands of citizens are joining the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) by appealing to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to reform the BLM Wild Horse Burro Program with the #StopThemSally social media campaign.

BLM holding pen of wild horses

Thousands of Citizens Join American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) in Appealing to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to Reform BLM Wild Horse Burro Program with the #StopThemSally social media campaign.
© 2016 by AHMF

The campaign aims to convince U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to step in and halt the barbaric wild horse sterilization experiments that her department plans to conduct on wild mares in Oregon.

In a repeat of a social media campaign that generated one of the largest citizen uprisings ever seen on Facebook, AWHPC and thousands of citizens are calling on Secretary Jewell to implement sweeping reform of the federal Wild Horse and Burro Program, which is administered by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The AWHPC also released a video documenting the invasive nature of the controversial experiments to be conducted by the BLM in conjunction with Oregon State University (OSU) on 200 wild mares at the Wild Horse Corral Facility in Hines, Oregon this fall.

“The planned sterilization experiment will surgically remove the ovaries of wild mares in a procedure that veterinarians have called ‘archaic’ and ‘barbaric’ and that the National Academy of Sciences specifically recommended against. These experiments are unnecessary and unacceptable, particularly when a humane population management tool is available in the PZP birth control vaccine.”

Roy further asserts: “We challenge Secretary Jewell to watch the video, if she is able to stomach it, and implement true reform of the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program.” AWHPC and its supporters specifically appeal to Secretary Jewell to: Halt the unnecessary surgical sterilization experiments, to be conducted by BLM and Oregon State University (OSU), on 200 wild mares at the Wild Horse Corral Facility in Hines, Oregon this fall.

Ensure that the BLM upholds the public’s First Amendment right to observe the surgical sterilization “experiments,” in the event that they proceed.

Implement reform of the Wild Horse and Burro Program by:

• Increasing the use of humane fertility control as an alternative to roundups
• Raising the unnaturally and inequitably low population limits for wild horses that the BLM calls “appropriate,” but which lack a “science-based rationale,” according to the National Academy of Sciences.
• Upholding their First Amendment right to observe the planned surgical sterilizations this fall, in the event that they proceed.

To date, the BLM has denied AWHPC’s request to video-document the sterilization experiments.

The social media campaign utilizing the hashtag, #StopThemSally, commenced on AWHPC’s Facebook page and Twitter profile. The campaign aims to support AWHPC’s appeal to Secretary Jewell to reform the Wild Horse and Burro Program.

The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign is a national wild horse advocacy organization whose grassroots mission is endorsed by a coalition of more than 60 horse advocacy, public interest, and conservation organizations. AWHPC is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage.