Celebrating National Day of the Horse

“We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”

~ Henry David Thoreau

Hello and Happy Friday. More importantly, Happy National Day of the Horse!

National Day of the Horse is an annual celebration that recognizes the role horses have played in American history, culture, and economy.

The United States Congress Senate Resolution 452 chose December 13 as the day to celebrate horses in 2004.

On this day when we celebrate horses everywhere, Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates has a lot to celebrate when it comes to our consistent and critical advocacy work we continue to do to protect the wild horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

While we have realized a lot of wins this year, these words from Dr. Blake McCann during our meeting with him and the new interim superintendent last week, have been haunting me:

“At this time, we are trying to halt reproduction of the herd.”

Blake McCann is the Chief of Resource Management at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. He oversees the management of the wild horses, among other things, for TRNP.

That was Blake’s response when we inquired about future plans for the use of GonaCon on the TRNP herd – ESPECIALLY since the park was so aggressive with the use of GonaCon in 2024.

They have plans to be back at it with GonaCon in 2025!

To be clear there are only 4 – FOUR – female horses that have NOT been given GonaCon. Those are the 4 fillies that were born to the herd this year. To be clear, there were only 9 live births total this year and one of those foals died in an accident.

When used responsibly, fertility control can be an effective tool to help manage wild horse populations. It becomes concerning when a controversial drug like GonaCon is used repeatedly and in ways that does not have proper scientific data to back it up.

EVERY mare in this herd that has been treated with GonaCon has been given AT LEAST one dose of GonaCon; most have been given 2 or more consecutive doses.

The fear?

Two doses of GonaCon CAN cause permanent sterility. We know this because 24 mares were hand injected with GonaCon in 2009 as part of the Colorado State University’s GonaCon experiment and those same mares were also hand injected again with GonaCon again in 2013.

To date, 19 of those 24 mares have NOT returned to fertility.

What happens when horses receive 2, 3, 4 in some cases even 5 back-to-back doses of GonaCon?

No one knows. There is no scientific data to back this type of radical use of this controversial drug.

One thing that Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Blake McCann seem to know, repeatedly dosing the mares with this controversial drug “Halts reproduction in the herd.”

The question is – will these mares return to fertility?

Even Blake has no idea when we asked him that question several times in our meetings over the last few months.

That is because there is NO DATA TO SUPPORT SUCH RADICAL USE OF THIS CONTROVERSIAL DRUG!

If you have not already, please make sure you watch Dr. Dan Baker’s Horse Talk with us on GonaCon: https://youtu.be/kdLHvgVmIuw

Also remember: The BLM uses GonaCon ONLY on wild horses that are over the age of 15 who have contributed to the genetics of the herd. They will also use GonaCon on non-responders to PZP.

It would seem that if you were “committed to maintaining a healthy, genetically viable horse population.” as Theodore Roosevelt National Park’s website states, you would be using a known reversible and less aggressive form of birth control, like PZP.

We are not against the responsible use of birth control on this herd. We ARE against what seems to be the continued eradication of this herd, which is being done “silently” now with the planned continued use of GonaCon.

So, what can we do?

Ultimately, federal protection is the ONLY thing that will save this herd from over 40 years of continued mis-management. Federal protection takes time.

These horses don’t have time to continue to be experimented on! Especially after the erratic and still unknown events that took place during the wild horse roundup at TRNP in October.

How can you help the Theodore Roosevelt National Park wild horses?

Please support our critical advocacy work! Our first piece of legislation is with legal counsel as we prepare for the North Dakota 2025 legislative session. We are also working with Senator Hoeven’s office on federal protection for this herd. You can make your tax-deductible donation to CHWHA here: https://secure.everyaction.com/cBmDbRA6cUuzERpShcQOCg2
Please take a moment to send this email. It will be delivered to Blake McCann, interim Superintendent Rachel Daniels, Regional Director Bert Frost, Deputy Director Frank Lands and Senator John Hoeven. We are asking that the use of GonaCon be STOPPED COMPLETELY until it can be determined how much of a reproductive herd we have. You can send the email here: https://secure.everyaction.com/7exTfk62vU6c0On_NDNIfA2
We are STILL collecting signatures to have the collars removed from the 15 horses. These collars were put on during the October wild horse roundup. The park released a report in March of this year that discusses the land usage of the horses. Blake McCann was one of the authors of this report. If you have not read the report yet, you can read it here:

Ecology and Evolution – 2024 – Thompson – Population genomics provide insight into ancestral relationships and diversity of (1)Download

You can sign the petition here: https://secure.everyaction.com/x-5WrjPo20Cb4LGbj5PD-A2 Governor Kelly Armstrong takes office SUNDAY 12/15. We have requested a meeting with his office and will be bringing this petition with us. We also send updated copies to Senator Hoeven, and Deputy Director Lands regularly.

On this National Day of the Horse – we wanted to leave you with a very simple video. This video shows some of the TRNP wild horses running freely through their home in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This very simply is what we are fighting for – the right for these horses to remain wild and free – without ANY threat of eradication. The video can also be viewed on our YouTube channel here: “We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.”