Hello and Happy Monday!
We mentioned yesterday that there have been 4 foals born into the Theodore Roosevelt National Park wild horse herd.
Mare Patience and Stallion Flax had a colt that was given the name “Legend”
Mare TeePee and Stallion Teton had a filly the same day that was given the name “Sable”
Mare Anisak and Stallion Arrowhead had a filly that was given the name “Royal”
Mare Democracy and Stallion Remington had a colt that was given the name “Tango”
First, we have chosen to NOT name the horses. There are other groups that document the horses and they have been at odds with names for these horses for over a decade. We are happy to see them working together to have one single name for the horses. As always, you are free to call them whatever you choose. The park has continued to use their letter and number system as the “official” name. Tango would be “202504” according to “official” park records.
Names for these horses have been the least of our worries as we have fought so hard to keep these horses in the park and able to thrive.
Other pages also want you to believe that the park is NOT trying to permanently sterilize this herd with their heavy handed use of GonaCon. See? There are foals being born.
If you are watching our GonaCon stories posts, you will see that every female horse in the park, with the exception of the 5 fillies born last year and the two (so far) this year – have been treated with GonaCon.
Mare Patience was born in 2018. She received injections of GonaCon in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024. This is her 2nd foal
Mare TeePee was born in 2010 and received injections of GonaCon in 2013, 2015, 2019, 2021, 2023, and 2024. She has had 8 foals since 2015.
Mare Anisak was born in 2019 and received injections of GonaCon in 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024. This is her first foal.
Mare Democracy was born in 2007 and received injections of GonaCon in 2015, 2016, 2021, 2023 and 2024. This is her 10th foal.
It is also worth noting that every single one of these mares received a hand injection of GonaCon during the October 2024 helicopter round up.
These mares are ALL non-responders to GonaCon. THAT is the only reason why there are still babies being born in the park. You can see by the aggressive treatment on these 4 mares alone that the park is, as Dr. Blake McCann so eloquently stated in our personal meeting with him, “Trying to halt the reproduction of this herd.”
Remember – GonaCon’s selling point was that it would not have to be administered every year. Something the TRNP employee that was darting a few weeks ago used as a reason why they could not use PZP on this herd – it has to be given every year. He also stated that they were only darting mares EVERY OTHER year. You can see by the list above, given to the public by Theodore Roosevelt National Park, that ALL of these mares have had back to back GonaCon injections.
The same mares, like TeePee and Democracy, having babies year after year is not good either. It does not help the already weakened genetic diversity of this herd.
The park is currently managing this herd by an antiquated 1978 management plan. When this plan was being crafted, the Department of the Interior sent a BLM range specialist out to evaluate the herd and offer alternatives to what the park was proposing. That range specialist had this to say, with regards to birth control and population control:
Please note: birth control for mares was not available in 1978. The options for fertility control that the park has listed in their management plan included vasectomies for stallions or injecting their testies with iodine. As they have reverted back to this 1978 plan, those are the only two options they should be using for fertility control.
The range specialist stated:
“A word of caution should probably be interjected in relation to fertility control. The use of vasectomies is a non-reversible process. Therefore, if vasectomies are successful in reducing foal production and if they are performed on all dominant stallions, the recruitment of young animals into the population could be severely limited. If this were to go on for many years, entire age classes of animals would be completely missing from the population. This is totally unacceptable from a biological standpoint and could result in the total collapse of the herd after several years.”
Despite that haunting warning, the park has been doing just that – eliminating entire age classes of animals for decades! They only stopped this careless practice because Covid in 2020, along with the extreme drought conditions and fires in 2021 coupled with our continued advocacy and valid questions from our legal team.
2015 – ONLY 1 horse born in that year remains: Stallion Grady. He also sustained an injury that will likely never allow him to reproduce again.
2016 – ONLY 3 horses remain – Mare Minnie – who has 1 offspring still in the park. Mare Patches – who also has 1 offspring still in the park and Stallion Illinois who has no documented offspring in the park.
2017 – ONLY 2 horses remain – Mare Perdita – who is a non-responder to GonaCon with 3 offspring still in the park, including Mare Anisak who foaled last week. Mare Aurora who has 1 offspring still in the park.
2018 – ONLY 2 horses remain – Mare Patience who has had 2 foals and Stallion Cagney who is believed to have 1 offspring in the park.
The numbers increased in 2019 and on because of Covid and the drought.
Can you see how easy it can be to wipe out 4 years from this herd?
Please note: The range specialist stated this FACT FROM A BIOLOGICAL STANDPOINT. This is NOT our personal opinion.
It is a great time of the year as new life pops up! Once again, for the record we will say, Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates is NOT against the use of birth control or strategically culling the herd when it is necessary. What we are against is continuing to pump these mares with a drug that clearly is not working or culling ALL of the horses the park can capture, eliminating age entire groups.
The days of managing this herd for numbers ONLY has to stop. That is why we are working so hard to get federal protection in place for this herd.
We hope to have updates this week on what we are working on with regards to legislation, so be sure to check back. We have paused our Call to Action on the legislation while we discuss amendments with Senator Hoeven’s office.
Thank you for your support and have a great day.
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