“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
~ Albert Einstein
As a reminder, we are asking everyone to please make sure you educate yourself – don’t just take our word for things. Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates continues to bring in experts to help us all understand different aspects of wild horse advocacy so that we can all continue to make educated decisions.
It is important to note that Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates has NEVER signed an agreement with Theodore Roosevelt National Park. That means that we do not have to stifle our words and what we post does not have to meet the approval of the park. We believe that the taxpaying public has a right to question our federal agencies. Because of the critical advocacy work of Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates, including asking pertinent questions to our federal agencies, we are now on the brink of FINALLY getting federal protection for this herd, something no other organization has even attempted to do in any capacity in the last 78 years.
We do ask that as we continue this series on GonaCon that you check out the following links:
You can learn more about GonaCon on our website: https://chwha.org/gonacon/
We had a Horse Talk with Dr. Dan Baker in 2023 – this is an extremely insightful talk: https://youtu.be/kdLHvgVmIuw
In January, Ginger Fedak spoke at our virtual summit and shared scientific data about GonaCon and PZP: https://youtu.be/H0iigWwM9WE
Lastly, there is a video recording from a fertility conference that Dr. Dan Banker spoke at. You can view this in our Resource Library here: https://chwha.org/library/
So how did we get here?
This 2009 Fact Sheet released by the EPA shows that the pesticide GonaCon was allowed to be used on deer as a form of birth control in 2009.
This is the same year that Dr. Dan Baker and Colorado State University (CSU) made their way to Theodore Roosevelt National Park to see if they could replicate those same effects on the wild horses.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park served as the “perfect laboratory” Dr. Baker said. The park is fenced. The horses are easily identifiable and if they could not identify them, there were a number of people who document the horses that were all too willing to become CSU Techs and help with this experiment on these horses. Please note, when we say “people who document these horses” this usually refers to organizations that claim to “advocate” for the TRNP wild horses. If you share pretty pictures and stories about the horses but do not raise your voice when these horses need you, then, by definition, you are NOT an advocate.
Colorado State University began what was labeled as a “four-year study” to study the effects of GonaCon on wild horses in 2009.
The park had a wild horse roundup in 2009 with the intent to remove horses. At that time, they chose 24-28 mares to be hand injected with GonaCon. Those mares were re-released back into the park. They had no idea what the results would be. You can see by the records released by the park (Horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park – Theodore Roosevelt National Park (U.S. National Park Service), that one injection of GonaCon didn’t have much of an impact on the foaling rates. Most mares still foaled for the next 4 years.
Then, in 2013, the park had another helicopter roundup. This time they injected the same mares with a “booster” of GonaCon. THIS was a game changer for the experiment!
When the original “4-year experiment” finally ended 11 years later in 2020, 19 of 24 mares still living in the park that were hand injected with GonaCon STILL had not returned to fertility.
A KEY to GonaCon – as stated to the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board in their budget summary and description and status report: A single GonaCon booster dose causes 4 or more years of infertility, when injected by hand. You can view this report here:
THAT is what the goal became. How can we help solve a “problem” – the “problem” here is of course the claim of overpopulation of wild horses on our public lands. How can the powers that be that manage wild horses on the western range not have to dart so often like they need to with PZP? GonaCon was the promise of longer efficacy with a single dose. The efficacy was even stronger with a “booster”. In 2015, CSU with “in kind support” from Theodore Roosevelt National Park and others who document this herd, set out to prove just that.
Most of the mares that were hand injected in 2009 and again in 2013 foaled in 2014. In 2015, it was a different story, as you can see by the records released by the park (Horses of Theodore Roosevelt National Park – Theodore Roosevelt National Park (U.S. National Park Service).
In 2015, they added more mares to the second phase of the experiment funded heavily by the BLM. The original mares who were hand injected in 2009 and again in 2013 were left alone to see what that impact was.
In 2015, additional mares were given GonaCon through a remote dart delivery system that was also perfected in this park and funded by the BLM. This was necessary on the western range as it was not always possible to get as close to horses on the western range as they were to the mares in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. A new dart delivery system, that was different than what was being used for PZP, was also needed because of the thickness of GonaCon. The other problem range managers have is while the wild horses in Theodore Roosevelt National Park – in their “perfect laboratory” can be easily identified, that is not always the case for wild horses on the western range.
After their initial dose, as part of the second phase of this experiment, all mares received a “booster” dose – some at 6 months, some at 1 year and some at 2 years.
CSU studied the impacts through 2020. It was then, 11 years after CSU first landed in Theodore Roosevelt National Park with GonaCon, that the experiment FINALLY ended. There are FOIA records on our website obtained by American Wild Horse Conservation, that give some shocking insight into what was being said and done behind the scenes of this experiment. You can view them on our website here: https://chwha.org/gonacon/
Dr. Baker and CSU wanted to continue the experiment, in part to monitor the 19 of 24 mares to see if they ever returned to fertility. As you will see in the FOIA documents, the National Park Service refused to allow the experiment to continue.
When CSU FINALLY packed up and left TRNP in 2020, that this was NOT the end of the use of GonaCon on this herd.
We have A LOT of work ahead of us! Please consider making a tax deductible donation to help support our critical advocacy work! You can make your tax deductible donation by clicking the logo below:
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