Comments on: What to do about Assateague’s horse population? http://www.oceancity.com/blogs/tokezohime/2008/06/20/what-to-do-about-assateagues-horse-population/ Just another oceancity.com/blogs weblog Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:45:44 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Sharon Hibbard http://www.oceancity.com/blogs/tokezohime/2008/06/20/what-to-do-about-assateagues-horse-population/#comment-13 Sharon Hibbard Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:01:27 +0000 http://www.oceancity.com/blogs/tokezohime/2008/06/20/what-to-do-about-assateagues-horse-population/#comment-13 The National Park Service, in an effort to lessen the environmental impact of the ponies on the Assateague Island National Seashore, is advocating a proposal that calls for the immediate removal of 30-50 horses, followed by smaller removals as deemed necessary by the Park Service. There is a better and more humane, less expensive and less intrusive option for reducing the number of horses. Through natural selection combined with an increased intensive contraception program, the same goal can be achieved with no loss of members of the herd, no need to locate sanctuaries or monitor removed horses, and no risk of injury to the horses. The contraception program (birth control) has been highly successful in reducing the size of the herd from 175 horses in 2001, to 135 horses currently. Additionally, each year, horses in the herd die from childbirth, car accidents, storms, injuries inflicted during fights, and natural illnesses. Within the next two to three years, horses that are reaching or are at the end of their expected life spans will die, further reducing the population by almost ten percent. To move any of these older animals from the island would cause them to suffer undue stress both physically and psychologically, possibly hastening their deaths. Other issues to consider are maintaining the genetic integrity of the herd, the expenses involved in removing, maintaining, and monitoring removed horses, the unspecified mainland locations being considered for relocation, and the stress endured by the horses during and after the removal. John Grandy, senior vice president for wildlife and habitat protection at the Humane Society of the United States, said his group is concerned about any proposal to move horses off the island. (http://delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080622/NEWS/806220346) I urge you to support the Intensive Contraception Alternative with no removal as a solution for managing the pony population on Assateague. Show your support by sending an email to carl_zimmerman@nps.gov or write Carl Zimmerman, 7206 National Seashore Lane, Berlin, MD 21811, by July 11, 2008 and tell him you support the Intensive Contraception Alternative for managing the horses of Assateague and reject the NPS’s proposal to physically remove any horses as a means to reduce the size of the herd. Please help keep these beautiful wild horses on the island – a place they and their ancestors have called home for over three hundred years. The National Park Service, in an effort to lessen the environmental impact of the ponies on the Assateague Island National Seashore, is advocating a proposal that calls for the immediate removal of 30-50 horses, followed by smaller removals as deemed necessary by the Park Service.

There is a better and more humane, less expensive and less intrusive option for reducing the number of horses. Through natural selection combined with an increased intensive contraception program, the same goal can be achieved with no loss of members of the herd, no need to locate sanctuaries or monitor removed horses, and no risk of injury to the horses.

The contraception program (birth control) has been highly successful in reducing the size of the herd from 175 horses in 2001, to 135 horses currently. Additionally, each year, horses in the herd die from childbirth, car accidents, storms, injuries inflicted during fights, and natural illnesses. Within the next two to three years, horses that are reaching or are at the end of their expected life spans will die, further reducing the population by almost ten percent. To move any of these older animals from the island would cause them to suffer undue stress both physically and psychologically, possibly hastening their deaths.

Other issues to consider are maintaining the genetic integrity of the herd, the expenses involved in removing, maintaining, and monitoring removed horses, the unspecified mainland locations being considered for relocation, and the stress endured by the horses during and after the removal. John Grandy, senior vice president for wildlife and habitat protection at the Humane Society of the United States, said his group is concerned about any proposal to move horses off the island. (http://delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080622/NEWS/806220346)

I urge you to support the Intensive Contraception Alternative with no removal as a solution for managing the pony population on Assateague. Show your support by sending an email to carl_zimmerman@nps.gov or write Carl Zimmerman, 7206 National Seashore Lane, Berlin, MD 21811, by July 11, 2008 and tell him you support the Intensive Contraception Alternative for managing the horses of Assateague and reject the NPS’s proposal to physically remove any horses as a means to reduce the size of the herd.

Please help keep these beautiful wild horses on the island – a place they and their ancestors have called home for over three hundred years.

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