OWHO received a letter in the mail from an anonymous source we believe is an EPA whistleblower. This whistleblower told us to contact the agency and ask them why they are sitting on our FOIA request for a public records request we sent back in April of 2022. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires agencies to answer within a certain timeframe, and it is normally 20 - 30 days. The EPA has ot responded to our request and has not complied with regulations to provide us with a reason for them failing to provide requested documents on time, or the time they expect to have them delivered to us.
BLM Admits the Use of GonaCon is Really Being Utilized to Sterilize Our Wild Horses
Oregon Wild Horse Organization's Board President, TJ Barbour, submitted a FOIA to the EPA back in January of 2022 asking for the studies that support the registration of GonaCon. She did this after hearing that the studies used were all from the US Department of Agriculture.
This is a big conflict of interest because the animals being given GonaCon vaccines are those that compete with livestock for forage and water, especially on western public lands. As far as we can tell there were no independent studies done.
The research has not been done on the behavioral impacts of GonaCon use. The research is not there on the feed through properties of this product. However, the EPA fact sheet makes it clear it is not safe to be used in 'food animals'. So if a wild horse is darted with it, and subsequently dies on the range, then a predator or carrion consumer (vultures, eagles etc.) consume the flesh could they become sterile? If a wild horse that was formerly treated with GonaCon ends up being removed from the wild, then adopted, and later sold at auction and goes to slaughter, could a human become sterile after eating the flesh (I know Americans don't eat horsemeat but it is shipped to Mexico and Canada to be processed for human consumption.) BLM talks about the horses that were treated with GonaCon at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and that was allegedly a study but no final report has been published, and no behavioral analysis was being done. there is not enough research done for BLM to be utilizing this product, and the EPA covering up what research was used leaves us with more questions than ever
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We believe GonaCon is being used to sterilize our wild horses. BLM does not know when boosters should be given nor do they know if or when mares would return to fertility. And the EPA fact sheet pictured here states that they MAY return to fertility or MAY become infertile. It admits that any male darted with it WILL become infertile.
BLM in it's recent Environmental Assessment for the Canyonlands burros admits that these vaccines cause infertility and claims that is consistent with the "contraceptive intention of the vaccine."
When BLM introduced the use of vaccines for population control it was put out to the public as a temporary birth control vaccine, meaning it was reversible. And that initial product was PZP, not GonaCon. BLM then slyly transitions from calling these vaccines birth control to calling them contraceptives. And thus using the definition of contraceptives turned this management practice from a reversible vaccine to a permanent sterilant, this works for them because a sterilant is technically a form of contraception. However, it is not what the public was informed of. The BLM has NEVER done an EIS on the issue of chemically sterilizing our wild horses. Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) they MUST so the public is informed and has an opportunity to provide input on such a plan.
As a final side note it is important to know that GonaCon is also being used on deer and elk without notifying hunters that the areas or herds they hunt have been treated. Without information on feed through properties it is unknown to us if eating the flesh of a treated animal would sterilize a human.