B Y RYA N M O L O N E Y
• Some of the people from the Downtown
Eugene Cohousing Group (that got crushed
in the real estate bust a few years ago) have
gotten back together, Martin Henner tells EW.
They are trying to put together a group to
develop a downtown senior cohousing
community. Things are in the formative stage
and they are recruiting members. For more
info, email: eugenecohousingdowntown@
gmail.com.
• “What to do with all those Green Beans”
workshop: The OSU Extension Service and
Lane County Master Food Preservers are
offering a workshop on the preservation of
green beans 10 am to 1:30 pm Saturday,
July 16, at the Community of Christ Church
1485 Gilham Road in Eugene. Cost of the
workshop is $30. The workshop will include
canning, freezing, drying and making popular
dilly beans. “Green beans are one of the most
popular and versatile vegetables and can be
preserved in many ways,” says Nellie Oehler,
OSU Extension faculty. Participants will have
a chance to learn to use a pressure canner to
can a pint of beans along with making a jar of
dilly beans. Go to goo.gl/DStc6g for more
information or call 541-344-4885.
• Habitat for Humanity Blues Build
featuring music by Curtis Salgado and more
is 2:30-7:30 pm Sunday, July 17. There is a
no-host bar with beer and wine. Lawn chairs,
blankets and picnic baskets are welcome,
food will be available for purchase, proceeds
support the building of simple and decent
homes for low- and moderate-income
families by the Junction City/Harrisburg/
Monroe Habitat for Humanity. The event is at
Bennett Vineyards and Wine Company,
25974 Hwy. 36, Cheshire. $25 in advance,
$30 day of event. Go to bluesbuild.org or 541-
998-9548 for more info.
• A meeting of those interested in a city
initiative to get a living wage for city
employees, as was done in Corvallis in 1999,
will meet 2 pm Sunday, July 17 at the AFSCME
hall at 8th and Charnelton. The goal is $15 an
hour minimum wage. Contact Bob Cassidy at
541-345-8628 for more information.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the average worker in the Eugene area as a
whole earned 10 percent less than the U.S.
average in May 2015.
LANE COUNTY AREA
SPRAY SCHEDULE
Oregon Department of Transportation is
spraying roadsides. Call 503-986-3010 to
talk with a Vegetation Management
Coordinator or call 1-888-996-8080 for recent
herbicide application information. Highways
I-5, 36 and 99 were recently sprayed.
Cadore Timber, 485-1500, plans to hire
Strata Forestry Inc., 541-726-0845, to hack
into hardwood trees and squirt imazapyr into
the cuts, which kills the unwanted trees, on
28.2 acres near Noisy Creek. See ODF
notification 2016-771-08420. Call Tim
Meehan at 541-726-3588 with questions.
Compiled by Gary Hale, Forestland Dwellers: 541-342-
8332, forestlanddwellers.org
8
July 14, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com
CREDIT: BLM.GOV
TAKING THE WILD
OUT OF THE WILD HORSE
oughly 67,000 wild horses roam the public lands of the
western United States, and around 4,000 of them are in
Oregon.
The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
considers the current population to be more than double
the healthy level for the land and has suppressed the population
for decades. Many mustang advocacy groups strongly oppose the
BLM’s methods and motives for population control and believe
that the agency gives preferential treatment to livestock.
Despite recent public outcry, the BLM has announced an ex-
periment to sterilize wild horses held in Hines, Oregon, in a part-
nership with Oregon State University (OSU). The BLM has ap-
proved two grants to OSU totaling $348,000 to study wild horse
sterilization.
The proposed experiment that has caused the most outcry
involves a surgical spay procedure called “ovariectomy via col-
potomy,” in which a veterinarian removes the ovaries from the
horse with a tool with a chain or loop called an ecraseur. Some
scientists and advocacy groups have described this surgery as
“barbaric, invasive and dangerous.”
The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC)
has been among the most vocal opponents to the BLM’s propos-
al. AWHPC is a coalition dedicated to preserving American wild
horses and burros. AWHPC has filed a series of complaints to the
BLM and OSU about the proposed experiments and led a public
campaign in which 21,000 people submitted public comments in
opposition to the experiment.
AWHPC has urged the BLM to use the PZP (porcine zona
pellucida) birth control vaccine, a noninvasive method that the
group says has a 98 percent efficacy rate in the first year after ap-
plication and can last for up to three years.
“The BLM has a history of failing to utilize humane birth
control to manage wild horses,” AWHPC Executive Director Su-
zanne Roy tells EW. “The PZP birth control vaccine has been
available for about 30 years, and the BLM has consistently failed
to use it. Now they’ve reached this crisis stage.”
Many of the horses selected for the ovariectomy via colpot-
omy surgery are pregnant and some are only eight months old,
R
according to the BLM. The pregnant horses have a higher risk of
death and long-term complications.
Oregon veterinarian Leon Pielstick conducted this surgery in a
workshop last year and two of the five horses died, while two oth-
ers required extensive post-operative care, according to AWHPC.
The horses in this workshop were tame, and AWHPC believes that
if they had been wild they would not have access to post operative
care. OSU and the BLM have said that if the death rate exceeds 20
percent, they will stop the experiment.
“Twenty percent of 25 horses is not that much,” says BLM
Burns District Wild Horse and Burro Specialist Lisa Grant.
One hundred horses will be selected for the surgery. Twenty
horses would have to die to stop the experiment. In an FAQ in
response to the concerns about the procedure, OSU writes, “Uni-
versity-wide commitment to animal care, safety and welfare is a
top priority.”
Ginger Kathrens, humane representative on the BLM National
Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board, has worked with wild hors-
es for more than 20 years. Kathrens founded the Cloud Foundation,
a nonprofit that is dedicated to preventing the extinction of wild
horses in the western U.S. She was appointed to the BLM Advisory
Board after the recent vote to conduct the experiment in Burns.
“Why in the world are we researching ovariectomy via colpoto-
my?” Kathrens asks. “This surgery is not practical unless you don’t
care if a significant portion of the animals die.”
Wild horses inhabit 12 percent of BLM land and account for
about 20 percent of the land’s forage, whereas livestock account
for about 80 percent of the forage. Ranchers are permitted to graze
their livestock on BLM land for substantially lower than market
rate.
Advocates fear that the BLM is not acting in the best interests of
the public. AWHPC has cited polls that show that three out of four
Americans support protecting the country’s wild horses on public
lands in a humane manner.
“The BLM’s whole agenda is to continue their unsustainable
practice of rounding up wild horses and the goal is to legalize the
slaughter of wild horses,” Roy tells EW. “That’s where they’re
heading.”