August 14, 2014 Jonathan B. Jarvis, Director National Park
Service 1849 C Street NW Washington, DC 20240 Via email:
[email protected] Via facsimile: (202) 208- 7889
Sue Masica, Regional Director National Park Service
Intermountain Region 12795 Alameda Parkway Denver, CO 80225 Via
email: [email protected] Via facsimile: (303) 969-2785 Dear
Director Jarvis and Regional Director Masica: We, the undersigned
organizations representing more than 10 million citizens, are
writing with grave concerns about the well-being of the wild horses
in Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado. According to the Denver
Post, at least six horses have died of dehydration after park
officials fenced off or repaired certain water sources, including a
leaky pipe. Death by dehydration is an extremely slow and painful
process. The National Park Service must ensure the welfare of the
wild horses in the park, including ensuring that additional horses
do not suffer this terrible fate. Since colonial times, wild horses
have lived on the lands that now comprise Mesa Verde National Park.
Moreover, these wild horses are a popular attraction for the parks
visitors and generate revenue for the NPS. Last year, the NPS
released a scoping notice for the development of a management plan
for the horses in the park. In response, the NPS received numerous
comments urging park officials to develop a humane management
program for the wild horses that would control reproduction (i.e.,
achieving zero population growth in a short amount of time) and
reduce the population over time. In October 2013, Paul Morey, Mesa
Verdes wildlife program manager, told the Denver Post that park
officials had dropped plans to manage the horses and instead would
use fencing to keep horses away from their water sources. Morey
suggested that this would serve as a de facto management tool that
would cause horses to go elsewhere out of the park in search of
other water sources. However, it now appears that at least some of
these horses have not sought water sources outside the park and
thus are not able to access sources of water needed for their
survival. Additionally, the park is fencing off its lands from the
adjacent Ute Mountain Ute reservation. That will confine horses
within the park and make it essential for the NPS to ensure that
adequate water sources are available for the horses while a
longer-term management plan is developed. Our organizations have
been contacted by park visitors who have been extremely disturbed
by the inhumane deaths that horses have suffered within Mesa Verde
National Park. As a result, we ask you to direct Mesa Verde
National Park officials to take the following actions
immediately:
Ensure that all horses in the park have adequate sources of
water. If adequate natural sources do not exist, provide emergency
water to the horses in the park
on a temporary basis until a longer-term management plan is
developed. A temporary exemption to the parks policy of not
providing water to wildlife should be authorized due to extenuating
circumstances, such as construction of a fence that will confine
horses within the park.
Work with local and national wild horse and humane organizations
to manage these horses with humane PZP fertility control.
The NPS is no stranger to the use of contraception to manage
wild horses, as demonstrated by the very successful PZP programs at
Assateague and Cape Lookout national seashores. In Colorado, the
Bureau of Land Management has ongoing contraception programs using
PZP and PZP-22 in Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Range, Spring Creek
Basin Herd Management Area and Sand Wash Basin Herd Management
Area. Thus, the NPS should recognize that there are more humane
solutions to managing wild horses in Mesa Verde than denying the
wild horses water and allowing potential deaths by dehydration.
Park officials should turn their efforts toward humane management
of wild horses on federal lands. This is an extremely urgent
situation, and we are hopeful that it can be resolved without
prolonged public controversy. We hope to hear from you by August
20, 2014 on this pressing matter. Sincerely, Suzanne Roy, Director
American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign PO Box 1048 Hillsborough,
NC 27278 [email protected] Stephanie Boyles Griffin,
Senior Director & Wildlife Biologist The Humane Society of the
United States 2100 L St., NW Washington, D.C. 20037
[email protected] Nancy Perry, Senior Vice President,
Government Relations American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals 600 Pennsylvania Ave SE Washington, DC 20003
[email protected] Tif Rodriguez, Executive Director National
Mustang Association, Colorado Chapter PO Box 277 Dolores, CO 81323
[email protected] Neda DeMayo, President Return to Freedom 4115
Jalama Rd Lompoc, CA 93436 [email protected]
