Birgit Pruess, Fargo

There we go again. The good old movie where Theodore Roosevelt National Park is attempting to remove horses is running again. Once more against the protest of thousands of tax paying citizen owners of the horses. And there I was thinking that the new administration was maybe better than the old one. To be fair, communication through their Facebook site has improved. But we are still facing the removal of horses without much advance notice, no public input, and with concerning consequences. I would even be okay with the helicopter roundup, if it was for the purpose of DNA testing the horses. The concerning point is the removal of mares who were unresponsive to the birth control method Gonacon and their offspring to a total of 15 horses. There were only eight mares who gave birth this year with seven surviving foals. Removing the only mares who are still capable of giving birth will mean just about zero foals next year. In addition, all mares who are not currently on Gonacon will be hand administered the drug which is considered more effective than darting mares from a distance. This leaves us with a non-reproductive herd. This is not quite what Senator Hoeven requested from the park in April.

I am asking the park to stop administering Gonacon until it has been determined whether mares can become reproductive again once the drug wears off. I realize this may take four, five, or six years. But it would establish a baseline of who is in the park and can still reproduce. It would give the park the time it needs to figure out from the DNA who should be allowed to reproduce in the park. Please, DO NOT REMOVE the only mares who are currently capable of reproducing. Obviously, this will lead to an overload of ‘Dolly’ DNA, but at least there will be some foals. If you are concerned about too many foals from these mares, you can remove the offspring at a later time. But for now, we need some reproductive mares just to keep the herd alive. We want our TRNP horses in the park, not just some horses.

I am hoping that the current TRNP admin is a bit more responsive to public outcry and re-evaluates the need for the removal and the Gonacon administration at this time. We need a change here badly.