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Tell NPS Not to Eliminate Wild Horses in Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Dear John,

Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP) is home to North Dakota's only wild horses. The approximately 200 horses in this 70,000-acre national park are a significant tourist draw. Yet the National Park Service is seriously considering a proposal to permanently remove them. A recently released Environmental Assessment outlines various management options, including rounding up the wild horses in order to "reduce the herd sizes to zero in an expedited fashion."

This would involve dangerous, terrifying helicopter roundups. Once captured, the horses would spend the rest of their lives in captivity, or could, in some cases, be sold or auctioned off, raising the specter that some could ultimately end up in the slaughter pipeline.

The NPS is accepting public comments on the Environmental Assessment until October 25, 2023, at 11:59 PM Mountain Time. Please speak up for these cherished wild horses and let the NPS know that they should remain in their home. Comments can be submitted via a form on the NPS website ([link removed]); after inserting the required information, you may use the suggested language below as a guide for your comment.
* I oppose the extremely controversial proposal to "reduce the herd sizes to zero" and permanently remove these horses from habitat they have occupied since before the park was established.
* The NPS should choose Alternative A in its EA, the only option that allows for "the continued presence of horses" in TRNP, but should prioritize humane management of the population instead of undertaking periodic helicopter roundups to remove horses.
* The wild horses of TRNP should be designated as wildlife, not livestock, in the agency's planning.
* According to the EA, "under all alternatives, the key method for capture would be helicopter roundups." These chaotic and brutal operations subject wild horses to unnecessary stresses and break apart family bands. Injuries and fatalities are common during helicopter roundups.
* These wild horses are cherished by North Dakotans and the hundreds of thousands of annual visitors to TRNP as one of the very few herds that live in a national park.
* In April, the North Dakota Legislature passed a resolution in support of preserving the TRNP horses, and the governor has urged the NPS to keep the wild horses in the park, noting that they embody "the untamed spirit of the Badlands" and are intertwined with the history of the park.
* If the NPS intends to move forward with eliminating wild horses from TRNP, it must complete an Environmental Impact Statement, given the scope of such a management action. Finalizing a decision to remove these horses through a brief "finding of no significant impact" (FONSI), as stated in the EA, is inadequate from a legal standpoint.
* The NPS has suggested that wild horses removed from the park could be auctioned off, meaning some could fall victim to the slaughter pipeline.
* The public overwhelmingly supports the humane management of wild horses; proven and safe immunocontraceptive vaccines (such as the successful PZP fertility control program that the NPS administers for wild horses on Assateague Island) should be utilized to allow these horses to continue living on public lands.
* The NPS should not conduct surgical sterilizations on these horses (described as a possibility in the EA) given the welfare risks associated with unsafe ovariectomy procedures in particular (complications can include evisceration, hemorrhaging, infection, or even death).

TAKE ACTION ([link removed])

What You Can Do
To submit a comment, go to the comment form ([link removed]) on the NPS website, complete the required information, and use the suggested language provided above as a guide for your comment.

Thank you in advance for your help and for all you do for animals!

Sincerely,

Joanna Grossman, PhD
Equine Program Director and Senior Advisor, Farmed Animal Program

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