Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

To offer during the educational programs I plan to do this year ahead of the Spring Creek Basin roundup (scheduled for Sept. 17-21), I created a “brochure” about PZP/PZP-22, and I wanted to share it here, “for more information” as we say in the news biz. I didn’t come up with this information out of thin air. It’s a compilation of the bare surface of what I’ve learned about PZP/PZP-22, and yes, I have offered it for critique and correction to people I think all will agree are experts on the subject: Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, director of the Science and Conservation Center; Dr. Patricia Fazio, statewide coordinator of the Wyoming Wild Horse Coalition; and Matt Dillon, director of the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustang Center.

I keep pushing these links:

http://pryorwild.wordpress.com/category/pzp/ – extremely informative series about PZP written by Matt –

and

http://pryorwild.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/pzp-qa-third-edition-june-1-2010.pdf – PZP Q&A contributed to by Dr. Kirkpatrick, Dr. Allen Rutberg and Linda Coates-Markle, and compiled and edited by Dr. Fazio. (Matt is working to make this a linkable document on the Pryor Wild blog and the PMWMC website.)

Tonight, I have a big date: my first public education program about the coming roundup and adoption and, hopefully, fertility control program in Spring Creek Basin. I’m nervous. I’m hopeful. I think I’m well-prepared. I’m terrified I’ll freeze (a skilled public speaker, I am not). I’m sure I’ll say something about the roundup, answer a question about the horses to be offered for adoption or sent to Canon City … and crumple, like I did last night in a much smaller meeting.

More information: A scoping notice is to be completed this month for our upcoming EA. I’ll inform you all about that when it’s available, and I hope you’ll comment.

I also hope you’re getting those comments out about McCullough Peaks’ fertility control EA. More information here and here.

There’s a lot going on right now … There are still horror stories about roundups … Here, we’re trying to encourage something workable, something sustainable, something with a better “happy ending” for more wild horses. I think by now, it’s pretty well known how I feel, my background, where I’m coming from. Someone apparently called the president of the Four Corners Back Country Horsemen, the group I’m speaking with tonight, and said, “I know all about that TJ Holmes.” I hope so. Because “TJ Holmes” = “mustang advocate.” Everyone who knows me knows that. 😉

Here’s the “brochure”: PZP-FAQcard-FORBLOG

I prepared this to be used as a jump-start for conversation. Like one of our Wild Bunch members noted last night, sterility after six or seven years of consecutive PZP treatments is not necessarily a con (especially for older mares), and I’ve talked about that here. I hope this proves helpful – the links on the last page lead to much more information about PZP (and many thanks to Pat Fazio for pointing out to me that the links are, indeed, live in the PDF document).