Happy #FoalFriday!—Meet Neptune, a colt born on Friday, Feb. 21, at our #Lompoc, Calif., headquarters sanctuary, to Juno, a member of our Hart Mountain herd. His sire is Freedom. #horses 1/6
At RTF, we have used the immunocontraceptive vaccine PZP since 2000 to allow stallions and mares to live together in their family bands while curbing the rate of reproduction. We’ve done so with a 91-98% efficacy rate, so we do welcome the occasional adorable foal. #horses 2/6
RTF is a proponent of the use of safe, proven and humane fertility control as a key tool to slow wild horse and burro reproduction, allowing for he phase-out of the government’s nearly 50-year-old practice of capturing and removing wild horses. #horses 3/6
PZP works with a mare’s immune system to produce antibodies that block sperm receptor sites on the zona pellucida, a thin membrane surrounding the ovum. #horses 4/6
Because it is non-hormonal, PZP does not: affect the endocrine system or natural behavior of horses, create negative health side effects, enter the food chain or harm other wildlife. The vaccine is reversible and is administered with a simple dart. 5/6
Neptune’s roots go back to Oregon. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service removed all 279 wild horses from Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge due to pressure from hunters to manage it for pronghorn and bighorn sheep. Of those, 4 stallions and 9 mares arrived at RTF in 1999. 6/6
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