The Unwanted Horse Coalition is pleased to announce the availability of its new informational brochure, Preventing Unwanted Horses: Geld and Spay.
The brochure, which was created as a supplement to the UHC’s highly successful Operation Gelding program, highlights the benefits and importance of gelding, spaying, and hormone therapy as these practices pertain to responsible horse ownership and the issue of unwanted horses.
Preventing Unwanted Horses: Geld and Spay includes an introduction about the unwanted horse issue and reasons horses become unwanted; a discussion about responsible breeding and how owners and breeders are exercising responsible ownership by considering gelding and spaying; brief explanations of gelding and spaying and how these practices can positively impact equine population, breed quality, and behavior; and information about Operation Gelding.
Operation Gelding continues to help castrate stallions across the country. Now in its fifth year, the program has assisted in castrating 1,128 stallions at 93 clinics in 33 states.
In the past year, Operation Gelding has been responsible for castrating 320 horses in 26 events across the country. These included events at veterinary schools and clinics such as the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in Blacksburg, Virginia; the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine in College Station, Texas; and the Springhill Equine Veterinary Clinic in Newberry, Florida. Multiple clinics were also held at equine rescues around the country, including Helping Hands, Hearts, and Hooves in Ellenboro, North Carolina; and Blaze’s Tribute Equine Rescue in Jones, Oklahoma.
Operation Gelding is able to operate thanks to the support and seed money provided by the American Association of Equine Practitioners Foundation, Zoetis and the UHC. All proceeds from the sales of Dr. Jennifer Williams’ book, How to Start and Run a Rescue, and Ellen Harvey’s book, Standardbred Old Friends, also help fund the Operation Gelding program. Books can be purchased on the UHC website: www.unwantedhorsecoalition.org.
Operation Gelding offers funding assistance to organizations and associations that wish to conduct a public gelding clinic under the name and guidelines of Operation Gelding. An organization that has completed an Operation Gelding clinic will receive funding of $50 per horse, with a $1,000 maximum, to aid in the costs associated with the clinic. Funds will be awarded to participating groups once in a 12-month period.
Operation Gelding currently has funding available for organizations that would like to host their own Operation Gelding clinic.
The UHC has also released an update of The Problem of the Unwanted Horse, a brochure which describes the coalition and its activities.
Both brochures are available free through the UHC.
To request brochures or for more information on how to host an Operation Gelding clinic, contact Dagmar Caramello, UHC Director, at dcaramello@horsecouncil.org or 202-296-4031.
The Unwanted Horse Coalition represents a broad alliance of equine organizations that have joined together under the American Horse Council to educate the horse industry about the unwanted horse issue. The UHC grew out of the Unwanted Horse Summit, which was organized by the American Association of Equine Practitioners and held in conjunction with the American Horse Council’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., in April 2005. The summit was held to bring key stakeholders together to start a dialogue on the plight of the unwanted horse in America. Its purpose was to develop consensus on the most effective way to work together to address this issue.
