In the wild AND the courtroom

The following is from the American Wild Horse Campaign:

As the nation’s leading wild horse and burro conservation organization, some of the most important work we do for our wild herds is in the courtroom, so we wanted to provide you with a legal update.

Wyoming Checkerboard

AWHC and our co-plaintiffs, the Animal Welfare Institute, Western Watersheds Project, author and Casper College instructor Dr. Chad Hanson, and wildlife photographers Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl, continue to pursue a more than decade-long battle to save the iconic wild horses of the Wyoming Checkerboard. Specifically, our lawsuit challenges a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision to “zero out” (eliminate all wild horses from) the Great Divide Basin and Salt Wells Creek Herd Management Areas (HMAs) and eliminate wild horses from 2 million acres of designated habitat within the state. We’re up against not only the BLM, but also the powerful Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA), which views wild horses as competitors for cheap livestock grazing on public lands.

Adoption Incentive Program

Our lawsuit against the BLM’s notorious Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) is pending a decision in federal court. Filed by AWHC and Skydog Sanctuary, this legal action challenges the agency’s implementation of the AIP, asserting that the failure to analyze the impacts of the program on federally-protected wild horses and to provide the public the opportunity to comment on plan violated several federal laws. As we predicted, the cash-for-adoption scheme has been a disaster for wild horses and burros, sending truckloads of these innocent animals into the slaughter pipeline. We aim to halt the program through this litigation.

Freedom of Information Act

AWHC’s investigations team works to promote accountability and transparency by using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to obtain government records. that shed light on federal wild horse and burro management. We have filed dozens of FOIA requests with the BLM and U.S. Forest Service, but both agencies habitually violate the requirement for a response within 20-working-days. As a result, we are forced to file legal action. We currently have 19 pending federal lawsuits seeking to compel the release of records relating to the Adoption Incentive Program, livestock grazing information, and the transportation of wild horses and burros between holding facilities.

RECENT UPDATES:

This month, federal courts have issued rulings unrelated to AWHC’s cases but with potentially positive impacts for wild horses.  In Nevada, the court ruled that the BLM violated federal law by failing to prepare a Herd Management Area Plan (HMAP) for the Pancake Complex before rounding up over 2,000 wild horses. During this roundup, a shocking 31 animals died. Forcing the BLM to prepare HMAPs, which allows the public to weigh in on wild horse management, is a positive step. Unfortunately the judge also ruled that the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act allows the BLM to remove “excess” wild horses whether or not an HMAP is in place. In short, this is an interesting ruling and a good start, but one that is unlikely slow down the BLM’s harmful roundups, at least in the short term.

In a separate case, a federal court in the District of Columbia ruled that the BLM cannot rely on long-term Environmental Assessments to continue to remove horses after the Appropriate Management Levels (AMLs) have been achieved in HMAs. Instead, the agency must prepare new environmental analyses, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), before conducting “maintenance” roundups to reduce the populations back down to AML. This case is related to roundups in Utah’s Muddy Creek and Onaqui HMAs as well as the Pine Nut Mountains HMA and the Eagle Complex in Nevada. This is a narrow win, but a good win, according to AWHC’s attorneys.

Thank you for standing with wild horses and burros.

American Wild Horse Conservation