Wild horse advocates mount legal challenge against Nevada roundup

Press Release:

Two wild horse advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit in a bid to stop a wild horse roundup in Nevada.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plans to gather all of the estimated 332 wild horses in and around the Pine Nut Herd Management area, permanently remove 200 of them from the range into long-term holding pastures, and release the rest. About half the released horses – the mares – will receive the birth control drug, PZP-22.

The lawsuit has been filed by Protect Mustangs and Friends of Animals.

The groups also intend to seek a temporary restraining order so that the agency cannot gather any horses or administer PZP-22 until the court has heard the case.

The roundup, expected to last for 10 days, is scheduled for late January/early February.

Jenni Barnes, the attorney for Friends of Animals’ wildlife law program, described the December decision made by the BLM to proceed with the Pine Nut operation as abrupt.

“This decision has long-lasting implications for wild horses,” she said.

“BLM violated the law by excluding the public from this decision and completely failing to consider its impacts. Friends of Animals and Protect Mustangs have filed this lawsuit to ensure that BLM does not destroy Nevada’s last remaining wild horses.”

Protect Mustangs’ executive director, Anne Novak, criticized the intended use of PZP. “Risky drugs like PZP and other forms of sterilization are a sham at this point because there aren’t any ‘excess’ wild horses on millions of acres of public land,” she said.

Friends of Animals’ president Priscilla Feral contrasted the BLM’s treatment of wild horses with that of cows and sheep on the range.

“Cows and sheep owned by large corporations and hobby ranchers are seen as having a dollar value, so ranchers are relieved from having to compete over water and grasslands with horses. Since horses are not hamburgers, Nevada and the BLM want them gone. People don’t want this madness anymore.”

The lawsuit asserts that the BLM did not prepare an environmental assessment for the proposed roundup and instead relied on the 2010 environmental assessment for the Clan Alpine, Pilot Mountain and Pine Nut Herd Management Area Gather Plan, which did not take into consideration science that showed negative side effects associated with PZP.

The plaintiffs also argue that BLM did not solicit public comments.

Friends of Animals and Protect Mustangs oppose all roundups of wild horses and the use of PZP. They believe the appropriate management levels set for the herd management areas in all states are too low, outdated and do not accurately reflect the number of wild horses needed to maintain genetic viability