Litigation

Lawsuit Break Down: Nevada Wild Horse Population Plan

Brieanah Schwartz, AWHC Policy Counsel

At the end of 2017, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released a final plan to reduce the breeding population of wild horses in both the Antelope and Triple B Complexes in Nevada to near extinction levels – 227 in Antelope and 272 in Triple B – by gelding 50% of the returned stallions, skewing the sex ratio of these wild horse populations to 60% male/40% female, and treating all the returned mares with fertility control, either PZP or GonaCon, a vaccine that the National Academy of Sciences said required further research before im


Forest Service relents on protecting animals from slaughter

(May 30, 2019 The Forest Service has abandoned a controversial proposal to sell wild horses rounded up at California's Modoc National Forest without first ensuring that the animals don't end up in slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada.

However, a Forest Service spokeswoman told E&E News today that the decision is not final and is only in place while a federal lawsuit challenging so-called sales without limitation is resolved.


BLM to Proceed with Barbaric Sterilization of Wild Mares, Despite Repeated Public Outcry and Legal Opposition

BURNS, Oregon (May 14, 2019) - Despite multiple lawsuits, federal injunctions and overwhelming public opposition, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced last night that it is again moving ahead with barbaric experiments on captive wild mares. It will be the third time that the agency has attempted to implement the controversial and cruel procedure that is being pushed by a livestock industry lobbying group financed by Lucas Oil.


Judge Urges Forest Service to Strike a Deal in Wild Horses Suit

May 9, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – A federal judge urged the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday to work out a deal with animal rights activists who claim a plan to shrink the glut of wild horses in a Northern California forest will cause some horses to get slaughtered.

“I’m going to give you this opportunity to work something out before the hammer drops because once it drops, it drops,” U.S. District Judge James Donato said in court Thursday.


AWHPC ET. AL LAWSUIT FORCES BLM TO POSTPONE WILD HORSE ELIMINATION & STERILIZATION PLAN.

In response to a lawsuit filed by a coalition of environmental and wild horse advocacy groups, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has agreed to postpone its plans to "zero out" (eliminate all wild horses from) the Jakes Wash Herd Management Area (HMA) in Nevada and to replace 200 wild, free-roaming stallions with castrated males and return them to the range. These “scientifically unsound, controversial, untested, and radical approaches” are part of the BLM’s proposed Pancake Complex roundup, which is set to begin on January 12, 2011.