AWHC Litigation: Devils Garden Intervention

The Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory in the Modoc National Forest is home to one of California’s largest and most significant mustang populations. Despite federal protection, these horses face ongoing threats.

In 2012, the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory near Alturas, significantly reduced the mustangs’ habitat. The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) sued, represented by the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Meyer Glitzenstein and Eubanks. In October, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the Forest Service’s decision to cut out the middle section of the territory.

By 2018, livestock permittees in Devil’s Garden filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service, seeking the removal of over 2,000 wild horses from the Modoc National Forest. AWHC, alongside the Animal Legal Defense Fund and Ms. Bowers, represented by Meyer Glitzenstein and Eubanks, filed a motion to intervene. Our goal is to defend the interests of this federally protected wild horse herd and prevent an unfair deal with ranchers that could harm the horses.

In August 2019, the court granted our motion to intervene. We must now mount a vigorous legal defense for the mustangs of the Modoc National Forest. Our vision is a humane management program that all stakeholders can support, preventing the massive roundup of these beautiful mustangs.

LEGAL DOCUMENTS:

• Order Granting Intervention
• Intervenor's Status Report
• Renewed Motion to Intervene
• Parties Joint Status Report
• Memo in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment
• Motion for Summary Judgment
• Response to Defendants' Statement of Facts
• Response to Plaintiffs' Statement of Facts
• Statement of Facts
• Federal Defendants' Combined Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment
• Memo in Support
• Declaration of Thomas Walter Frolly
• Feds' Statement of Facts
• Plaintiff's Motion for Summary Judgment
• Memo in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment
• Declaration of Bill Wilson
• Exhibit 1
• Declaration of Jess Dancer
• Plaintiff's Notice of Request for Hearing on Motion for Summary Judgment
• Proposed Order Granting Request for Hearing
• Plaintiff's Statement of Undisputed Facts
• Exhibit 2
• Request for a Ruling on Motion to Intervene
• Motion to Intervene
• Motion in Support of Motion to Intervene
• Declaration of Suzanne Roy
• Declaration of Steven Wells
• Declaration of Carla Bowers