Wild Horse Advocates Seek to Join Wyoming Lawsuit Against BLM

Wild horse advocacy groups across the country are pushing to intervene in a federal lawsuit filed by the state of Wyoming against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The lawsuit accuses the federal agency of not doing enough to reduce wild horse populations. Two coalitions of horse advocate groups have filed papers in federal court in Wyoming seeking to enter the state's lawsuit. One group includes the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), headquartered in North Carolina, and the other includes Friends of Animals, headquartered in Connecticut.

Wyoming Governor Matt Mead claims in the state's lawsuit that the BLM isn't doing enough to control horse numbers, asserting that too many wild horses can harm habitats used by wildlife. "It is my belief, and the belief of other western governors, that the BLM does not have the resources to manage wild horses effectively," Mead said after filing the lawsuit. "By filing suit, it sends a message that wild horse management is a priority and the BLM must be provided the funding necessary to manage them."

By pushing to intervene in the case, the horse advocate groups are widening their attack on horse-management practices in Wyoming. The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation) and other groups are pursuing a separate federal lawsuit, claiming that the BLM violated federal law by rounding up over 1,200 horses from three areas in Wyoming this summer. The groups filed their main brief in their federal lawsuit against the BLM last week.

The agency announced in October that it had rounded up 1,263 wild horses in the Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town, and Salt Wells Creek herd management areas. These areas are within the Checkerboard Region of southwestern Wyoming, where private and federal lands are laid out in alternating sections. The Rock Springs Grazing Association has pressed for years to reduce grazing on private lands by wild horses and has intervened in the groups' lawsuit challenging this summer's roundup.

The BLM had estimated there were 3,771 wild horses in Wyoming before the contested roundup. In its lawsuit, Wyoming claims the horse population after the roundup still exceeded appropriate levels in seven herd management areas by about 475 total horses.

Suzanne Roy, director of the American Wild Horse Conservation, said that the future of Wyoming's wild horses is at stake in both cases. "It's a larger issue of how our public lands are managed, and for whom they are managed," Roy said. "The state is now taking on the Wyoming ranchers' fight against wild horses, and we feel strongly we need to stand up for Wyoming's mustangs. And we're prepared to vigorously defend them in court."

Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs, issued a statement saying her group feels compelled to intervene in Wyoming's lawsuit because it believes the BLM isn't protecting America's wild horses and burros as it should. "BLM's new wipe-out plan is to complain their hands are tied and then invite states and other land-grabbers to sue them to round up wild horses - under false claims of overpopulation," Novak said. "This subterfuge must be stopped."

Jenni Barnes, staff attorney for Friends of Animals Wildlife Law Program, stated that her group is appalled Wyoming is pushing to remove even more wild horses from our public lands. "We all have a right to be involved in decisions about our public lands," Barnes said. "Yet it appears that Wyoming is trying to bypass this process and make a side deal with BLM to eradicate wild horses."

Originally Posted By Associated Press