Wild Horses: Aim Cupid’s Arrow in Two Directions This Valentine’s Day
January 9, 2019BLM Stops Sterilization Experiments But Returns Very Few Wild Horses and Burros to the Range
February 16, 2019Wyoming Federal Court Rules Against BLM Again in Another Checkerboard Roundup Case
Adobe Town mares and foals chased by helicopter in 2017 roundup
WY Federal Court Rules Against BLM in Checkerboard Roundup Case
Says BLM Can’t Exclude Foals from Roundup Counts to Remove More Horses from the Range
Cheyenne, WY (January 10, 2019) . . . Yesterday the U.S. District for the District of Wyoming handed a victory to the American Wild Horse Campaign and wildlife photographers Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl, ruling in favor of a lawsuit suit to stop the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from illegally rounding up hundreds of wild horses in a helicopter capture operation in southwestern Wyoming.
The lawsuit charged the BLM with violating three federal laws by rounding up hundreds more horses than previously disclosed by excluding foals and weanlings from its official count of horses removed from the range. The Court agreed with AWHC, explicitly noting that “[t]he question is whether BLM’s approach to the 2017 excess determination was a deviation from prior practices. The answer is clearly yes.” Therefore, the court found that this roundup decision was arbitrary and capricious and “without observance of the procedures required by law.” The court then vacated the roundup decision and remanded it to the agency for further proceedings consistent with the decision.
“We applaud the Court for recognizing that the BLM’s action of permanently removing hundreds more horses than it determined to be excess is unlawful, particularly in light of the Tenth Circuit’s strongly worded 2016 ruling telling BLM to comply with federal law when removing horses from these public lands.” said attorney William Eubanks of Meyer Glitzenstein and Eubanks LLP who represents the plaintiffs. “It’s clear that the BLM is trying every technique possible to remove more horses from the range in these HMAs than allowed by law.”
Background
AWHC has led a years-long legal battle against over the BLM’s plan to eradicate wild horses from a two million-acre area of public and private land known as the Wyoming Checkerboard at the request of the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA). The RSGA owns or leases the private land blocks in the Checkerboard and views wild horses as competition for taxpayer subsidized livestock grazing on public lands.
It’s the third time the organization has filed suit to challenge the BLM’s illegal actions in this area. In 2016, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals handed the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign two precedent setting legal victories related to the BLM’s actions in Wyoming. (More on the Tenth Circuit Decisions here and here.)
###
The American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage. Its grassroots mission is endorsed by a coalition of more than 60 horse advocacy, humane and public interest organizations.
Carol Walker is the Director of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF).
Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl are renowned wild horse photographers who regularly photograph the wild horses of the Adobe Town, Great Divide Basin and Salt Wells Creek HMAs.
Meyer, Glitzenstein & Eubanks is the nation’s leading public interest law firm with offices in Washington, DC and Ft. Collins, Colorado.
15 Comments
I cry every moment at what is happening to our wild Majestic Wild Ones even though the BLM is in trouble it’s not going to bring back the lives that they have destroyed
Congratulations! Its high time the court system stood up for our NATIVE wild horses & burros!!
[…] Source: wildhoofbeats.com […]
Yay Carol! I’ll never forget when I was at that roundup where those precious new foals weren’t counted! What the heck?! Well, thanks a million for your efforts that resulted in abolishing that sneaky move the BLM pulled…honestly, I don’t know what we would do without your pursuing these challenges day after day, year after year. ????
Bless all of you who aren’t afraid to stand your ground for sake of those that have no voice.
I also would. Like add that I hope NO ONE working for the BLM got a pay cheque today…
I agree, no paycheck!!! Thank you to all who stand for America’s Wild Horses/Burrows!! As a Turtle Island person I’m asking our Tribes to Not take the evil money to give to the slaughter pipeline!!!! Aho
We produce and bring awareness with our Annual Native American Rally in Texas!!!????????????????
A big thank you Margie!
I am appalled and sickened by the lack of conscience on the part of many tribes that have been complicit in handing over our helpless wild horses to the big money slaughter pipeline, like the Paiute tribe did recently in Palomino Valley, Nevada.
What the hell???
And to hand them over to a major reptile like the notorious Dennis Chavez who owns that hellhole Southwest Livestock (slaughter horse “feedlots”) in Los Lunas, NM. OMG!
I know there are worse in Texas as well.
Thank you is hardly enough to express my gratitude for what you are doing for #savingourwildhorses. I will continue to share in appreciation for what you are doing for them. Sincerely, another wild horse photographer.
I really like the #savingwikdhorses headline!
Most of these were from our Rock Springs, Wyoming HMAs. The Idaho facility is a private facility in which there is only one annual tour and only a handful were offered on the internet adoption. They would have been better off in our Rock Springs, Wy facility where we could have kept our eyes on them. They might have had a chance then. Instead they had strangles and died.
I watched these horses in the wild and Im horrified to know their horrible demise.
I am sorry for the Mustang’s foal’s loss;
Thankyou so very much for the endless pursuit of the Checkerboard wild horses legal home!
While the court ruling is fantastic, I am saddened that no undoing (ie. release back to the wild) of what was done to all the mustangs caught up in this man made war on the wild ones. It doesn’t seem that the court ever tells BLM to restore the mustangs once they are illegally taken off their land.
Question: What is to stop the BLM from doing this again at another roundup if no reparations were made?
Back in 2014, before the 1st massive roundup there, I remember thinking Rock Spring Grazing Assoc. can’t get the BLM in the checkerboard to do their biddings if we all fight against it, ie. send in the public comments and make the calls, but it happened anyway. And then again in 2017. Will the BLM now not remove all the mustangs just because of this court findings? To make more of an injustice right again and to force the checkerboard area BLM to not keep breaking the law, the court really needs to go further and mustangs that were not excess need to be returned. I know they all have the ugly, unnatural brand now and hopefully not lost in the pipeline. Could you tell me if this was discussed ?
Thank you. I was so overjoyed when the small group of Adobe Town mustangs were reunited and I thought how special you are to have photographed them in the wild and then to put in all the stressful work to successfully advocate for them or most of that small group( (I know there were some that you could not locate in any of the corrals)
You are wonderful!
Does anyone know what happened to the uncounted foals and weanlings?
Would they have been branded and put up for adoption or just “lost” in the back hole of the corrals because the BLM wanted them to go unnoticed? Hopefully this court ruling has forced accountability of the BLM employees actions to our wild ones.
Congratulations to the horse heros: American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC), Carol Walker, Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF), Kimerlee Curyl, Meyer, Glitzenstein & Eubanks, Black Hills and the many, many other wonderful rescues out there saving these amazing animals.
I am beyond disgusted with the BLM and my newfound knowledge that TAXPAYERS ARE SUBSIDIZING CATTLE RANCHERS ON PUBLIC LAND?!?!?! I’m sure millions of Americans would much rather use their tax dollars to protect the wild mustangs and burros, than to help line the pockets of the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) and other cattle ranchers.
Keep fighting the fight and getting the word out about the plight of the wild mustangs. I’m so amazed how many people have no clue this is going on?! We need to reach the masses! God Bless You All!
Anything to stop them. Wasn’t these HMA’s, Divide Basin and Salt Wells under a consent decree and not a EA? I have been in fear that they would completely zero those areas out by this year. It is also a crime to me that we do not know where these horses went, I never saw but a handful online adoptions and only a few offered at other events and rescues, but thats it. ??