Wild Horses: Take Action to Keep Young Horses from Cloud’s Herd on the Range
April 15, 2015Horses: North American Experts to Present at Equine Advocates 2015 Horse Summit
May 10, 2015
Breaking news!
For Immediate Release
Federal Court Dismisses State of Wyoming Cattlemen’s Anti-Mustang Lawsuit
Second Anti-Mustang Lawsuit Dismissed in Recent Months
Cheyenne, WY (March 21, 2015) . . . Today, the U.S. District Court in Wyoming dismissed a lawsuit filed by the State of Wyoming against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) seeking the removal of wild horses from public lands across the state. Earlier this year, the Court granted intervenor status to the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC), The Cloud Foundation, Return to Freedom, and wild horse photographers Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl. Intervenors promptly filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against the BLM.
The Court stated in its decision that “the Court agrees with BLM and Intervenors. At this time there is no discrete action required by BLM and the management of wild horses on federal land throughout Wyoming is properly left to the sound discretion of BLM without judicial entanglement.”
“We are pleased that the Court declined to allow this blatant attempt by the State to scapegoat the small number of wild horses that remain in Wyoming to benefit ranchers. The Court reaffirmed the BLM’s discretion to determine what actions are needed to achieve the agency’s objective to maintain a thriving natural ecological balance and that removing horses is not mandated,” said Caitlin Zittkowski of Meyer, Glitzenstein & Crystal, the Washington, D.C. public interest law firm which represented AWHPC, The Cloud Foundation, Return to Freedom, Ms. Walker and Ms. Curyl in the case.
Just last month, the Federal Court in Nevada granted AWHPC’s motion to dismiss in a similar lawsuit filed on behalf of ranchers that sought the removal of thousands of wild horses from public lands. That case was dismissed with prejudice.
The State of Wyoming lawsuit sought the removal of hundreds of wild horses from public lands in Wyoming, a state in where fewer than 2,500 wild horses remain. Statewide, Wyoming’s wild horse population levels are far below the high “Allowable” Management Level of 3,722 wild horses, a number established by BLM land use plans.
National opinion polls indicate that 72 percent of Americans support protecting wild horses on public lands while just 29 percent want public lands used for livestock grazing.
In Wyoming, wild horse numbers are dwarfed by the number of livestock grazing on public lands at taxpayer expense. Fewer than 2,500 wild horses remain on just 3.2 million acres of public rangeland, while hundreds of thousands of livestock graze 18 million acres of public land in the state. Put another way, wild horses are present in Wyoming on just 2 percent of the BLM land grazed by livestock.
The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) is a coalition of more than 50 horse advocacy, public interest, and conservation organizations dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage.
The Cloud Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and protection of wild horses and burros on our Western public lands with a focus on protecting Cloud’s herd in the Pryor Mountains of Montana. Cloud is the subject of Foundation founder Ginger Kathrens’ groundbreaking PBS/Nature documentaries.
Return to Freedom (RTF) is a national non-profit dedicated to wild horse preservation through sanctuary, education and conservation, and also operates the American Wild Horse Sanctuary in Lompoc, CA. It is also AWHPC’s founding organization.
Carol Walker is the Director of Field Documentation for Wild Horse Freedom Federation, and she 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.
The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, The Cloud Foundation, Return to Freedom, John Steele, and Lisa Friday are being represented by the public interest Washington D.C. law firm of Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal.
Read more about the lawsuit here: http://www.wildhorsepreservation.org/media/state-wyoming-moves-against-wild-horses
7 Comments
Yay! Go Team ~~ Native Wild Horses! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! to all that work so tirelessly. Still much work to do.
WHAT HAPPENED THEN JUST SAW A POST THAT 45 WERE KILLED.
Janet you must be referring to the horses rounded up in the Checkerboard Roundup in WY last fall that have died in holding facilities. This has nothing to do with the Pryor Mountsin Herd in Montana.
do these laws work at all? they are shooting heber horses and they say this is what they will get. Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, 16 U.S.C. secs. 1331-1340, imposes a criminal fine up to US$100,000 and one year imprisonment on any person who causes the death or harassment of a wild horse or burro, who processes such a horse or burro into a commercial product, who willfully removes a horse or burro from nacec.federal lands, or who sells a wild horse or burro caught on private
Every Victory on behalf of the Wild Horses and Burros, IS an IMPORTANT ONE! Unfortunately, for every single Victory, there are a Herd of very wealthy Cattle Rancher’s with plenty of money to offer Payoffs to those willing to take them. This could very well be the Reason for the numbers of wild Horses remaining in Wyoming being so far below the legal Limits for the State. Wild Horses have been treated by these Cattle Rancher’s as Nuisances! Wherever there is an opportunity to rid the Land of the true Owner’s of it, the Wild Horses, their legal Rights to be THERE, LIVE free of HARM, allowed to graze there, per the LAWS written to protect them, are continuously challenged, both legally, and illegally, again and again. Those so brazen to break the Laws, MUST have stronger PUNISHMENTS in place, before, these injustices will cease to exist on the VERY LAND set aside, BY LAW, for the FREE Horses and Burros! Thanks BE for ALL who are fighting on behalf of the Horses! You have much HONOR and ALL of my RESPECT! Were it NOT for THESE majestic Creatures, this Country, would still be made of Clay Huts!!!
why did this just come up if its so then we need a mass class action suit!!! Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act, 16 U.S.C. secs. 1331-1340, imposes a criminal fine up to US$100,000 and one year imprisonment on any person who causes the death or harassment of a wild horse or burro, who processes such a horse or burro into a commercial product, who willfully removes a horse or burro from nacec.federal lands, or who sells a wild horse or burro caught on private
This is the greatest news ever!! America’s Native Wild Horses & Wild Burro’s definitely deserve protection and the right to roam (their) Public Lands as they were here long before us!!!****
A big thank you all for fighting on to save our beautiful American Icons!
Tina Wooten Equine Rights
END THE BLM WAR AGAINST OUR EQUINE!!!