January 2024 Litigation Update: Protecting Wild Horses

American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign)is actively engaged in legal battles to protect wild horses across the United States. Our current focus includes two major lawsuits that aim to safeguard these majestic animals for future generations.

Current Legal Actions

We often get asked, why don’t you sue? And the answer is, we do! When considering potentiallitigation, there are many factors our expert legal teams consider, including the viability of legal action and the precedent the lawsuit will set if we win or lose. We take onlitigationthat will have the biggest impact on our wild horses for years to come.

Right now, we have two major lawsuits in federal court. One is against the alleged illegal implementation of theAdoption Incentive Program, and the other is to protect Wyoming's cherished wild herds.

Legal Update

Recently, on behalf of AWHC and our co-plaintiffs, our lawyers at Eubanks and Associates, PLLC filed anopening briefin our Wyoming wild horselitigation.

This case is the culmination of adecade-long battleto defend the wild horses of the Wyoming Checkerboard against demands by the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) to remove these animals from more than 2 million acres of land in the southwestern part of the state. RSGA members graze privatelivestockon the public lands within the Checkerboard (and on solid public land blocks outside the Checkerboard) and view wild horses as competition for cheap forage available through tax-subsidized grazing fees.

What This Means

Our opening brief is the second step in the legal process. First, our attorneys filed ourcomplaint on May 10, 2023. Now, we’re moving into the merits phase of thelitigation. The Opening Merits brief lays out our argument, based on the agency’s decision-making record, ultimately for the court to decide the merits of the claims raised in the complaint.

We Have a Strong Case

The heart of this case lies with the irrefutable fact, cemented into law byCongress, that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) cannot eradicate wild horse herds merely because it's inconvenient to manage them or because private landowners adjacent to or within Herd Management Area (HMA) boundaries demand their removal.

“BecauseBLMhas completely disregardedCongress’s unambiguous limitations on the agency’s public land removal authority, that alone is fatal toBLM’s decision to eradicate these wild horse herds, adjust their AMLs, and remove more than a thousand horses from the range.” - Petitioner’s Brief

What’s at Stake

If the court permits theBLMto eliminate long-standing wild horse herds in Wyoming at the behest of private landowners or lessees, it would establish a dangerous precedent that could jeopardize herds across the West, as the majority of HMAs are adjacent to or intermixed with private lands.

Our Co-Plaintiffs

AWHC has joined forces in thislitigationwith: The Animal Welfare Institute, The Western Watersheds Project, photographer Carol Walker, photographer Kimerlee Curyl, and Dr. Chad Hanson.

Stay tuned for more updates on both these cases as they come!