Nevada Horse Roundup Ban Lifted for Bureau of Land Management

In a significant development for wild horse protection, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has been permitted to resume its roundup of wildmustangsin northern Nevada. However, new humane guidelines have been imposed by a federal judge to ensure the welfare of these iconic animals.

The Bureau of Land Management can resume its roundup of dozens of wildmustangsin northern Nevada, but wranglers must limit their use of electric cattle prods and take other steps to ensure the animals are treated humanely, a federal judge said Thursday.

U.S. District Judge Miranda Du's formal order lifted an injunction she issued last week blocking the roundup of 50 horses near the Idaho-Nevada line.

Although disappointed that the roundup was set to resume Friday, horse protection advocates were pleased that Du's order outlined specific conduct for theBLM.

"The judge has begun what theBLMhas failed to do, and that is to establish humane standards forroundups," said Deniz Bolbol, spokeswoman for the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation).

The judge prohibited the routine use of "hot shot/electric prod treatments" to expedite movement of horses through gathering and loading chutes, allowing their use only "as necessary to ensure the safety and security of the horses."

Also,BLMcontract helicopter pilots who chase the horses toward the gathering traps must make sure that slower young foals aren't separated from the herd. And the judge specifically forbade the agency from driving horses into barbed-wire fences, as they did with several earlier in the roundup at theOwyhee complexabout 90 miles northwest of Elko.

Laura Leigh, a photographer and director of Wild Horse Education who has been battlingBLMover a series ofroundupsfor years, captured that incident on video.

It was among the evidence she submitted in obtaining last week's emergency injunction, along with footage of wranglers repeatedly shocking horses in a loading chute on Nov. 30.

She hailed the ruling as a significant victory.

During a hearing in her Las Vegas courtroom earlier Thursday, Du said she intended to grant the government's request to lift the injunction because opponents had failed to prove the agency lacked authority to remove themustangsfrom the high desert.

But she also indicated she was inclined to include language in the order addressing concerns about the allegations of abuse, including repeated shocking ofmustangsand running animals to the point of exhaustion.

"If I were to allow the gather to continue, I would want to ensure the horses were gathered in a humane way, as theBLMis required to do by statute," she told Justice Department lawyer Erik Petersen, referring to the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burros Act of 1971.

BLMargues the herd in the Owyhee Horse Management Area is too large to be sustained given lingering drought. The agency has warned that some of the animals could die if they aren't removed before spring.

Wild horse protection advocates countered by accusing the agency of shamefully exaggerating the threat to the animals in an area.

"I think it is fiction, your honor," said Gordon Cowan, a Reno lawyer for Leigh. "There's really no emergency out there. There's no proof of stress on the range."

Originally Posted By The Associated Press