Wild Horse and Environmental Groups Challenge Court Decision on Largest-Ever Wild Horse Eradication

Wild Horse and Environmental Groups File Notice of Appeal

(CHEYENNE, Wyo., August 16, 2024): Today, a coalition of wild horse advocates, conservationists, and academics, represented by Eubanks and Associates, filed a notice of appeal with the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. This action responds to a lower court decision greenlighting a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan to remove nearly 5,000 wild horses and eliminate 2.1 million acres of wild horse habitat in theWyoming Checkerboard. Much of the area lies within the ecologically rich Red Desert, where some of the state’s last wild horses roam.

The court order, issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, grants theBLMbroad discretion to eliminate Herd Management Areas and start rounding up wild horses as early as October 1. This decision directly contradicts the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The plaintiffs include:American Wild Horse Conservation, theAnimal Welfare Institute,Western Watersheds Project, author Chad Hanson, and wildlife photographers Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl.

The plaintiffs’lawsuit, filed last year, is the culmination of adecade-long battleagainst demands by the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA) to remove wild horses from more than 2 million acres of land in the larger Wyoming Checkerboard in the southwestern part of the state. RSGA members graze privatelivestockon thepublic landswithin the Checkerboard and view wild horses as competition for cheap forage available through tax-subsidized grazing fees.

The plaintiffs’ lawsuit, filed byEubanks and Associates, challenges aBLMRecord of Decision approving a land use plan amendment to:

• Change the status of the Salt Wells Creek and Great Divide Basin Herd Management Areas (HMA) to Herd Areas with an authorized population of zero wild horses. Consequently, every single wild horse would be removed from places that are currently popular destinations for wild horse tourism.
• Slash the size of the Adobe Town HMA by approximately half and reduce the wild horse population to below the number of horses (1,338) that the BLM previously determined to be at a “thriving natural ecological balance” with other uses of the land.

About American Wild Horse Conservation

American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) is the nation’s leading nonprofit wild horse conservation organization, with more than 700,000 supporters and followers nationwide. AWHC is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse and burros in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage. In addition to advocating for the protection and preservation of America’s wild herds, AWHC implements the largest wild horse fertility control program in the world through a partnership with the State of Nevada for wild horses that live in the Virginia Range near Reno.

TheAnimal Welfare Institute(awionline.org) is a nonprofit charitable organization founded in 1951 and dedicated to alleviating animal suffering caused by people. We seek to improve the welfare of animals everywhere: in agriculture, in commerce, in our homes and communities, in research, and in the wild. Follow us onFacebook,X(formerly Twitter), andInstagramfor updates and other important animal protection news.

Western Watersheds Projectis a nonprofit conservation group with over 14,000 members and supporters, as well as field offices across the western U.S. We work to influence and improvepublic landsmanagement throughout the West with a primary focus on the negative impacts oflivestockgrazing on 250 million acres of westernpublic lands, including harm to ecological, biological, cultural, historic, archeological, scenic resources, wilderness values, roadless areas, Wilderness Study Areas and designated Wilderness.

Eubanks & Associates, PLLCis a public-interest environmental law firm that specializes in strategic impact litigation in federal courts throughout the United States.