Wild Horse & Conservation Groups Sue Feds Over Tribal Roundup; 467 Horses Face Slaughter Auction

Reno, Nevada (August 16, 2013)- A coalition of wild horseadvocacyand conservation groups has filed a federal lawsuit to block the sale of wild horses at a slaughter auction in Fallon, Nevada, scheduled for August 17, 2013. The horses were rounded up off public and tribal lands in northern Nevada after the U.S. Forest Service halted a federally-funded helicopter roundup operation initially set for August 9.

The complaint, filed against the Forest Service by the public interest law firm of Meyer, Glitzenstein and Crystal on behalf of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign), a national coalition, its parent organization, Return to Freedom, The Cloud Foundation, Western Watersheds Project, and Laura Leigh, alleges that unbranded horses captured by the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe may be federally-protected wild free-roaming horses that migrated from the nearby Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Little Owyhee Herd Management Area.

The groups are seeking a court order to ensure that the Forest Service takes “all necessary steps to ensure that all wild horses currently located at the FallonLivestockExchange sale yard are identified and returned to thepublic landsas soon and as humanely as possible.”

A total of 467 horses were captured by the tribe and delivered to the slaughter auction, according to officials, where they await their fate. An undetermined number of these horses are unbranded and likely to be wild horses. The Forest Service has acknowledged that most of these horses will be purchased by kill buyers and trucked to slaughter plants in Canada or Mexico. Photographs of the horses show hundreds of mares and foals, yearlings, and adults crammed into pens at the stockyard.

For more information, please see:

• Feds Allow Unbranded, Federally-Protected Wild Horses to be Sent to Slaughter Auction
• USDA Postpones Controversial Round Up of Wild Horses for Slaughter
• USDA Shuts Down Public Observation at Controversial Wild Horse Roundup; Horses Slated for Slaughter Auction
• USDA Shady Plan to Round Up Wild Horses for Slaughter Revealed

TheAmerican Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign), founded in 2004 by Return to Freedom, is a coalition of more than 50 horseadvocacy, public interest, and conservation organizations dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come.

Return to Freedomis dedicated to preserving the freedom, diversity, and habitat of America’s wild horses through sanctuary, education, and conservation, while enriching the human spirit through direct experience with the natural world. Return to Freedom provides a safe haven to over 300 wild horses and burros at its sanctuary in Santa Barbara, California, and in Nevada, where the group is planning to create a larger wild horse preserve.

The Cloud Foundation, Inc., a 501c(3) charity named for the wild stallion, Cloud, is dedicated to the preservation of wild horses and burros onpublic landswith special emphasis on isolated, genetically unique herds like Cloud’s in the Pryor Mountains of Montana.

Western Watersheds Projectis a non-profit conservation group dedicated to protecting and restoring western watersheds and wildlife through education, public policy initiatives, and litigation. The group works to influence and improvepublic landsmanagement in 8 western states with a primary focus on the negative impacts oflivestockgrazing on 250,000,000 acres of westernpublic lands.

Laura Leigh is a photojournalist and the founder ofWild Horse Education, a Nevada non-profit organization devoted to gaining protection for wild horses and burros from abuse, slaughter, and extinction.