Wild Horse & Environmental Groups Challenge Court Decision Allowing Largest-Ever Eradication of Wild Horses

Wild horse advocates and environmental groups file notice of appeal challenging court decision allowing BLM to remove 5,000 wild horses and eliminate 2.1 million acres of wild horse habitat in Wyoming.

Canva/CC/twidlife

On August 16, 2024 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 in response 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 the Wyoming 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 Wednesday by the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, gives the BLM broad discretion to eliminate Herd Management Areas and start rounding up wild horses as early as October 1, directly contradicting the plain language of the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. The plaintiffs are American Wild Horse Conservation, the Animal Welfare Institute, Western Watersheds Project, author Chad Hanson, and wildlife photographers Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl.

“If allowed to stand, this flawed decision would give the BLM a new way to eradicate federally protected wild horses and burros from our public lands,” said Suzanne Roy, Executive Director of American Wild Horse Conservation. “We expected this case to be decided by a higher court, and we are returning to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, where we have already twice prevailed in defending the Red Desert’s wild horses from this special-interest-driven eradication plan.”

The plaintiffs’ lawsuit, filed last year, is the culmination of a decade-long battle against 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 private livestock on the public lands within the Checkerboard and view wild horses as competition for cheap forage available through tax-subsidized grazing fees.

“Congress unanimously passed the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971 precisely because these animals are an ‘integral part’ of America’s landscape. The district court’s decision robs federally protected horses of their rightful place on public lands designated for their habitat – lands that the BLM has acknowledged can sustain these beloved herds” said Joanna Grossman, Ph.D., Equine Program Director for the Animal Welfare Institute.

“Wyoming’s Red Desert is known for having some of the healthiest sagebrush ecosystems in the West, and has also been known for wild horses for many years,” said Erik Molvar of Western Watersheds Project. “The decision to remove wild horses from the Red Desert was always about the livestock industry’s preferences, not the health of the lands.”

Wild Wyoming horses. Canva/Kyle Spradley/CC

“Wyoming’s iconic wild horse herds should not be zeroed out to suit the petty preferences of the Rock Springs Grazing Association,” said Carol Walker of Living Images Photography, “They deserve to continue to live free and to be enjoyed by Americans for generations to come.”

“I am disheartened. The law that protects wild horses cites them as ‘part of the natural system of the public lands,’” said Chad Hanson of the Wyoming Mustang Institute. “This decision allows for their complete removal with no review of land health or ecology, even on lands outside the Checkerboard that offer solid blocks of public land habitat. Vexing.”

“For well over a decade we have been fighting on behalf of the Red Desert’s iconic wild horses,” said Kimerlee Curyl, wild horse photographer. “Giving up on them is not an option; putting a stop to archaic practices is, however. We remain convinced that the wild horse plan amendment is contradictory to the federal law that protects our wild horses and burros, and we are committed to holding the agency accountable.”

The  plaintiffs’ lawsuit, filed by Eubanks and Associates, challenges a BLM Record 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.

The Animal 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 on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram for updates and other important animal protection news.

Western Watersheds Project is 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 improve public lands management throughout the West with a primary focus on the negative impacts of livestock grazing on 250 million acres of western public lands, including harm to ecological, biological, cultural, historic, archeological, scenic resources, wilderness values, roadless areas, Wilderness Study Areas and designated Wilderness.

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