Judge dismisses suit to stop 2010 wild horse roundup

PHOTO CREDIT: BRAD HORN / AP.
In this July 13, 2008 AP file photo a livestock helicopter pilot rounds up wild horses from the Fox & Lake Herd Management Area from the range in Washoe County, Nev., near the town on Empire, Nev.

Cross-posted from Sacramento Bee

WRITTEN BY DENNY WALSH

More than two years after it occurred, a Sacramento judge this week has put his stamp of approval on a wild horse and burro roundup by federal land managers.

An animal rights group, along with a wild horse and burro sanctuary and three individual activists unsuccessfully tried to head off the August 2010 roundup in Lassen County and Nevada’s Washoe County. U.S. District Judge Morrison C. England Jr. and later a federal appellate court refused the plaintiffs’ request to step in and temporarily block the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from proceeding with the roundup until the matter could be decided on the merits.

On Thursday, England ended the lawsuit, at least at the trial court level, with a 36-page order granting the BLM’s motion for a summary judgment in its favor.

Read more here http://www.sacbee.com/2012/11/16/4991397/judge-dismisses-suit-to-stop-2010.html

Kleinert vs Salazar: Lawsuit could be game changer for wild horses

Cross-posted from Wild Horses & Renegades

WRITTEN BY JAMES KLEINERT

Disappointment Valley Wild Horse. Image / BLM Colorado Photostream on Flickr.

The film Wild Horses and Renegades has generated a federal lawsuit, Kleinert v. Salazar, challenging the recent Disappointment Valley helicopter roundup based on violations of the 1971 Free Roaming Wild Horse & Burro Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the U.S. Constitution.

The legal strategy focuses on staying in court post-roundup. Federal lawsuits against the BLM under the 1971 Wild Horse Act are rare and recent, and this area of the law is literally developing by the day. Most lawsuits are dismissed for lack of standing and mootness. The Kleinert case is unique and should withstand dismissal. This is because the volunteer group is able to return captured horses back to the larger range they inhabited 1971, so the herd can repopulate to a higher, genetically sustainable size

Since the captured Disappointment horses can in fact be returned to the range thanks to community support, the court can grant this relief, which means the case should withstand dismissal and the plaintiffs can stay in court post-roundup.

This will be a rare opportunity to create new law. It could be a game changer for the American wild horse and its advocates.

Continue reading http://theamericanwildhorse.com/kleinert-vs-salazar/ >>

If you would like to learn more about the lawsuit, please go to the BLM Lawsuit page.

Hearing in IDA’s Twin Peaks lawsuit set for February 24th

Scraped and penned up Twin Peaks Mustang. Image Laura Leigh.

FINAL HEARING SET

In Defense of Animals et al v United States Department of the Interior et al

PLEASE NOTE: UPDATED DATE AND TIME
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 10:00 a.m.
U.S. Federal Courthouse, Eastern District of California
501 I Street
Courtroom #7 (14th Floor Judge Morrison England Jr.)
Sacramento, California
www.caed.uscourts.gov

Rachel Fazio, acting attorney, reports the following:

The courtroom capacity is approximately 100 people and I would love to have each and every seat filled by a wild horse supporter!!!! Because the hearing is in Sacramento there will likely be a number of BLM folks there, much more than the Ninth Circuit hearing – so I would at least like to match their numbers.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

This hearing is the final adjudication on all of our legal claims presented under the Wild Horse Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, including whether simply being over AML is enough to show that wild horses are excess, whether long-term holding is legal under the Act, and whether they needed to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement, just to name a few.

If we win, we will be pushing to have the wild horses which were illegally captured returned to the range. If we loose, we will immediately proceed to the Ninth Circuit, where the same panel of Judges who initially reviewed our appeal of preliminary injunction is waiting to give us a final ruling on the matter, where again, we will push to have the wild horses returned.

You can check for any updates regarding the hearing on the website, under Court Calendar (menu on left side of page) and then select Judge England, Jr., and pick the date 2/23/12. Typically updates are posted starting the week before the hearing.

THE LITIGANTS

IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS; DREAMCATCHER WILD HORSE AND BURRO SANCTUARY; BARBARA CLARKE; CHAD HANSON; LINDA HAY, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR; BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT; KEN SALAZAR, Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior; ROBERT ABBEY, Director of the Bureau of Land Management; KEN COLLUM, Field Manager of Eagle Lake Field Office, Defendants.IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS; DREAMCATCHER WILD HORSE AND BURRO SANCTUARY; BARBARA CLARKE; CHAD HANSON; LINDA HAY, Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR; BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT; KEN SALAZAR, Secretary of the United States Department of the Interior; ROBERT ABBEY, Director of the Bureau of Land Management; KEN COLLUM, Field Manager of Eagle Lake Field Office, Defendants.

THE LAWSUIT

The lawsuit challenges the BLM’s approval and implementation of the 2010 Twin Peaks Gather Plan – which approved the round-up and removal of close to 2,000 wild horses and burros from the Twin Peaks HMA in northern California and western Nevada. The lawsuit seeks to set aside this decision for violations of the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, including the transfer of wild horses to long-term holding facilities in the midwest, and the National Environmental Policy Act, for failure to adequately analyze the impacts of the round-up.

Source: In Defense of Animals (IDA)