American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign v. Ken Salazar, Civ. No. 11-1352 (D.D.C.)
Case Summary:
This action challenged the precedent-setting decision of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to round-up hundreds of wild, free-roaming horses from public lands in Wyoming and to return only castrated male horses. We argued that BLM’s decision was a violation of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and its implementing regulations which require BLM to protect the “wild” and “free-roaming” nature of these horses and to manage them as “self-sustaining populations of healthy animals.” We submitted extensive expert testimony to establish that castration of wild horses has irreversible physiological, behavioral, social, and genetic impacts on individual and herds of wild horses, and broader ecological impacts on the local environment. Further, we argued that by failing to analyze such impacts, BLM had violated the National Environmental Policy Act. After filing our motion for a temporary restraining order, BLM rescinded its decision and the action was dismissed as moot.
Plaintiffs': American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, Western Watersheds Project
Court: United States District Court for the District of Columbia
Status:
07/25/11 - Complaint filed
07/29/11 - Plaintiffs move for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt the round-up of horses
08/05/11 - Defendants notify the Court that the challenged decision had been rescinded and a new decision had been issued
08/08/11 – The court dismissed the action on mootness grounds