U.S. Court of Appeals says the Bureau of Land Management is required to maintain inventory

Demand an Urgent Congressional Investigation and Head Count of all Wild Horses and Burros in Captivity and in the Wild sign and share the petition:  https://www.change.org/p/u-s-senate-investigate-the-wild-horse-burro-count-in-captivity-and-freedom 

Tuesday the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against the state of Wyoming pushing for more roundups.

“The Interior Department and the BLM responded that they don’t have a mandatory duty to remove wild horses from herd management areas. The district court issued an order dismissing the case, and the state filed an appeal with the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The state’s arguments, however are contrary to the plain language,” of the law, according to the opinion issued Tuesday by a three-member panel of the appeals court.

The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 directs the BLM to maintain an inventory of wild free-roaming horses and burros on public lands, saying the inventory’s purpose is in part to determine whether an overpopulation exists and whether action should be taken to remove excess animals, the opinion said.

The second statutory requirement hasn’t been met, the opinion said, because “the BLM has not determined that action is necessary to remove the excess animals …. the BLM is under no statutory duty to remove animals from the seven HMAs at issue.”

Protect Mustangs intervened in the Bureau of Land Management’s law suit to stop the Checkerboard Roundup. We are so grateful for the outcome in the Court of Appeals.

Protect Mustangs is a 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of native and wild horses. www.ProtectMustangs.org