MEEKER, Colo.—A federal judge has denied a request from animal rights group to halt the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s plan to round up wild horses in northwest Colorado.
A U.S. District Court judge in New York said in a ruling Thursday that putting a stop to the BLM’s plan would harm the federal agency, which is charged with managing public lands.
The BLM announced Friday that it had completed its horse roundup near Meeker, Colo. and that it had gathered 73 wild horses. The agency said most of the horses that were gathered will be up for adoption.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York, the Colorado-based Cloud Foundation, and two Colorado residents asked for the injunction. They argued the BLM’s plan injures horses, noting that two horses died recently in a roundup, and the claimed that the plan violated environmental laws and the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.
The animal rights groups said they were disappointed by the ruling but that they were encouraged by the judge’s acknowledgment that the removal of the wild horses, and its impacts, is an important matter.
“The fight to save the last of the mustangs is just beginning,” Ginger Kathrens, director of the Cloud Foundation, said in a statement Friday. “We will continue to take our message to Congress, the courts and to an increasingly concerned public.”
The BLM said it is committed to maintaining a healthy population of wild horses.
“We are dedicated to managing a healthy wild horse herd in the White River Field Office that is in balance with other public land uses and resources,” said Kent Walter, White River Field manager.
