Horse, burro roundup opposed

LAS VEGAS — Advocacy groups are asking a federal judge to stop the Bureau of Land Management from rounding up wild horses and burros next week in the Spring Mountains west of Las Vegas.

America's Wild Horse Advocates, based in Blue Diamond near Red Rock Canyon, and Wild Horses 4 Ever of Logandale filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas seeking a temporary restraining order and an injunction indefinitely postponing the Jan. 2 roundup. No hearing was immediately scheduled.

The injunction would remain in effect until a judge heard groups' claim that the BLM plan, outlined in an environmental assessment released Friday, is flawed and that the roundup would undercut efforts to keep wild horses on the range.

"The removal will harm the genetic viability and diversity of the wild horse populations in question in an irreparable and permanent (manner)," the lawsuit said.

BLM spokeswoman Kirsten Cannon in Las Vegas said Wednesday the agency had not received the lawsuit and could not comment.

She said the BLM plans to leave 108 horses and 121 burros in the Spring Mountains. An environmental assessment of plans to round up horses in the Lake Mead area has not been completed, she added.

Billie Young, president of America's Wild Horse Advocates, accused the agency of engaging in a steady process of removal with no reliable count of how many animals live in the wild or how many the area could support. She said the BLM wants to collect about 300 wild horses and 800 wild burros in the Spring Mountains.

Nevada is home to about 60 percent of the fewer than 30,000 wild horses that officials say still range across 10 Western states. BLM officials announced the roundup plan last summer, calling it necessary to prevent herds from overrunning the range and destroying the fragile ecology of the desert mountains.

Similar roundups have spurred protests in recent years after revelations that some adopted horses were sent to slaughter.