Wild Horses: Court Grants Intervenor Status in WY Lawsuit, Help WY Wild Horses

The fight for wild horses on our public lands presses on. Recently the largest “welfare ranching” organization in our country, the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA), filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Dept. of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in an effort to remove all wild horses from the “checkerboard” lands of southern Wyoming. These lands encompass roughly 2 million acres of square mile sections—one square mile of private land, then one mile of public land, 20 miles wide on both sides of the freeway.  This hodgepodge of public and private land was created in the 1800s when the railroad was built and investors wanted to encourage settlement.

The centerpiece of RSGA’s lawsuit is the push to have BLM remove all wild horses from not only the private but all the publicly owned land in these checkerboard lands – almost half of Wyoming’s entire wild horse population.

Based on BLM’s disastrous track record in retaining viable wild horse  herds on public lands,  it seems highly unlikely BLM will vigorously defend the right of the mustangs to remain on these southern Wyoming landscapes. And so The Cloud Foundation along with American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) and the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs and Burros (ISPMB) filed for a motion to  “intervene” on behalf of the wild horses. On November 2^nd, we were granted that request.

We were on location at the Great Divide Basin roundup in late October to witness the removal of hundreds of wild horses. Great Divide Basin is just one of the herd management areas that will be eradicated should RSGA win this self-serving lawsuit.

In order for us to be able to make a difference for the future of Wyoming’s wild horses, we need your help.

The Cloud Foundation must raise at least $5,000 now to fight effectively for   thousands of animals.  As you know, we operate exclusively on tax-deductible donations from the public, and we need you to help us right now, before BLM cuts a deal with RSGA to destroy our Wyoming herds.

You can donate here.

Your contribution will go directly toward legal expenses to defend Wyoming’s mustangs.

Please do what you can. Thanks!