Lawsuit filed over handling of wild horses
An Animal Rights Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM

Wild Horse Preservation
August 2011

[Ed. Note: Please watch Mustang Conspiracy, and read 26 Horses Dead After Excruciating Winter Roundup, Animal Advocates Worry Bill Would Decimate Wild Horse Herds, BLM Captures 74 Mustangs on First Day of Roundup...SEARCH our website for more.]

“Lack of water in holding, feed given inappropriately and a pilot that flies dangerously close, including contact with an exhausted animal. When you view these animals in their natural state and then witness the disregard given to our symbol of freedom, it is a direct blow to your soul.”

US wild horse advocates have filed a lawsuit questioning whether the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) gathers amount to humane treatment.

The Wild Horse Freedom Federation (WHFF) filed a lawsuit and an application for a temporary restraining order against the bureau in Federal Court in Reno, Nevada on Wednesday.

The federation said that through its plaintiff, Laura Leigh, the issue of humane treatment will have its day in court.

The federation alleges that questions of humane treatment, including basic care such as water and feed, often come into question during roundup operations.

“Day in, day out, roundup to roundup, I see the same issues,” said Leigh, who is vice-president of the federation.

“Lack of water in holding, feed given inappropriately and a pilot that flies dangerously close, including contact with an exhausted animal. When you view these animals in their natural state and then witness the disregard given to our symbol of freedom, it is a direct blow to your soul.”

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Former wild horses, now captured and confined by the BLM

Leigh has witnessed more roundups than any government or public observer in the last 18 months, the federation says.

She has spent countless hours documenting wild herd behavior and the process these horses face once they are removed from the range.

The definition of humane treatment applied for bureau gathers centers around “handling compatible with animal husbandry practices accepted in the veterinary community, without causing unnecessary stress or suffering to a wild horse or burro”.

Inhumane treatment means any intentional or negligent action or failure to act that causes stress, injury, or undue suffering to a wild horse or burro and is not compatible with animal husbandry practices accepted in the veterinary community.

“Accountability within the actual activities of the BLM has been an ongoing issue,” federation president R.T. Fitch says. “Actually finding an avenue to address the core intent of legislation has been almost impossible,” he says.

“If this is an issue that needs to land in a Federal Court to actually begin a dialogue, then that is exactly what we will do.”

The federation is a registered, Texas non-profit corporation with 501c3 status pending.


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