Federal judge in Reno takes BLM to task over mustang roundup

RENO -- A federal judge in Nevada is taking the U.S. government to task for misconduct by a helicopter contractor during one of the biggest wild horse roundups in the West, granting a rare emergency order sought by wild horse protection advocates who argue all of the gathers on public lands are inhumane and illegal.

U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben denied a request late Tuesday to halt the roundup at the Triple B complex in northeast Nevada near the Utah line. But he issued a temporary restraining order banning any mistreatment of wild horses like the Wild Horse Freedom Federation caught on camera earlier this month.

Laura Leigh, the vice president of the Texas-based group, which filed the lawsuit against Interior Secretary Kenneth Salazar, who oversees the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said it was a small but important victory in a larger effort to bring attention to what she contends is the BLM's routine violation of federal laws protecting the horses.

"This is significant because the judge saw what we see every day," Leigh said.

"This is a recognition in the federal court system that there is something wrong with not only what is going on out there but something wrong with the justification process."

BLM officials denied the group's allegations that the helicopter pilot on the video struck a horse with a helicopter skid on Aug. 11.

McKibben said it appeared to him the horse was hit with the skid, but even if it wasn't, the helicopter flew "dangerously or unreasonably close" to the animals in violation of the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971.

The roundup of nearly 1,300 horses, which began July 20, is scheduled to end this week.

McKibben said his order didn't preclude BLM from completing the roundup because Justice Department lawyers representing the agency indicated there would be no further use of helicopters at that roundup.,

"Should the Defendants contemplate the use of helicopters on the Triple B Complex in the future, they will need to address the concerns raised by this court or be subject to possible additional intervention by this court in the future," he said.

McKibben is the same judge who ruled in July against another horse group, the Denver-based Cloud Foundation, that had sought an order to block the roundup before it began.

BLM officials did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. The agency said on its website that as of Aug. 29, 1,269 animals had been gathered and 12 killed during the roundup at the Triple B complex southeast of Elko and northeast of Ely.

Leigh's lawsuit alleged the BLM's helicopter contractor was Sun J Livestock of Vernal, Utah, the same one that was cleared of allegations of wrongdoing in February in connection with the videotape of a wild horse that fell during another roundup in eastern Nevada on Jan. 27.

BLM Director Bob Abbey said at the time that an internal review found that Sun J Livestock did not violate existing agency policy during the gather of horses about 60 miles south of Wells.