In response to a letter from In Defense of Animals (IDA), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has canceled a massive round-up of 1,400 wild horses that was scheduled to begin on the last day of July at the Sheldon-Hart Mountain Wildlife Refuge in Northwestern Nevada and Eastern Oregon. Because the round-up was in clear violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), IDA’s attorneys sent the FWS a letter detailing the many ways in which FWS had sidestepped NEPA and failed to ensure the necessity and prudence of removing wild horses from their native range.

David Wesley, the Regional Director of FWS, has confirmed that the agency canceled the round-up in response to IDA’s letter, and will instead prepare a revised Environmental Assessment addressing the issues raised by IDA. In the letter, IDA had outlined numerous NEPA violations, including the reliance on thirty-one-year-old data to justify the round-up, the failure to consider any reasonable alternatives, and the improper timing of the round-up ahead of, not following, the new data that will soon be collected in a planned Comprehensive Conservation Plan. This study will analyze current environmental conditions on the Refuge.

"Concerned citizens across the country who are interested in keeping wild horses wild on our public lands are breathing a sigh of relief today that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has called off this round-up,” said Matt Rossell, Northwest Outreach Coordinator for IDA. "It’s unfortunate that IDA had to threaten litigation to force this government agency to do their job and first actually look to see if the wild horses are impacting the environment as the law mandates, before pushing to eliminate a viable wild population from its native home."

In the wake of a round up at Sheldon Refuge in 2006, during which officials pursued horses by helicopter, investigators found foals trampled and injured. Others were separated from their mothers and left behind. Some died on the range, too young to survive on their own. IDA is relieved that the planned 2007 round-up has been averted so that no horses at the Refuge will have to suffer injury or death.

The plan to round-up the Sheldon Refuge's horses has been highly controversial, with concerned members of the public who feel that wild horses are an inseparable part of the western scene submitting hundreds of comments to FWS officials. The round-up has even drawn the attention of members of Congress, including Nick J. Rahall, II, Chairman of the Committee of Natural Resources, who submitted a letter calling for the round-up to be canceled.

The Sheldon Wildlife Refuge encompasses more than half a million acres of high desert habitat and was established more than seventy years ago principally for the protection of the area's wildlife, including pronghorn antelope and bighorn sheep. Since the time the Refuge was established, antelope, sheep, and other wildlife have shared this area with herds of wild horses and burros.