In Defense of Animals Reins-in Fish and Wildlife Service Round-up of 1400 Wild Horses at Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge

Lakeview, Ore—In response to a letter from In Defense of Animals (IDA), an international animal protection organization, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has canceled the massive round-up of 1400 wild horses scheduled to begin today on the Sheldon-Hart Mountain Wildlife Refuge in Northwestern Nevada and Eastern Oregon. The round-up was in clear violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and attorneys at Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal, a Washington D.C. based public-interest law firm, had sent the FWS a letter on behalf of IDA detailing the myriad 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 Assistant Regional Director of FWS has confirmed that, in response to the letter, FWS has canceled the round-up, and will instead prepare a revised Environmental Assessment, addressing the issues raised by IDA. 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 which 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."

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, the antelope, sheep and other wildlife have shared this area with herds of wild horses and burros.

The plan to round-up the Sheldon Refuge's horses has been highly controversial with hundreds of comments being submitted by concerned members of the public who feel that wild horses are in inseparable part of the western scene. 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 halted.

View a copy of the letter from the FWS canceling the round-upView a copy of the letter to the FWS.
View a copy of Chairman Rahall's letter.