Source:  The Cloud Foundation News Release

Wild Horse Groups Vow to Preserve Targeted West Douglas Herd

Groups warn that BLM roundup withdrawal could be temporary

The Cloud Foundation is pleased to announce that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has officially withdrawn its 2011 plans to decimate the West Douglas Wild Horse herd—a small, isolated herd in northwestern Colorado.

Plaintiffs Habitat for Horses, Front Range Equine Rescue, Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition, The Cloud Foundation as well as Toni and Don Moore, DVM victoriously challenged the BLM’s wild horse removals but are concerned that BLM will issue another decision to eliminate the herd in the future--bending to pressure from public lands livestock permittees. Therefore, plaintiffs have vowed to continue their work in the courts and through public campaigns to prevent BLM’s long-held plans to destroy this herd.

The battle over the West Douglas herd is nearly two decades old. Through the efforts of concerned citizens, horse advocacy and rescue organizations, the horses have been saved despite the BLM’s efforts to remove this small herd from their homelands.

Horses have been documented in the West Douglas area since Spanish padres, Dominguez and Escalante, walked into the area in the 1770s. Wild horses have likely occupied this rugged area for hundreds of years, isolated in deep valleys with lofty pinyon and juniper studded mountains. Here, as elsewhere, they are under attack from the very agency charged with their protection.

“BLM’s promise to take a comprehensive look at wild horse management in the White River Resource Area is just window-dressing unless BLM agrees to find ways to maintain the West Douglas horses among other multiple uses,” states Hilary Wood of Front Range Equine Rescue, a plaintiff in suits against BLM since 2006.

In 2009, the first case was won against BLM’s practices of eliminating wild horse herds when Judge Rosemary Collyer set aside BLM’s 2008 roundup plans.

When BLM announced in 2010 that it was going to try again, Habitat for Horses Advisory Council, Inc. (HFH) joined the effort.  R.T. Fitch of HFH explains, “BLM’s path of destroying wild horse herds needs to be stopped.  We have supported the recent litigation with extensive resources and we do not intend to back down.”

Another suit was filed in 2010 and a motion to hold BLM in contempt of Judge Collyer’s order was filed.

“The BLM knows their management practices put them on shaky legal grounds,” states Barbara Flores of the Colorado Wild Horse and Burro Coalition. “BLM is worried they will be prevented from zeroing out this heritage herd. It appears they are trying to find legal grounds for eradicating this herd through a temporary retreat and regrouping.”

“Experts have predicted that wild horses and burros will go extinct in less than eleven years if BLM continues with its present course of roundups and removals,” explains Ginger Kathrens, Executive Director of The Cloud Foundation. “We are determined to ensure that wild horses and burros will always occupy the most remote and scenic landscapes in the West including West Douglas on Colorado’s western slope."