On behalf of the American Wild Horse Campaign, Animal Welfare Institute, Western Watersheds Project, and three conservationists, our firm obtained a major legal victory today from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The court held that the Bureau of Land Management’s decision to permanently eradicate two longstanding herds of federally protected wild horses from Wyoming’s public lands failed to comply with the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and its requirement that the agency first determine whether wild horse herds can be managed on an area of public lands while maintaining a thriving natural ecological balance alongside other uses of those public lands. Because the court concluded that BLM failed to conduct this statutorily required analysis, the agency “entirely failed to consider an important aspect of the problem” and “failed to base its decision on consideration of the relevant factors.” The case now returns to federal district court for the parties to brief the appropriate remedy for this serious legal violation.

*Photo courtesy of American Wild Horse Campaign