BLM Agrees to Delay Wyoming Wild Horse Roundup

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has agreed to delay the proposed roundup of more than 800 wild horses in Wyoming.

The delay is to allow the court time to rule on a motion for a temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction filed late Friday by the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC), The Cloud Foundation, Return to Freedom, and wild horse photographers Carol Walker and Kimerlee Curyl. The plaintiffs have requested a decision by August 29th.

The motion seeks to halt the roundup in the Adobe Town, Salt Wells Creek and Divide Basin Herd Management Areas (HMAs), which had been scheduled to begin on approximately August 20. In response the BLM has agreed to postpone the roundup until at least September 1, in order to give the court time to rule on the motion.

The motion is the latest in the ongoing legal battle about the future of wild horses in the Wyoming Checkerboard, a more than 2 million acre swath of public and private land where more than half of the state’s remaining wild horse herds reside.

The plaintiffs maintain that they will suffer irreparable harm if the roundup takes place and are asking the judge to enjoin the BLM from proceeding to remove the horses until after the merits of the case are heard.