Biggest US holding pen planned for wild horses faces suit

RENO, Nev. — Advocates for wild horses are accusing federal land managers of illegally approving plans for the largest U.S. holding facility for thousands of mustangs captured on public rangeland in 10 Western states. The lawsuit filed in U.S. district court in Reno says the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management broke multiple environmental and animal protection laws when it “rushed through the approval process without considering the impacts of the unprecedented facility on wild horses and burros or the local community.” Interior Department spokesman Tyler Cherry said in an email that neither the department nor the bureau had any comment. Jennifer Best, director of Friends of Animals Wildlife Law Program, said agency officials who approved the project in November failed to adequately respond to concerns raised about disease transmission, animal waste, disposal of dead animals, groundwater contamination and “air quality in terms of odor and dust.” The less-rigorous environmental assessment the agency completed improperly relies on state permits and other documents in an attempt to satisfy the reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act, the lawsuit said. “If the BLM based its decisions on science and not placating the meat industry that wants wild horses to go extinct, the agency would keep its hands off wild horses.” The suit says the bureau gave short shrift to numerous potential impacts, including noise the agency’s review concluded wouldn’t significantly differ from the existing land use — an alfalfa field.