BLM sued Over NV Mustang Castration, Roundup Plans

A coalition of environmentalists and wild-horse activists is suing the government to block its implementation of a precedent-setting plan to castrate hundreds of wild stallions in eastern Nevada.

The lawsuit, filed by the Western Watersheds Project and Cloud Foundation, follows the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's decision in July to back off a similar plan to castrate hundreds of wild stallions in Wyoming.

The suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., challenges the BLM's plans to remove 1,800 wild horses from the sprawling Pancake Complex near Ely over the next six to 10 years, and to castrate 200 stallions before releasing them back to the complex as geldings.

The agency defends the castration plan as another way to reduce growing horse herds it says are damaging rangelands.

Associated Press