This week, the state of Wyoming filed suit against the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of the Interior in hopes of further reducing the size of the wild horse herds in the state. The lawsuit contends that wild horse populations are growing and exceeding their management levels.
The Cloud Foundation is a wild horse advocacy group speaking out against the lawsuit. Director Ginger Kathrens says that, since the removal of over 1200 horses last fall near Rock Springs, the number of wild horses is in the state has been reduced greatly to only 450 horses over the BLM’s management level of 3700 state-wide.
“It looks like they’re looking for a straw dog here maybe,” Kathrens says. “Something to blame for the condition of public lands. But that’s not because of wildlife. That’s because of livestock grazing.”
Kathrens says most wild horse herds are not genetically viable and their populations are actually dwindling.
Wild horses are protected under the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burros Act of 1971.
