A federal district court in Washington DC sounded the death knell for a legal challenge to the Bureau of Land Management’s controversial “gather” and relocation of wild mustangs from the Calico Mountains Complex in Nevada. Handed down on May 24, the Court’s decision cleared the way for the relocation of so-called “excess” wild horses from the Calico Mountains Complex.

Earlier this year, the Court denied a request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the wild horse round up from taking place. The gather went on as planned. The plaintiffs, which included the animal welfare organization In Defense of Animals, renewed that argument, and also claimed that the proposed relocation of wild horses violated the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act