The complaint said the BLM issued a gather plan that involved removing 1,700 wild horses from the 700,000-acre Caliente HMA on grounds that there is not enough forage for both the horses and privately owned livestock grazing the same public rangelands. | Photo: iStock

A group of wild horse advocates has asked a federal court to prohibit the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from conducting a round-up in the Caliente Herd Management Area (HMA) in rural Nevada on grounds that it will eliminate the herd.

In the complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on June 27, the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC), The Cloud Foundation, and Western Watersheds Project said the BLM issued a gather plan that involved removing 1,700 wild horses from the 700,000-acre Caliente HMA on grounds that there is not enough forage for both the horses and privately owned livestock grazing the same public rangelands.

The lawsuit alleges that the gather will permanently remove the entire herd and that the BLM did not consider reducing the number of domestic animals grazing the lands as a way to relieve environmental stress