By Scott Sonner | The Associated Press
A federal judge cleared the way Friday for a Nevada tribe to sell hundreds of mustangs that critics say were gathered illegally from public rangelands and likely will end up at foreign slaughterhouses after an auction this weekend.
U.S. District Judge Miranda Du rejected horse advocates’ last-minute request for an emergency order to block Saturday’s auction.
The advocates claimed the horses are protected under the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. However, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe is the horses’ rightful owner and there’s no evidence last week’s tribal roundup of more than 400 animals included any taken from BLM land in the area along the Nevada-Oregon line.
The judge ruled the horse advocates failed to show the BLM shirked its legal responsibility or offer evidence beyond “speculation” that any of the horses in pens awaiting auction at the Fallon Livestock Exchange about 60 miles east of Reno originated on federal land and deserve protection under U.S. law.
If you’d like to discuss equine law, contact Adam Trenk, atrenk@roselawgroup.com
