"Wild Horse Advocates Win Halt to Thinning of Famous Herd"

"RENO, Nevada -- A federal judge has granted two animal protection groups a unusual preliminary injunction to stop the Bureau of Land Management’s roundup of more than 330 wild horses in northern Nevada, saying the government cannot rely on a five-year-old environmental analysis that ignores claims the herd would be harmed by a pesticide given as a form of birth control.

The Bureau of Land Management proposes the roundup and permanent removal of 200 wild horses in the Pine Nut Herd Management Area and the roundup of another 132 wild horses so that 66 mares can be given the chemical Porcine Zona Pellucida, or PZP, a pesticide approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as a form of birth control.

Protect Mustangs and Friends of Animals, who brought the motion for an injunction, say that these wild horses belong to the most famous horse herd in Nevada, the one featured in film “The Misfits” starring Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe, which helped pave the way for the Wild Horse & Burro Act of 1971."

Environment News Service had the story January 12, 2015.