The Devil’s Garden roundup has ended early as was conveyed to the Judge that it would during Hearing last Thursday.

Those of you that have been following this operation know that on the first day of observation post-hearing USFS expressed an intention to continue until they got “numbers,” contradicting what was said in court. 

Then they attempted to shut down observation for the rest of the roundup. 

The Hearing was on September 26th for Preliminary Injunction. Somehow the biggest days of the roundup happened post-hearing when the public was not allowed onsite. You can see that when public eyes are onsite they are catching fewer wild horses.

We had to work through our attorneys and several other channels to reestablish observation as the roundup was halted.

Above: the foal caught on the last day.

Besides documenting the pilot flying dangerously close to wild horses (after finally being able to see the actual mouth of the trap) we noticed an alarmingly low number of foals. The number of foals in the final count amounts to only 9%. 

In court USFS continues to insist that there is an “overpopulation” and the growth rate is either 15% , 20%, or even 45%, depending on which census you look at and varies from written declarations, press releases and legal briefs filed by USFS attorneys.

The court took note of the inconsistency and the fact that USFS did not do a census flight before this roundup. Instead they are relying on a census (where they heavily padded the direct count) from 2024 that said there were 723 wild horses. USFS removed 409 wild horses after that census. They claim to have done a ground count that somehow found more than 700 wild horses in the territory again. That would mean that even the stallions would have had to give birth.

In addition, we documented the lack of wranglers that usually move wild horses into the trap. At Devil’s Garden, the helicopter was being used to put intense pressure on the horses to get them into the trap. You can clearly see what we mean in the video above showing how it is rather standard practice to have wranglers move through the jute and put the final pressure on from the ground and the pressure during the 3 runs on the last day at Devil’s Garden from the use of the helicopter only. 

USFS attorneys stated to the court that a flyover census would be completed by mid-October (the 15th) and would not be impacted by any government shutdown. 

The court has repeatedly stated that we have a high likelihood of success on the Merits (meaning we are likely to win this case) and believe the Judge sees the number released as the remedy for injury. We hope after full review of the case he sees that the legal authority to do this operation was not properly established prior to beginning. Courts have repeatedly ruled that federal agencies cannot begin an action and then release a plan to do that action. Here, USFS released the new plan after we filed in court.

The Judge has asked that USFS provide raw data from the flyover within 24 hours of completion. They can submit a supplemental brief after they “add and pad,” but the court was adamant that they produce actual raw data in the timeframe he set.

A release would be set by the court after he reviews the data.

276 of the 350 targeted were captured in an entire month running both helicopter and bait traps. USFS reports 7 deaths on the website that apparently occurred at trap. On 9/26, in court, there were 10 deaths noted. We have no idea how many have paid with their lives at trap and in holding during this operation.

We hope the court sends all of the survivors home.

Our case also includes the absurd First Amendment violations. Out of 29 days of helicopter capture, only 13 days of observation were scheduled. Of those 13 days, 2 days were cancelled and 1 was simply denied. Only 10 days of this operation had some small allowed amount of viewing with only 3 visits allowed throughout the entire operation of the corrals. No observation of corrals was allowed to view the horses captured on the last 3 days.

We are amending to include the new plan they released that simply cites the plan he has already found to be deficient as a basis. 

We are hoping to see all mares and their foals returned and an equal number of mares and stallions to make up the balance of return. As the underlying 2013 plan that USFS used for this roundup did not authorize the use of the hard-hitting drug GonaCon, we have asked that no fertility control be permitted.

This case is really important to ensure that this herd does not slip into collapse (a drop in foal rate is an indication of herd collapse) and simply die off slowly and cease to exist. 

Edited to add: There are claims that a case cannot be discussed in public coming through a pro-roundup faction on social media. This is not true. Lawsuits (the briefs filed by both parties, Exhibits, Declarations, Court Orders) are all public documents and can be talked or written about. What cannot be discussed is confidential communication between a party and their attorney. Everything we are saying is public. Hopefully that quells the rumor mill.

It is no surprise that after the roundup all our team member found was livestock on our public lands.

We continue the fight to make sure Devil’s Garden wild horses do not disappear from our public lands.

Our team had a very busy week attempting to gain access and some justice at Devil’s Garden.

We also filed the final brief in the Antelope Complex and Triple B Complex case. In a move becoming all too common, BLM released a new plan on the same day our final brief was due. As stated earlier in this article, courts have repeatedly found that an agency cannot simply release a new plan to avoid judicial review (particularly when the old plan is the new plan using a different name and date).

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Thank you for keeping WHE running for our wild ones!

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