Media & Press
Wild Horse Education (WHE) documents federal wild horse and burro roundups and holding facilities, litigates for humane treatment and transparency, and provides expert sources for reporters covering wild horses, public lands management, and government accountability. More HERE
Media contacts
Media inquiries and interview requests:
- Laura Leigh, Founder and President, Wild Horse Education
Email: Laura@WildHorseEducation.org
Expert sources
Laura Leigh – Founder and President, Wild Horse Education
Laura Leigh is the founder and president of Wild Horse Education and a photojournalist whose documentation of federal wild horse and burro roundups have appeared internationally and in national print outlets. She has attended more roundups than any other observer, led landmark First Amendment litigation in Leigh v. Salazar to secure press and public access to gathers, and helped drive creation of BLM’s Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP) through sustained field documentation, research and litigation. She continues to fight to improve and enforce welfare standards and legal management to protect and preserve wild horses and their habitats. More HERE
Legal wins, precedent & key lawsuits
Precedent setting First Amendment case
Leigh v. Salazar (First Amendment access to wild horse roundups) – Ninth Circuit, February 14, 2012
In a landmark First Amendment decision, the Ninth Circuit held that the press and public have a qualified right to observe wild horse roundups and holding facilities, grounded in the same principles that support access to courtrooms and public protests. Later cases, including Courthouse News Service v. Planet and Index Newspapers v. City of Portland, relied on Leigh to require timely, meaningful access and to limit restrictions to narrowly tailored measures supported by a genuine, overriding interest—helping Nevada’s wild horse cases protect reporters and legal observers nationwide. pdf: https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CNSPlanet-2016-05-26-195-Order-on-MSJ-v1-with-highlights-1.pdf
Selected legal wins & precedent setting cases
Wild Horses and Burros Win in Court, Again (Blue Wing Complex) – Press release, September 24, 2024
The court ruled BLM’s failure to prepare HMAPs for the Blue Wing Complex unlawful, rejecting gatheronly removal plans as substitutes for transparent, herdspecific management planning.
Wild Horses Win Big in Court (Pancake Complex) – Press release, March 29, 2024
A federal court found BLM unlawfully and unreasonably delayed preparing Herd Management Area Plans (HMAPs) for Nevada’s Pancake Complex, remanded the Pancake Gather Environmental Assessment for further analysis (including wildfire risk), and ordered completion of an HMAP within one year.
Jackson Mountain – June, 2012 Set precedent that any “emergency” removal must be confined to the area of an actual emergency and not used as a doorway to a removal in an entire HMA.
McDermitt– August, 2023. Judge Grants TRO to stop auction (killbuyers)
Triple B – August, 2011. The first lawsuit ever brought against abuse at roundups, the first of many, garnered a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction against pilot conduct during roundup.
Owyhee– January, 2013. The first court order containing specific language against abuses at roundups that included collisions with barbed wire and the use of electric shock prods.
Rival band stallions and their mares were left in a small sorting alley for 5 hours, Silver King,
Recent filings
Ninth Circuit Appeal Challenges BLM’s Failure to Follow Its Own Wild Horse Management Rules (Stone Cabin & Saulsbury) – Press release, March 18, 2026
Wild Horse Education’s appeal asks the Ninth Circuit to require BLM to honor its adopted Stone Cabin HMAP and use herdspecific data before implementing a tenyear gather plan that would remove most wild horses from the Stone Cabin and Saulsbury complex.
Juniper Mine (KG Mining) case – Triple B Complex (Nevada) – brief filed March 2026
WHE is asking a federal court to overturn a decision that threw out its earlier challenge to expansion of the Juniper Mine in the Triple B Complex, arguing that Laura Leigh and WHE have longstanding, ontheground ties to Triple B, MaverickMedicine, and Cherry Springs, and that the mine’s growth is already harming habitat, future roundups, and the integrity of the Complex. This is the final round of briefing and WHE now awaits the court’s ruling.
Breaking! Suing To Save California Wild Horses (Carter, Buckhorn, Coppersmith) – November 11, 2025
WHE, Carter Reservoir Mustangs Inc., and individual plaintiffs filed a federal lawsuit in Sacramento challenging BLM’s plan that threatens unique California wild horse herds in the Carter, Buckhorn, and Coppersmith areas with effective destruction.
On File! Pancake Complex Lawsuit Filed – October 16, 2025
A new federal lawsuit continues the fight to protect Nevada’s Pancake Complex, challenging BLM’s missteps in managing the complex after a 2024 court win found the agency had illegally delayed required Herd Management Area Plans.
BREAKING! Lawsuit Filed to Save Devil’s Garden Herd – August 27, 2025
Advocates Bonnie Kohleriter, Mary Koncel, Laura Leigh, and Wild Horse Education filed in federal court to halt the U.S. Forest Service’s plan for another roundup in the Devil’s Garden Plateau Wild Horse Territory, seeking a TRO/Preliminary Injunction to stop the gather.
In The Courts: A New Case to Expose Abuse (and other lawsuits moving forward) – March 13, 2025
WHE filed a federal lawsuit seeking key records and analysis on BLM’s Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP), aiming to end agency “word games” and secure concise, enforceable welfare rules to stop ongoing abuse at roundups and in holding.
Possible miscarriage or driven by helicopter as she gave birth
Program & policy backgrounders (for reporters)
BLM’s 2026 Population Statistics Report: A Political Tool, Not a Science Document – March 18, 2026
BLM’s 2026 Population Statistics Report: A Political Tool, Not a Science Document.
BREAKING! BLM Emails Expose Agency Negligence Toward Wild Horses and Public Trust – December 9, 2025
Presents internal BLM emails revealing negligence in wild horse decisionmaking and failures of transparency and public accountability.
Opeds & commentary:
Colette Kaluza – Volunteer and Welfare Team Assistant Director at Wild Horse Education, specializing in humane treatment during federal wild horse and burro roundups and compliance with the Comprehensive Animal Welfare Program (CAWP). With hundreds of days of ontheground observation—second only to founder Laura Leigh—she documents BLM and Forest Service gathers and reports on preventable suffering linked to weak CAWP standards, deficient herd management planning, and failures in transparency and public access.
Colette Kaluza
On WHE Website:
Nevada Current — oped syndicated on Yahoo News. What we can’t see can hurt them: Wild horses, secret roundups, and the right to know
It has just been announced that thousands of wild horses and burros will vanish, and almost no one will be allowed to watch. March 17, 2026
On WHE website:
Capitol Weekly—California can’t lead on climate while wild horses disappear—OPINION
California calls itself a leader on climate and conservation, but its treatment of wild horses tells a different story: when it comes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) – a bedrock environmental safeguard – the state is letting these herds wither away. March 10, 2026
On WHE website:
The Bakersfield Californian — Community Voices: The Central Coast wild horse herd California can’t afford to ignore
At a time when national attention is fixed on conflict abroad, it’s easy to overlook the quieter decisions at home that shape the public good – whether America still honors basic commitments to law, transparency and shared stewardship of our public lands. March 5, 2026
On WHE website:
San Luis Obispo New Times — Better management of local wild horses could mean better outcomes when a wildfire breaks out
With the Gifford Fire having burned through 132,000 acres on California’s Central Coast, the Black Mountain wild horses, the only wild horse herd on the Central Coast, have been spared. Their designated territory includes 13,215 acres of Los Padres National Forest and 635 acres of private land about 20 miles east of San Luis Obispo. August 28, 2025
On WHE website:
The Nevada Independent — Saving wild horses can save public lands
The Bureau of Land Management needs to change the way it regulates public land use in Nevada to help ensure the survival of the state’s wild horses. March 22, 2023
On WHE website:
The Nevada Independent — The real story on wild horses
Wild horses and burros across the American West are being decimated by outrageous helicopter roundups. Why is this happening? December 6, 2022
On WHE website:
Reno Gazette-Journal — Pancake wild horse roundup: the colt, the video and a new chance
Tell Congress to spend taxpayer funds on herd management area plans, not helicopter roundups. May 24, 2022
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