149 Horses Saved From Slaughter

As a result of the temporary restraining order issued on our clients’ behalf on Friday, August 16 (see post below), 149 unbranded horses were pulled from the Fallon Auction in Nevada slated to begin on Saturday morning August 17, 2013.  Although our clients lost their bid to have these horses returned to the wild, we are happy to report that all 149 have now been placed with rescue groups in the West where they will live out their lives free from the threat of helicopter roundups and trips to slaughter houses.  Hats off to our fantastic clients the American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign, Return to Freedom, the Cloud Foundation, the Western Watersheds Project, and Laura Leigh for saving the lives of these horses under extraordinary circumstances!

Court Enjoins Sale Of Wild Horses At Auction In Nevada

In a ruling issued last night U.S. District Judge Miranda Du of the District Court in Nevada granted our request for a temporary restraining order to stop the sale of wild horses at a private auction being held this morning in Fallon Nevada.  Approximately 417 horses were rounded up last week by the Paiute and Shoshone Tribe pursuant to an Agreement with the Forest Service that allowed the Tribe to remove their own horses as well as any "unbranded / unknown ownership / unclaimed horses” from both tribal and Forest Service lands and take them to the auction for sale.  The Forest Service has acknowledged that some of the buyers will likely be sending horses to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada.  We filed a case on Thursday, August 15, 2013 challenging the Forest Service's failure to take precautions to ensure that rounded up horses did not include wild horses protected under the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burros Act, and a motion for a temporary restraining order yesterday morning to ensure that none of the unbranded horses collected by the Tribe would be sold until it could be determined whether they are wild or domesticated.  In granting the motion last night, Judge Du ruled that "Plaintiffs have demonstrated an immediate threat of irreparable harm if the status quo is not maintained, that is, the sale of wild horses and their possible slaughter," and that "the public interest is served when the Court maintains the status quo to ensure wild horses are not improperly removed and auctioned for sale to be potentially slaughtered because of an agency's action."   The Judge has set a further hearing on the matter for August 21.  

Federal Court Upholds Protections For Endangered Antelopes

In a victory for animal protection and conservation groups and a blow to trophy hunting interest groups, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Friday upheld a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule listing the Scimitar-Horned Oryx, the Addax, and the Dama Gazelle as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.  Several organizations who advocate for trophy hunting and the ranches that supply animals for that purpose unsuccessfully challenged the agency’s listing decision in an attempt to eliminate federal and public oversight of these antelope species in U.S. canned hunting facilities where shooters pay top dollar to kill captive animals for trophies.  We intervened in the case on behalf of the Humane Society of the United States, Born Free USA, and Defenders of Wildlife, following another court victory that we obtained on behalf of the same coalition in 2009 in which the court struck down the Service’s attempt to exempt the antelope species from the ESA’s safeguards by issuing blanket permits for captive antelopes without subjecting them to public scrutiny.  The court’s opinion can be found here. 

Petitions Sent to National Park Service To End Killing Of Wildlife In Rock Creek Park

Today we submitted two Petitions to the National Park Service on behalf of In Defense of Animals, the Washington Humane Society, and several local D.C. residents to halt any further killing of white-tailed deer in Rock Creek Park in our nation’s Capital.  The first Petition presents a new scientific analysis by Yale University forest ecologist Dr. Oswald Schmitz demonstrating that the data relied on by the Park Service as a basis for killing the deer last Spring do not demonstrate  that deer are having any adverse impact on forest regeneration in the Park.  The Petition also demonstrates that the real threat to the Park’s native vegetation is the increase in invasive exotic plant species that are migrating into the Park from neighboring landscaping and destroying the native vegetation, causing the native deer to leave the Park in search of food.  A copy of the Petition can be found here. 

The second Petition is a change.org petition signed by over 11,000 individuals who have asked the Park Service to stop killing the deer because this “will forever change the character of this very special national park in the midst of our nation’s Capital from a haven of peace and tranquility to just one more place of violence.”  A live copy of that Petition can be found here.

The Petitioners are requesting the Park Service to halt all further killing of the deer, especially when, under the sequester, the agency has been forced to eliminate or cut back much more justifiable and essential conservation programs throughout the country and even impose a hiring freeze.

Here are the additional exhibits:

Exhibit B        Jonathan Jarvis sequester testimony
Exhibit C        Environmental Impact Statement - Excerpts
Exhibit D        Final Internal Scoping Report for Deer Management in Rock
                        Creek Park
Exhibit E         2011 Krafft & Hatfield Study
Exhibit F         Declaration and Curriculum Vitae of Dr. Oswald Schmitz
Exhibit G        2010 Rutherford & Schmitz Study
Exhibit H        2005 General Management Plan
Exhibit I          2000 Resource Management Plan
Exhibit J         2004 Draft Invasive Exotic Management Plan
Exhibit K        2012 Hurley et al. Study
Exhibit L         1998 Stout Study
Exhibit M       1996 Management Plan
Exhibit N        Evaluation of Deer Management Options
Exhibit O        2001 National Invasive Species Council Management Plan
Exhibit P         Summary of Techniques to Control Exotic Invasive Plants
Exhibit Q        2004 Huston Study
Exhibit R        1996 Visitor Use Study
Exhibit S         Public Comments on Rock Creek Park Deer Management
                        Excerpts
Exhibit T         2013 Rutberg et al. Study
Exhibit U        Declaration and Curriculum Vitae of Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick
Exhibit V        Declaration and Curriculum Vitae of Dr. Allen Rutberg
Exhibit W       Wild News: 2013 Update on Nonlethal Sterilization
Exhibit X        Record of Decision, May 2012
Exhibit Y        Minutes of Science Team, March 2006
Exhibit Z         Fertility Proposal from The Humane Society of the United
                        States

 

 

HARMFUL SOLAR PROJECT ABANDONED

The company that had planned to build the ecologically destructive Calico solar project in the Mojave Desert has relinquished its right of way from the Bureau of Land Management and announced its decision not to proceed with the project. Last year, on behalf of Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, we sued in federal court in California over BLM’s authorization to construct the project on federal lands. We contended that the project would be highly detrimental to the federally threatened desert tortoise as well as to federally protected golden eagles. Following the filing of our case, BLM and the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that they were conducting further reviews under the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act, and that any work on the project would be suspended in the meantime. In light of the company’s recent decision to abandon the harmful project, we have voluntarily dismissed our lawsuit.

Friends Of The Earth Seeks Records On Keystone XL Pipeline Conflicts Of Interest

On behalf of Friends of the Earth (FoE), we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit today against the State Department for refusing to release records concerning conflicts of interest associated with the Keystone XL Pipeline approval process.  FoE has previously shown inappropriate ties between contractors working for State and TransCanada, the company that wants to build the pipeline.  FoE has also documented the close ties between lobbyists for TransCanada and high-ranking State department officials.  Although FoE submitted the most recent FOIA request months ago and sought expedited review, to date State has not released any records.  The suit seeks release of all records concerning these conflicts on an expedited basis. 

 

Lawsuit Filed On Eve Of Fourth Of July To Protect Bald Eagles

We filed a lawsuit today under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act on behalf of a grassroots group in Norfolk Virginia – Eagle On Alliance (EOA) – to stop the federal government from destroying the nests of the only nesting pair of bald eagles available for public viewing in Norfolk.  The eagles – a symbol of our country -- have lived for years at the Norfolk Botanical Garden.  Although the Fish and Wildlife Service issued the permits last fall for the stated purpose of protecting the public from an “eagle-strike” at the adjacent Norfolk International Airport, internal records obtained by EOA under the open records laws showed that the biologists consulted by the agency agreed that it was “unlikely” destruction of the eagles’ nests “would be successful” in keeping these or other eagles out of the area which contains extremely rich habitat for eagles and other birds, including Lake Whitehurst which is also next to the Airport.  In fact, although the City of Norfolk, with the help of USDA’s “Wildlife Services,” destroyed seven nests between October 2012 and March 2013 – each time waiting until nest construction was almost completed -- the Norfolk Eagle pair shows no signs of leaving the area.  Internal Records also show that although the Airport Authority recently spent millions of dollars renovating the Airport lobby, by constructing a massive skylight, marble-wrapped columns, and new terrazzo flooring,  it has failed to take basic steps taken by other Airports around the country to detect and deter birds from using the runways and surrounding areas.   However, the Eagle Protection Act requires that permits to take eagles or their nests must be “necessary” to protect the public from a safety hazard, and the FWS’s own regulations stress that such permits cannot be issued unless there is “no practicable alternative to nest removal that would protect the interest to be served.”   EOA seeks to halt further destruction of the eagles’ nests so that the Norfolk Eagles will have a chance for a successful breeding season.