RENO (AP) - An animal protection group is asking a federal judge to block the government's planned round up of thousands of wild mustangs in Nevada next month.
The California-based In Defense of Animals says in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. on Monday that the helicopter-aided gathers are illegal because they "traumatize, injure and kill" some of the horses.
The critics say the pending roundup in northern Nevada is by far the largest the U.S. Bureau of Land Management plans this year, involving as many as 2,700 wild horses. It's part of BLM's plan to remove more than 30,000 horses from federal lands in the West over the next three years to deal with soaring numbers of the animals and the growing costs to manage them.