A federal appeals judge on Friday night granted a temporary injunction to halt a government roundup of about 1,700 wild horses from the range in Nevada near the Utah border.
Judge Richard Paez of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order after U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben earlier in the day denied a motion to stop the federal Bureau of Land Management’s removal of wild horses from public lands near the Utah line.
Paez’s order will remain in effect until a three-judge panel on which he sits has a chance to review the emergency motion for injunctive relief filed by the horse advocacy group, Cloud Foundation.
"To allow for further consideration on the merits of the emergency motion, the court grants temporary injunctive relief," Paez wrote in his order. "Appellees are enjoined from the roundup of wild horses in the ... (affected) areas until further order of the court."
BLM spokesman Doran Sanchez says the order is being reviewed by the agency’s legal counsel and he can’t comment further.