Judge Rules Wild Horses To Go,
Radicals Bombing To Keep Them

SALT LAKE CITY —(AP)— Bureau of Land Management officials broke the rules when they released 80 wild horses near Vernal, and the animals will have to be removed, a federal judge ruled.

Ranchers, the Ute Indian Tribe and Uintah County officials sued the BLM to get rid of the wild horses.

U.S. District Judge Bruce S. Jenkins ruled in their favor this week, saying the horse release violated the BLM's own procedures.

In 1999, the BLM removed wild horses from the area because of an outbreak of equine infectious anemia, which is contagious and fatal to horses. The animals were penned, and 54 of the infected horses were killed.

The remainder of the herd, nearly 140 animals, spent months in quarantine. Test results indicated they were not infected.

In the summer of 2000, BLM officials released about 80 horses in the Bonanza Herd area, about 140 miles east of Salt Lake City.

Judge Jenkins refused to issue a restraining order blocking the release at the time.

Opponents worried the wild horses could become infected again and spread the disease to domestic herds. The illness is spread by flies.

Ranchers also were concerned that the wild horses would consume forage for livestock and other wildlife.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a brief on behalf of the horses.

The animals have a right to stay on their range, said Craig Cook, attorney for the animal rights group.

``It's simply improper to move them for grazing purposes. They were there first,'' he said.

The judge ruled that the BLM failed to comply with Federal Land Planning and Management Act requirements before releasing the horses. Also, BLM officials didn't review the decision for consistency with tribal land management plans, Jenkins ruled.

The BLM decision ``is set aside due to the BLM's failure to observe procedures required by law,'' Jenkins wrote.

He gave the BLM 30 days to remove the horses.

``We're taking steps to comply with the judge's order,'' said Don Banks, a spokesman for the BLM.

In a related matter, a radical environmental group is claiming responsibility for firebombing a federal corral to protest government roundups of wild horses.

A spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front said Tuesday that another group, the Earth Liberation Front, appears to be taking credit for firebombing a Bureau of Land Management wild horse corral near the California-Nevada border, though the group's communique contains a few inconsistencies with the arson earlier this month.

The North American press office of the Animal Liberation Front in Courtenay, British Columbia received a communique Monday from someone claiming to represent the Earth Liberation Front, ALF spokesman David Barbarash told The Associated Press.

ELF claimed responsibility for setting ``four timed incendiary devices aimed at destroying two barns, two vehicles and one office building'' at a BLM wild horse holding facility.

The action was taken ``in opposition to the Bureau of Land Management's continued war against the Earth,'' a copy of the message said.

``For years, the BLM has rounded up thousands of wild horses and burros to clear public land for grazing cattle. ...

``In the name of all that is wild we will continue to target industries and organizations that seek to profit by destroying the Earth.''

One of four firebombs with timing devices started a fire that destroyed a barn full of hay, causing $85,000 in damage on Oct. 15 at the BLM's Litchfield horse facility about 80 miles north of Reno near Susanville, Calif. No one was injured.

The communique to Barbarash said the ELF was taking credit for the attack on the BLM's ``wild horse holding facility in Corvallis, Calif. on October 17th, 2001.''

But there is no Corvallis, Calif., and BLM officials said they have no facility in Corvallis, Ore.

Otherwise, the information is consistent with the attack at the Litchfield corral Oct. 15, including the description of cutting sections from wooden fences to corrals holding more than 200 wild horses ``in order to free them from captivity.''

``After moving domestic horses to a safe distance we set four timed incendiary devices aimed at destroying two barns, two vehicles and one office building,'' the message said.

BLM spokesman Jeff Fontana said that information was consistent with the attack at Litchfield.

The FBI is investigating the alleged arson. FBI spokesman Nick Rossi in Sacramento said he was unaware of anyone claiming responsibility for the Litchfield firebombing.

Bomb squads were able to disarm three of the incendiary devices before they went off. The horses were far from the bombs and not in any danger. None escaped, the BLM said.

The BLM estimates 48,000 wild horses and burros are running free across parts of 10 Western states, about half of them in Nevada.

Last year the agency rounded up an estimated 7000 wild horses, but agency officials said earlier this year the population is too large for the range to sustain and they'd like to pare it nearly in half by 2005.

Barbarash said he serves as spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front but also has been acting as a temporary go-between for the Earth Liberation Front because ``right now there is no person working the ELF press office.''

He confirmed he forwarded the apparent message from ELF to The Associated Press.

Barbarash acknowledged it was unusual that some of the information was inconsistent.

``But I don't think we've ever gotten a communication for something that didn't happen,'' he told AP in a telephone interview Wednesday.

ELF and ALF have claimed responsibility over the past five years for dozens of actions across the country, including an arson at the BLM wild horse corrals near Burns, Ore., in November 1997.

``Both ALF and ELF have targeted these wild horse facilities for a few years,'' Barbarash said.

``If they have targeted these kinds of facilities in the past and nothing has changed, there is nothing to say they won't target them in the future.''