RENO, Nev. – Sheryl Crow and other wild-horse advocates on Thursday called on President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to block a major roundup of mustangs set to begin Monday in Nevada.
The judge said federal officials likely were violating federal law by stockpiling tens of thousands of horses in long-term holding facilities in the Midwest. “I’m asking President Obama and Senator Reid to stop the Calico roundup of the American wild mustangs in Nevada now until Congress decides how to manage our living legends of the West,” Crow said in a statement released by the Colorado-based horse advocacy group Cloud Foundation. Reid spokesman Jon Summers said the Nevada senator believes it’s the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s responsibility to ensure the viability of wild horse herds and to protect rangelands and wildlife.
“Sen. Reid has long been critical of the BLM’s wild horse and burro program, as they regularly fall short on their obligations,” Summers said. Kendra Barkoff, a spokeswoman for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, said the roundup will ensure high quality habitat for the wild horses and burros while protecting public rangeland from overuse.
The state’s wildlife agency sides with the BLM, saying the mustangs have “severely degraded” the range and adversely affected native wildlife.
Elliot Katz, president of California-based In Defense of Animals, said Obama should grant the Nevada horses a holiday reprieve until the legality of long-term holding facilities is determined.
Opponents also contend winter roundups expose horses to the risk of respiratory illness.
The BLM estimates about half of the nearly 37,000 wild horses live in Nevada, with others concentrated across the West. Another 34,000 horses and burros are cared for in government-funded corrals and pastures in Kansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

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