Court won’t reconsider order allowing photographer access to wild horse roundup

By Cy Ryan

Monday, April 16, 2012 | 12:16 p.m.

CARSON CITY - A federal appeals court has denied the Bureau of Land Management's petition to re-consider its ruling allowing a photojournalist wider access to a wild horse roundup on public land.

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals made a minor amendment to its February ruling, noting the BLM is authorized to gather wild horses in the Silver King Herd Management area of Lincoln County until 2013.

The court initially ruled Laura Leigh, a photojournalist for Horseback Magazine, was entitled to prove in federal district court in Reno that she should not have been restricted by the BLM from viewing the roundup of 500 mustangs at Silver King in September 2010.

Leigh maintains there is no independent oversight of the treatment of these animals and she wants access to other roundups.

The BLM said it set limits on the viewing area to protect the public from the helicopters, wild horses and vehicles.

Making that minor amendment, the appeals court Monday rejected the request of the Bureau of Land Management and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for another hearing on the case.