A Nevada wild horse advocate has again asked a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) forbidding the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to gather animals from the Rock Creek and Little Humboldt Horse Management Areas in northwestern Elko County. The request is the second one sought to stop the gathers put before the court this month.

The BLM began the Tuscarora gather on July 10 when agency personnel used helicopters to drive 228 animals off the Owyhee, Rock Creek, and Little Humboldt Herd Management Areas and into temporary holding areas (the Tuscarora gather area encompasses these three herd management areas). Agency officials halted the gather July 11 after four of the removed mustangs died from dehydration and related complications. Another three horses later died from the same condition. Another animal was euthanized after fracturing his leg shortly after being placed in a temporary holding corral.

On July 12 attorney Gordon Cowan filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court in Reno, Nev., on behalf of Laura Leigh, an artist and wild horse advocate. The motion alleges the gather violates BLM regulations that prohibit such gathers between March 1 and June 30, the foaling period for most wild herds.

On July 14 U.S. District Judge Larry R. Hicks imposed a temporary restraining order halting only the Owyhee gather until arguments in the case could be heard. Hicks rescinded that order July 16 ruling the gather was necessary to prevent horses from dying due to lack of water on those ranges. The Owyhee gather was completed on July 20