Feds defend wild horse round-up, oil pipeline near Reno
By Frank X. Mullen Jr., Reno Gazette-Journal
In the fight against removing large numbers of wild horses from the northwestern Nevada range, a proposed $3 billion natural gas pipeline is at the front lines, critics of the roundups said.
Activists who want the horses to stay on the range say the Ruby Pipeline project is the “smoking gun” that made federal officials decide to round up 2,500 horses this month from the desert about 100 miles north of Reno. The horses and burros will be sent to corrals and pastures in the Midwest and East.
Federal authorities and the pipeline firm denied the roundups have anything to do with the pipeline plan. Government officials said the horses would have been relocated even without the project because land and water resources can’t sustain large numbers of mustangs.
