A Nevada woman who fears her missing horse could end up at the slaughterhouse has joined a lawsuit challenging state plans to transfer ownership of thousands of free-roaming mustangs to private hands.
Lawyers for the California-based American Wild Horse Campaign and Cynthia Ashe of Silver Springs filed the lawsuit Monday in state court in Carson City.
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It seeks to block what plaintiffs say would be "a giveaway of a valuable and cherished Nevada asset."
The suit accuses Nevada's Department of Agriculture of breaching a contract that called for the wild horse group to manage the nearly 3,000 mustangs in the Virginia Range east and south of Reno under a joint agreement emphasizing fertility control.
The agreement comes under state law that dictates state ownership of stray or feral horses not entitled to U.S. protections on neighboring federal land.
