BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) ― The Bureau of Land Management is postponing until Thursday the roundup of about 190 wild horses in the Pryor Mountains along the Montana-Wyoming border.
A spokeswoman says the agency is delaying the roundup until the U.S. Department of Justice has time to respond to a lawsuit and injunction filed Friday by opponents of the roundup in a Washington, D.C., federal district court.
The roundup had been scheduled to start Monday.
The roundup will capture the range's entire population, with 70 adult horses and their foals to be kept for adoption. The remaining horses will be freed.
The BLM says the roundup is needed protect the range's ecological balance.
Groups opposed to the roundup say it could end up ruining one of the most genetically pure herds of Spanish colonial horses in the country.
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