It’s been more than a year since the horses of Cumberland Island filed suit to compel federal and Georgia government agencies to protect the horses themselves and to protect the national seashore’s native wildlife from the horses.
The case, filed in U.S. District Court in Georgia’s Northern District in Atlanta on April 12, 2023, is moving slowly.
Judge Sarah E. Geraghty is currently reviewing briefs for and against dismissal.
Joining the horses as plaintiffs are the Georgia Equine Rescue league, the Georgia Horse Council, Will Harlan and Carol Ruckdeschel. They’re suing the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, the director of the South Atlantic Gulf region of the National Pak Service, the Superintendent of Cumberland Island National Seashore, the Commissioner of the Georgia DNR, the Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Agriculture.
The horses and their supporters argue that National Park Service as well as the state agencies named have a duty to protect the horses, the native species on Cumberland, or both. They cite both federal and Georgia law, including the Endangered Species Act and Georgia’s Humane Care for Equines Act.
“By free ranging (grazing) the feral horses throughout the Seashore the defendants are not only harming the Seashore’s natural and wildlife resources (including the protected species involved in the case), they are severely impacting the overall welfare of the horses themselves,” plaintiffs’ attorney Hal Wright wrote in an email to The Current.
The government agencies have sought dismissal citing sovereign immunity and in the case of the Georgia agencies, a lack of jurisdiction over the federal national seashore.
The National Park Service argues the court lacks jurisdiction because it can only review final agency actions, and it was alleged inaction that triggered the suit.
Wright filed his most recent briefs on April 15, including one in response to Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper and one in response to Georgia DNR Commissioner Walter Rabon.
“(R)ather than seek to work cooperatively to develop a means to effectively manage the Seashore’s feral horses for the welfare of the horses and the island’s natural and wildlife resources, the government defendants have chosen to avoid their responsibilities and to seek refuge in the legal system,” Wright wrote in an email to The Current.
The Tide brings news and observations from The Current’s staff.