Everybody knows the “I didn’t get that email” excuse is bullshit

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), saying it needs to control wild horse populations, sought to capture and castrate wild stallions before returning them to public lands.

The  American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) sued to block the BLM, saying surely the BLM’s plan was essentially horse harassment - which is not allowed under the Wild-Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act.  To bolster their harassment suit, the AWHPC brought in wild horse behavior experts and biologists.

The BLM didn’t want the courts to consider the horse behavior experts’ or biologists’ testimony (‘Expert Declarations’) because it wasn’t part of their Administrative Record (AR).  To be part of the AR one has to submit comments (e.g. Expert Declarations) during the BLM’s public comment period for a proposed plan (e.g. capture, castrate & return).  Once you’re part of the AR, you’ll be considered.  The first step in swaying the BLM, then, is to be part of the AR.   The BLM says the AWHPC missed the AR boat.  Or did they?  Why weren’t the AWHPC’s Expert Declarations part of the BLM’s AR?

Here’s where the bullshit – or should I say horseshit? – begins…

The BLM argued that because of an email error the agency did not actually receive copies of the expert declarations until the day after the public comment period closed, and so they should be excluded from the record. [excerpt from here]

You read that correctly.  The BLM went with the “I didn’t get that email” defense.  It didn’t work.

The Court finds no reason to exclude the complete Expert Declarations from the AR merely because of a technical problem in forwarding copies of the Expert Declarations to the Defendants in a timely manner. [excerpt from here]

Besides this whole email thing, the BLM already had all the Expert Declarations.  You see, the AWHPC had been fighting with the BLM over wild horses for years and had been using the essentially the same Expert Declarations the whole time.

So, don’t try that whole “I didn’t get that email” excuse – especially if you already have the information.

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Editorial Materials & MethodsmThe author checked her email several times during the writing of this post.  The author is unaware of any sent, yet missing, emails.

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