(AP) — Wild horse advocacy groups across the country are pushing to intervene in a federal lawsuit the state of Wyoming filed recently against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management accusing the federal agency of not doing enough to reduce wild horse populations. The agency announced in October that it had rounded up 1,263 wild horses in the Great Divide Basin, Adobe Town and Salt Wells Creek herd management areas. Anne Novak, executive director of Protect Mustangs, issued a statement Saturday saying her group feels compelled to intervene in Wyoming's lawsuit because it believes the BLM isn't protecting America's wild horses and burros as it should. "BLM's new wipe-out plan is to complain their hands are tied and then invite states and other land-grabbers to sue them to roundup wild horses — under false claims of overpopulation," Novak said. Jenni Barnes, staff attorney for Friends of Animals Wildlife Law Program stated that her group is appalled Wyoming is pushing to remove even more wild horses from our public lands.