Forest Service will not immediately remove Salt River horses

“We’ve had several cases where horses have been hit on the highway and causing vehicle accidents, and we have horses coming into the campground into a heavily used high recreation area”, Carrie Templin, a public affairs officer with the Tonto National Forest, told Fox10Phoenix.com.

Horse conservationists are protesting federal officials’ plans to remove and possibly auction up to 100 wild horses from the Tonto National Forest on the northeastern outskirts of the Phoenix. But on July 31 the Forest Service announced plans to round up the horses as “unauthorized livestock”. “If the horses are rounded up, the Forest Service is making an historical mistake that can not be reversed”. So far, however, no injuries have been reported. Conservationists worry in that rounding up the animals might critically injure them, while horses sent to auctions could moreover be killed by so-called “kill buyers” who decide up the animals for the horse-meat trade.

Simone Netherlands with the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group doesn’t think the safety concerns are real. On Monday, as she spoke with 12 News, a group of 10 to 15 were hanging around Saguaro Lake.

“It’s so indicative, we believe, of mankind and our government to just say, ‘Let’s manage this into extinction, ‘” Netherlands said.

The U.S. Forest Service said this is a safety issue, for both people and horses. Tonto rangers said the Salt River horses were claimed by Native American groups in the ’70s, and so the area was never designated for wild horses. At contention is the definition of the word “wild”. According to the BLM, wild horses don’t have natural predators and their populations double almost every five years.

“There is no reason why the Forest Service should want to rob Arizona of this historically, economically and ecologically significant herd”, she said in a statement. They must be claimed with proof of ownership by August 7. “People will have the opportunity to purchase the animals at auction”.

“Livestock not sold at public sale may be sold at private sale or condemned and destroyed, or otherwise disposed of as provided by Regulations 36 CFR 262.10(f)”.

A spokesperson for the Tonto National Forest says if the roundup happens, the horses will be turned over to the State of Arizona, then it is up to the state what happens next.