HEBER, AZ (AZFamily) — Wild horses roaming the Mogollon Rim near Heber could be removed after the Forest Service argued the herd does not qualify for protection.
While wild horses are protected under state law and federal law, the Forest Service argues the herd in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests is not truly wild but unauthorized livestock on federal land.
“With one stroke of the pen, this loses all of their protection,” said Simone Netherlands of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group.
Netherlands filed a temporary restraining order against the Forest Service to stop the Heber horses from being rounded up and removed.
“Basically what is in our TRO is that they cannot just do this. There is a litmus test that the Forest Service must do to prove these things that they are claiming without any evidence,” Netherlands said.
The Forest Service says it is legal to round up livestock on its land. In a recent memo, it claims the original wild horses died out in the 1990s and that the horses roaming the rim today are livestock that got in after the Rodeo-Chediski Fire, a 2002 wildfire that damaged fences around the forest.
Netherlands disputed that claim and said the agency was trying to use a loophole to remove what should be a protected species in Arizona.
“There’s no evidence behind what they’re saying, and we have so much historic evidence to disprove all of this,” Netherlands said.
Horse advocates said they were worried that what is happening in Heber could happen to wild horses in other parts of the state, including the Salt River.
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