By Staff Reporter |

The Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA) plans to remove masses of the Salt River wild horses despite protesters citing protections for this population codified nearly a decade ago.

The Salt River Wild Horse Protection Act, signed into law by former Governor Doug Ducey in 2016, prohibits the harassment, shooting, injuring, killing, or slaughtering of the horses. It also prohibits individuals from interfering with, taking, chasing, capturing, or euthanizing the horses without written authorization from the state or county sheriff for humane purposes. The law does allow for the state to enter into contracts with the United States Forest Service and a private entity to “address any issue” concerning this horse population. 

Advocates for the Salt River wild horses say AZDA’s new plans to outright remove them would not be humane and therefore not allowed by the law. 

AZDA’s new request for proposal (RFP) for a new management company to mitigate the horse populations requires outright removal of the wild horses instead of the gradual, ongoing efforts to shrink the population. AZDA wants the number reduced to about 100 horses by removing or adopting out three horses for every new horse born. There are less than 300 that live on the river at present. 

The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group (SRWHMG) is the current management company looking after the horses. SRWHMG did reapply for the new AZDA RFP despite disagreeing with its removal provisions. SRWHMG president Simone Netherlands announced it has purchased 34 acres in order to establish a retirement sanctuary for the removed horses if awarded the contract. 

Ideally, SRWHMG want to continue using its more “humane” approach for reducing the wild horse population. The management company currently uses a form of birth control to shrink the horse population. SRWHMG reported the population declined by about 40 percent in six years: from 460 to 2019 to around 260 presently. 

“Even if you adopt a horse out, it sounds very nice but it’s very hard to find good adopters for completely wild horses because they’re very costly, they’re very hard to train, and the horse is truly not going to be happy standing in a 12×12 stall when they have the most beautiful life here on the lower Salt River,” Netherlands told Fox 34.

However, SRWHMG’s method hasn’t proved fast enough for the state. AZDA defended the removal requirement as a means of more immediate resource mitigation in a statement.

“The humane management of the herd, including population reduction to match the available resources of the Salt River where they live, is an ongoing effort,” said AZDA.

Members of the public have expressed fears that these removals would mean poor quality of life or even death for the wild horses. Protesters worry that one competing bidder, Rail Lazy H, would send removed horses to a fate similar to those managed under her in past contracts, such as the Alpine wild horses sent to a slaughter auction in Texas.

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