Arizona Department Of Agriculture Looks To Remove More Salt River Wild Horses Despite Protests

Arizona Department Of Agriculture Looks To Remove More Salt River Wild Horses Despite Protests

by | May 2, 2025 | News

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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Tucson Restaurant Owner Sues Hobbs Administration Over Cage-Free Egg Mandate

Tucson Restaurant Owner Sues Hobbs Administration Over Cage-Free Egg Mandate

by | Nov 21, 2023 | News

By Corinne Murdock |

A Tucson restaurant owner has sued the Hobbs administration over its newer mandate that only cage-free eggs be produced or sold in the state.

Last week, the Goldwater Institute and Pacific Legal Foundation sued the Arizona Department of Agriculture (AZDA) on behalf of Grant Krueger, owner of Union Public House, Reforma Modern Mexican Mezcal + Tequila, and Proof Artisanal Pizza & Pasta. 

In a press release, counsel and Krueger asserted that AZDA had surpassed their constitutional authority by bypassing the legislature; they dubbed AZDA the “egg bureaucrats.” 

“Unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats shouldn’t be able to arbitrarily impose these kinds of harmful mandates on small business owners like me,” said Krueger. “If the government can do this with eggs, what else can they do it with?”

Krueger estimated that his restaurants purchase over 2,000 eggs weekly; he employs about 225 people. 

Per his lawsuit, lawmakers directed egg producers to petition the AZDA for a rule on requiring cage-free housing for egg-laying hens, as the COVID-19 pandemic had disrupted law making procedures at the time. AZDA published the contested rule in April 2022, under then-Gov. Doug Ducey and then-AZDA Director Mark Killian. The rule began to be enforced on Jan. 1 of this year.

“Neither Arizona’s statutes governing executive branch rulemaking nor the Arizona Constitution permit AZDA to promulgate rules pursuant to such a standardless grant of authority,” read the lawsuit.

AZDA claimed authority for rulemaking under A.R.S. § 3-107(A)(1) and A.R.S. §3-710(J). The legal organizations countered in their lawsuit that the two statutes’ general authorization of rulemaking authority didn’t articulate the specific authority to enact a cage-free rule. Further, they argued that the Arizona Constitution didn’t allow for the delegation of legislative authority to an executive branch agency. 

“The appropriate housing arrangement for egg-laying hens in Arizona and egglaying hens producing eggs for sale in Arizona is a major policy question that must be decided by the legislature,” read the lawsuit. 

Per the lawsuit, AZDA had passed the rule to circumvent the effort of a similar ballot initiative, which the egg producers found objectionable due to the proposed timeline being too long. 

The lawsuit warned that the new law will cause a significant increase in egg prices for both business owners and consumers: up to $66 million. For consumers, that would come to an additional 39 cents per dozen. 

Per AZDA data, cage-free housing of egg-laying hens would increase egg production costs by  up to 41 percent for labor inputs.

The Arizona Farm Bureau also stands in opposition to the sweeping cage-free egg mandate.

Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.