The famous Salt River wild Horse herds will be getting smaller. That's the plan according to a new agreement the state has reached with a nonprofit set to relocate a large number of horses from the herd.
The wild horses roam areas around the lower Salt River and Tonto National Forest.
The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group’s new plan details efforts to reduce the current herd from 274 horses to just 120, starting with 25 horses annually.
The nonprofit plans to complete this goal through fertility control and relocation of the horses to vetted sanctuaries across the Valley. The founder and President Simone Netherlands said in a press release that the organization will not be conducting large scale removals.
“After many years of protection, agreeing to removals was incredibly difficult,” Netherlands said. “But considering the alternative contractor, we determined the herd would be worse off without us.”
The nonprofit currently has ongoing litigation against previous management companies in regards to its treatment of the wild horses.
“The competing bidder was the contractor who has previously removed hundreds of Alpine horses from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, many of whom were sent to auctions in Texas,” The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group said in a press release.
“SRWHMG currently has litigation pending related to those removals and regarding the treatment of those horses and the contractor’s processes.”
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