Salt River Horse management bidding hits a snag. Nonprofit condemns population control plan

The future management of the Salt River wild horse herd is uncertain pending the approval of a new contract.

The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group currently oversees the horses, but their contract will expire in July.

The Arizona Department of Agriculture is re-bidding the contract because of unauthorized conversations that allegedly violated state law.

The Arizona Department of Agriculture announced on Wednesday that the request for proposal issued for a new management contract had to be canceled.

“The solicitation is canceled based on the best interest of the state of Arizona because the agency’s chief procurement officer has been made aware that potential offerors have attempted to and have successfully had conversations regarding this RFP outside the requirements of the Arizona Procurement Code,” the department said in a statement.

The state wants new aggressive population control measures opposed by the current management group.

“This is a severe threat to the Salt River wild horses — not just to the individual Salt River wild horses, but to the actual viability of the Salt River wild horses,” Salt River Wild Horse Management Group founder Simone Netherlands said.

The state proposes removing three horses from the herd for every new horse that is born.

Netherlands says that’s unnecessary, seeing as the herd’s population has dropped steeply every year since 2019 under their management, as they’ve implemented a birth control plan.

“It's like they don't understand how amazing that is, that the population has been going down. It's like we're going back to the Middle Ages when we've made so much progress,” Netherlands said.

If the contract goes to another group, Netherlands said her group will likely sue the state as that could result in the horses’ extinction. She argues it would violate a state law.

In 2016, the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group achieved a substantial victory when the state legislature and then-Gov. Doug Ducey passed the Salt River Wild Horse Act.

That law established that no one can “interfere with, take, chase, capture or euthanize” a wild horse unless they have permission from the Department of Agriculture or a county sheriff. Permission could only be given “for humane purposes.”

“They don't understand that this will cause a perpetual, endless, cruel cycle of roundups, which was the very reason that the Salt River Horse Act was passed,” Netherlands said. “That was the very reason it was passed, and by the way, almost unanimously, it was passed. And we want to let everyone know about it, because we want to urge Governor Katie Hobbs to step in and say no to this proposal.”

Netherlands attributed the state’s new horse population management agenda to incoming officials at the Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Forest Service.

“We do not understand why all of a sudden they are in a big rush to remove Salt River wild horses. Everything has been going great. The public has been happy, the horses have been happy, the government has been happy, and all of a sudden now, with new people coming into these departments,” she said.

The Arizona Department of Agriculture did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

“The Arizona Department of Agriculture is mandated to humanely and sustainably manage the Salt River Horse Herd in a scientifically sound manner. We will continue to promote and protect the Salt River experience that so many locals and visitors enjoy each year,” Arizona Department of Agriculture Director Paul Brierley said in a statement last week.