US Forest Service Agrees to Historic Settlement in case of Apache-Sitgreaves Wild Horses

Forest Service Agrees to Preserve Wild Horse Territory, To Create Management Strategy for Territory & for Wild Horses in Apache-Sitgreaves Forests

Phoenix, AZ—In one of the most significant recent events to preserve wild horses in the United States, the US Forest Service has entered into a settlement agreement with In Defense of Animals, the Animal Welfare Institute, the International Society for the Protection of Wild Mustangs & Burros and Arizona residents including Phoenix resident, Dr. Pat Haight. The signed stipulated agreement between plaintiffs and the Forest Service was filed with the Court on March 14, 2007 and on Wednesday, March 21, Judge Fredrick Martone signed an order adopting the terms of the stipulated agreement between the plaintiffs and the US Forest Service.

The agreement includes a commitment by the US Forest Service to maintain a Heber Wild Horse Territory in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests of Eastern Arizona, to create a management strategy for the Territory and for the wild horses in those Forests, and to remove no horses from the Territory as well as the Black Mountain Ranger District or Lakeside Ranger District (considered the Sitgreaves National Forest) until a NEPA study is complete and management strategy in place. The public can help protect these wild horses by submitting written comments now to the Forest Service on the management strategy. Send comments regarding management of the Apache-Sitgreaves wild horses to: Lenda Quinn, Black Mountain Ranger District Office, P.O. Box 968, Overgaard, AZ 85933.

The settlement agreement comes after a lawsuit was filed by Anthony Merrill, JD, on behalf of the animal groups and private citizens in 2005 to keep the US Forest Service from removing all of the wild horses in Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, turning them over to the Arizona Department of Agriculture for sale at an auction facility outside of Holbrook, Arizona where most would have gone to horse slaughter houses. In December 2005, after hearing the overwhelming evidence including affidavits, pictures, and historical information on the 400 year history of the wild horses in that region, a Federal District Court Judge for the District of Arizona issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the US Forest Service from removing or harming any of the horses pending full litigation of the lawsuit to protect them and keep them in their ancestral lands.

The plaintiffs will continue to be closely involved as the NEPA process goes forward to make certain that a viable number of wild horses are preserved in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, that they are managed properly, and that any removed for management reasons are done so in the most humane manner and adopted out with protections for their welfare. The agreement has great historical relevance as one of the most significant victories to preserve wild horses on Federal lands.

The wild horses of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests have been quietly living undiscovered for the most part in the area by everyone but local residents for almost 400 years. They are a particularly rare group of wild horses whose roots can be traced to visits by the famous Jesuit priest on horseback, Father Eusebio Kino, with mounted soldiers on Spanish horses to the region as early as 1653. Wild horse experts have been particularly impressed with the wild behaviors preserved in these horses because they have remained untouched and ungathered for the most part for generations.