Mayor Borowsky: Fate of Salt River Horses rests with Gov. Hobbs

The Department of Agriculture, in conjunction with the US Forest Service, intends to remove most if not all of the Salt River Wild Horses from the Tonto National Forest.

Though the department claims no harm will come to them, history tells us otherwise. One example: In the Apache National Forest in northern Arizona, home of the Alpine wild horse for centuries, the Forest Service hired a contractor to round up some 650 horses and send them to auctions, where “kill buyers” purchase animals to turn into food for dogs in the US, for human consumption in Mexico.

Only the intervention of the nonprofit organization Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, which raised funds to participate in these auctions held across the West and outbid “kill buyers” to save hundreds of horses. Still, a couple hundred horses remain unaccounted for, leading to the inevitable conclusion that they were sent to slaughter. 

Nonetheless, the administration of Governor Katie Hobbs continues to plan for this removal with only vague claims that the horses, despite living here for centuries, are non-native; and that they are destructive to the land, which surely applies more to human beings, as anyone who has viewed the mounds of garbage left discarded along the banks of the Salt River.

The horses cannot be so carelessly discarded, left to a dubious fate. We in Scottsdale have been exploring the possibility of relocating some fifty of the horses into our Scottsdale McDowell Sonoran Preserve. While this would prove a boon to the city’s tourism, questions remain as to the viability of the proposal, given issues of water, food and heat. Regardless, even if the preserve works out and 50 horses are moved there, that is a small percentage of the total in danger, and other solutions will need to be found.

All of this would be unnecessary if Gov. Hobbs steps up and directs her department to drop this course of action. The wild horses have been a staple in the forest long before Arizona became a state and it will be a cruel turn of events if that state now decides they are unwelcome. The governor holds the fate of these horses in her hands.

I urge all who are concerned, all who love horses, who have witnessed these gorgeous creatures enjoying the Salt River, all who value the history of the horses and the glory of our western heritage, to contact the governor and tell her you want the horses to remain where they are, and have been for so many generations.

If the governor proves unwilling to act, there are other avenues to pursue with other interested public officials and citizens. If push comes to shove, those options can be addressed. However, first and foremost, the most direct path to reasonably, fairly and happily resolving this issue begins and ends at the governor’s doorstep.