Heber Wild Horses - Heber Wild Horses

What About Us?

7/27/2022

The biggest threat to the Heber herd has always been the Heber Wild Horse Territory management plan that the Forest Service is currently working on. It is expected out in January 2023. It will wipe out the Heber herd as we know it and eventually they will be no more due to the drastic herd cull and the use of PZP that are being planned for them.
The Heber herd is the only herd left that hasn't been legally interrupted with culls and or PZP. This herd needs to be made a "Study Herd".

The beautiful hooves of wild horses

6/12/2022

Heber wild horses have strong, beautiful hooves due to genetics and the fact that the horses are on the move.

Heber wild horse bachelor stallion

6/11/2022

“That of all living things that have played their part in the development of this country, except man, the horse has played the most prominent and beneficial role ... he portrays the West as all people like to think of it; he is a symbol of wild freedom to us all.” Velma Johnston aka Wild Horse Annie

SAVE THE LAST UNTOUCHED WILD HORSE HERD

5/31/2022

The Heber Wild Horse Herd needs YOUR help!
The Heber herd has never been subjected to legal government “gathers” or birth control. So far they have been left in their natural, free-roaming state. They are proof that wild horse herds do NOT double in size every four years. The Heber herd is the last “untouched” herd and therefore the only herd left in which to conduct a 5-7 year study by an independent group of scientists as recommended by the National Academy of Sciences. It is imperative that they are designated as a STUDY HERD.
Wild horses are wildlife. It is time for the Forest Service and the BLM to stop managing them as livestock. The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act clearly states that wild horses and burros are to be protected and all management activities shall be at the minimal feasible level.
Please call Secretary Vilsack’s office at 202-720-3631 and politely ask that he make the Heber wild horse herd a study herd. A study will transform how wild horse herds are managed and therefore eliminate the unnecessary animal cruelty and wasted tax payer money that is currently used for capture and warehousing America’s wild horses.

What happened to the reward money raised in 2019?

1/10/2022

The SRWHMG has a new $20,000 reward donation goal for the Heber wild horse shootings that occurred in Dec. 2021. Will that be added to the previous reward of $10,000 in 2019 which would bring their donation pledge up to a total of $30,000?

The FS has never publicized any details pertaining to the Dec 2021 shootings. So where did the SRWHMG get the following information?

"These killings are not done by a single shot in the head or heart; they are randomly strewn over the bodies and seem purposely in the most torturous spots for slow ways to die."
https://www.facebook.com/saltriverwildhorsemanagementgroup

Heber Wild Horse Herd Once Again the Target of a Psychopath

1/9/2022

December 03rd, 2021

12/3/2021

This stallion is not livestock, yet that is how the Forest Service intends to treat him. If the Forest Service draft management plan is implemented he will be ripped from his forest home. Please sign the petition at the link below to keep him free and to make Arizona's Heber wild horse herd a study herd. Thank you!
Please sign this petition, which will be delivered to Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack. who has the distinct authority to declare the Heber Wild horse a “Study Herd” according to the Free-Roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act of 1971:
Section 10 of PL 92-95 (1971 Act) “The Secretaries are authorized and directed to undertake those studies of the habits of wild free-roaming horses and burros that they may deem necessary in order to carry out the provision of the Act.”
The scientific study of these horses will show that no disruptions of the highly evolved family band structures within the herd actually allows the members of the herd to limit their own growth.
If managed as wildlife species, very few roundups will be necessary in the future. Tax payers will save millions of dollars paid out to private individuals to hold wild horses off the range. Repurposing that money can be put right back into managing and protecting the habitat by determining and removing those animals actually destroying the land.

www.change.org/p/secretary-of-agriculture-save-the-last-untouched-wild-horse-herd-help-ispmb-transform-the-management-of-wild-horses?recruiter=1229184439&recruited_by_id=cd9fad80-2a10-11ec-a133-b7efe9370c9d&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_petition&utm_term=share_email_responsive&utm_medium=facebook&utm_content=fht-30998734-en-us%3A6&fbclid=IwAR2rxjXKSS29m_0khKs0SwNp88Rq3Es_1ES74QRI3KDgLPQDSBSPPZR0zPQ

The Heber Wild Horses need your voice

6/29/2021

***Urgent Request- - - The Heber Wild Horses need your voice***

Please call or email each of the below listed individuals and ask that they stop the Forest Service’s plan for the capture and removal of wild horses from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest near Heber, Arizona, and that they declare the Heber Herd a “study herd” by an independent team of scientists and that the herd be studied for a minimum of 5 to 7 years.

• Secretary of Agriculture, the Honorable Tom Vilsack, Phone 202-720-3631 Email: agsec@usda.gov

• Natural Resources Committee, Phone 202-225-6065 The aide’s name that you will direct your message to is Brandon Bragato. Email: nrdems@mail.house.gov

• Please call your Senators - https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm

• Please call your Representative - https://www.house.gov/representa.../find-your-representative

Here’s Why Your Involvement Is Urgently Needed:
The Forest Service released their draft “Plan” that calls for the capture and removal of approximately 400 wild horses from the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. The vast majority of these horses would more likely than not languish in long-term holding pens for years, or may go to slaughter. The “Plan” would leave only 50 horses on over 600,000 acres of public lands. Fifty horses is not sufficient to maintain a genetically viable herd, meaning the Forest Service’s “Plan” essentially calls for the total eradication of the Heber herd. Their “Plan” is outrageous!

We Must Act Fast, and here is where you come in. We urgently need your voice on behalf of these magnificent horses! We would like to see the Heber herd preserved as a “study herd”. The Heber Wild Horses are the last remaining herd of wild horses in the United States that has not been “legally” interfered with by humans, making them an ideal “study herd”. This herd has been subjected to “illegal” activity, but there have been no “legal” roundups, and there has been no use of birth control on the herd.

Making the Heber Wild Horses a “study herd” would entail a minimum 5 to 7-year study by an “independent” team of scientists, to include ecologists, behaviorists, and habitat specialists, to understand the horses essentially as a wildlife species. They are currently being managed by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) as “livestock”. As “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West” (see The Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, Public Law 92-195), our wild horses deserve better!

The 1971 Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act (Public Law 92-195) states: “The Secretaries (Interior and Agriculture) are authorized and directed to undertake those studies of the habits of wild free roaming horses and burros that they may deem necessary in order to carry out the provisions of this Act.” As such, our request that the Heber herd be preserved and used as a “study herd” is in keeping with both the letter and the spirit of The Act.

Please, we urgently ask that you make these calls Today! Please share this post widely!

Heber Wild Horse Territory

5/21/2021

Make no mistake, the Heber Wild Horse Territory Management Plan Draft was developed to benefit the public lands cattle ranchers. This Territory map shows two proposed corrals. Those corrals will be for the capture of wild horses. No new roads will be built for the capture and removal process. Those two corrals are right off major existing Forest Service roads making the removal of horses easier and more expedient. Other corrals already in existence in areas outside the dedicated Territory will also be used for the capture and removal of wild horses.

This map also shows eight proposed water tanks. Two of the tanks are shown within the proposed corrals. The other six are show in two cattle pastures within the Territory that the horses have no access to due to the natural terrain and cattle pasture fences. There are some gates in the fences that if opened would allow for the horses to move into those pastures. However, there are Forest Service and Arizona Game and Fish signs on those gates stating that the gates are to remain closed.

It is obvious that the six proposed water tanks that are not in the corrals are for the use of cattle. The two tanks within the corrals are there to use for bait trapping wild horses with water and to provide water for the captured horses until they are loaded into trucks and taken away.

Keep Them Wild, Free, and Free-Roaming

4/29/2021

There are some wild horse groups and individuals who think the answer to the Heber Wild Horse Territory Management Plan is PZP. Those people have no clue what the issues are. The Heber herd is NOT overpopulated. So PZP is NOT the answer. The PZP pushers should stick to something they know about. Or perhaps reach out to those who do know the Heber herd and find out what the real issues are.

First of all the Heber Wild Horse Territory should be expanded to include the entire Sitgreaves National Forest where horses were historically known to roam for well over a hundred years prior to the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. In fact, the Heber herd still roams throughout much of the Sitgreaves.