HikeArizona.COM

Possibly as early as Friday.
There are petitions on Facebook, and people are contacting the media ... lets keep these beautiful creatures wild and free!

Back in the 60's and early 70's I seen horses go down slide rock, or they were rainbow unicorns.

There can certainly be sources which are not equine, and it may be partly due to humans. Unsightly trash is not a source, despite the other issues.

I merely spoke with a FS employee who claimed to be in the know on this issue, told me about this site, the bacteria problem, and the horses. He also mentioned that the recreation crew is technically in violation of the law because they do not have the man power to keep up with cleaning up the horse piles. Oh well. I do not ever see this directly affecting me, I just wanted to point this out.



Were these these guys at Slide Rock?

Jim_H wrote:Oh well. I do not ever see this directly affecting me,

Your agua free are you?

Well, I meant the area. You are probably correct that water intakes are below this area. Hopefully, my pitcher filter, and municipal facilities treat the water well enough. This could be an issue with a lot of things beside ponies, but their pet status to many means managing them is off the table.

$8K reward for info in shooting death of Salt River horse
http://www.kpho.com/story/30273302/8k-r ... iver-horse

Just for the record.......I have been in Taos on biz.

Looks like the horses are safe after all...

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/loc ... /77120088/

Is anyone privy to the negotiations on the "Management Plan?" I'd like to know the allowed population, what will happen when the herd grows beyond that, did the Indian's-who claimed ownership-participate, how about the Governor who said he wouldn't let them be removed?

For a closer look at the issue of wild horses on public land across the southwest (Forest Service and/or BLM land), I'd recommend the movie Unbranded (We saw it on Netflix)

The movie is about four young men who train a herd of mustangs for 4-5 months, then take a 5-month ride with a herd of mustangs from the Mexican to the Canadian border. (There are some AZT cameos along the way)

It includes information about the federally run wild horse adoption program.

I don't understand how they are legally going to manage the animals since they are feral domestic and not actually wild. I thought the whole issue was that they cannot legally manage domestic animals-- they can only impound. Then there's also this stuff:

http://www.slate.com/a...

They're pets, plain and simple. People get overly emotional about them, and this is what happens. It is not too different than most other hot button emotional issue.

@Tough_Boots
Good article.

Jim_H wrote:They're pets, plain and simple. People get overly emotional about them, and this is what happens. It is not too different than most other hot button emotional issue.

Yeah we should have just let the Ben Avery facility use them for target practice.

azbackpackr wrote:Good article.

I dunno. When the lede refers to the "Salt River wildlife refuge" it's difficult for me to take any of the rest of it seriously.

Wildlife refuge!??

What else does the writer have absolutely no clue about?

Yeah. But the issue has been going on for decades, between people who are concerned about native plants and wildlife, and people who want to have the horses and/or burros. Lower Colorado River land managers have a nightmare dealing with the burros. I helped with a goat removal project on San Clemente Island in the 70's. Luckily the animal rights types didn't find out about it until most of the goats had been removed. Now the native owl, fox and other creatures can thrive there.

@azbackpackr
Yeah, I was out on San Clemente Island between 1971-74, and as you know you didn't get them all! (all those wild rides on Mercer Airline's DC-3's, DC-4's, and DC-6's ) Those were the days.

Jason Cleghorn wrote:

Jim_H wrote:They're pets, plain and simple. People get overly emotional about them, and this is what happens. It is not too different than most other hot button emotional issue.

Yeah we should have just let the Ben Avery facility use them for target practice.

Do they roam to the north Valley, too?

@rwstorm
No, we didn't get them all at that time, but they are all gone now, thankfully. You weren't that swabbie who fell into the cholla and had to have spines plucked out of his nether regions, were you? ;)

OH yeah, good ol' Mercer Airlines. One of the DC6's I flew on finally crashed into a golf course in LA. It had only 3 people on board, so could have been worse.

@azbackpackr
I am happy to report that it wasn't me.

@rwstorm
I edited my remark after you read it, added something about Mercer Airlines. Yes, you would be glad if you knew the details about that poor swabbie.