By Brenna Goth | The Republic | azcentral.com
Three young chestnut, black and chocolate-colored stallions from the wild herd that roams the forest here spent a recent Friday morning lazing in a clearing, offering no clarity on where they came from.
The animals — known by their backers as the Heber wild horses — have drawn support from residents, visitors and an Arizona congressman who say they were born in the wild and should stay there as a federally protected symbol of the West.
But the U.S. Forest Service says few of the horses, whose exact herd size is under survey, are actually descended from the original free-roaming creatures. Instead, the agency argues that lost and abandoned horses have proliferated on public land to the point that the population needs to be controlled.
If you’d like to discuss equine law, contact Adam Trenk, contact atrenk@roselawgroup.com
