Wild Horses of Alto. Save the Herd!

WILD HORSES OF ALTO (W.H.O.A!) disclaimer: this blog is in no way associated with the group WHOA (Wild Horse Observers Association). This blog has actually become like a vertical file in the library where important past documents - like newspaper articles - are filed and kept for research when needed. It has become almost a lesson in librarianship for me.

WILD HORSES OF ALTO The herd of wild horses in Alto, N.M., are the offspring of estray horses that roamed Sierra Blanca on Mescalero and National Forest land. Today the herds roam the same territory as well as dropping in to visit some of the subdivisions, such as Enchanted Forest, Sierra Vista, Sun Valley, LaJunta, Little Creek and occasionally Alto Lakes Golf & Country Club. For the most part, the herds are loved and welcomed. But sometimes not.

At this time, it is being decided in a court of law whether the horses are wild or domesticated (and therefore estray). At present, the horses fall under the auspices of the N.M. Livestock Board. We are trying to save all members the herd and other herds that exist in the area. We do NOT want to deny the horses the freedom they have known in the past and the comradeship the herd provides them.

To institute change in the policy and protect the future of our magnificent Wild Horses of Alto herd, we have a petition at https://www.change.org/p/new-mexico-governor-save-alto-wild-horses, a fundraising site for lawyers and feed/care at https://www.gofundme.com/altohorses, an account set up at City Bank-Ruidoso for donations to the "Wild Horses of Lincoln County Trust Fund" and an ongoing facebook group "Bring Ruidoso Horse's Back". Click on the Stallion's photo to go directly there.

PLEASE SPEAK UP, sign petitions, give to the trust fund for the horses. Sign up to this blog to get continual updates and to also post your own comments.

We LOVE our horse herd.

HELP save the Wild Horses of Alto (WHOA!) herd

Monday, August 29, 2016

Ruidoso News: Aug 29 article - Bad news?

Unowned horses in NM are in legal limbo

Dave Tomlin, Ruidoso News 3:46 p.m. MDT August 29, 2016

Ruidoso’s horse hullabaloo is almost identical to another situation near Albuquerque in which the New Mexico Court of Appeals held last year that unowned horses are not livestock and cannot be seized and sold by the New Mexico Livestock Board.
But the case doesn’t hold much comfort for anyone who wants special protection for herds of unclaimed horses, according to Corrales attorney David G. Reynolds, who represented Placitas area landowners in the case, Wild Horse Observers Association, Inc. (WHOA) v. New Mexico Livestock Board.
“I think the horse advocate people are shooting themselves in the foot on this thing,” Reynolds said. “Under the situation we have now, if the animals are determined not to be livestock, the landowner who captures them owns them and they can shoot them right there if they want to.”
The attorney for the wild horse association in that case, Steven K. Sanders of Albuquerque, said Monday he agreed that the Court of Appeals ruling is the controlling law now. But he said he hopes to use it on behalf of wild horse lovers in Ruidoso who hope to bring the Alto herd back.
Sanders said he was preparing to seek an injunction in 12th District Court that would bar the Livestock Board from selling or otherwise disposing of the dozen horses captured here until their status can be litigated.
The Court of Appeals held in the Placitas case that the term livestock “does not include undomesticated, unowned animals.” The court also agreed with WHOA that the Livestock Board’s only duty with respect to wild horses is to test them for Spanish mustang heritage and then relocate them.
But Reynolds said the Placitas ruling doesn’t really settle the legal status of horses like the ones his clients captured or the Alto herd now creating controversy here.
A horse is only a “wild horse” in the eyes of the law if it is on public land, Reynolds said, and the legal definition of “public land” is so narrow that there’s very little of it in New Mexico. An unowned and undomesticated horse on land that is private or otherwise not legally “public” is in a new category.
“If a horse on public land jumps over a fence onto private land, it’s not a wild horse anymore,” Reynolds said. “It is now a large packrat.”
So despite the Placitas case ruling, Reynolds added, the law on unowned horses that aren’t legally wild horses “is in total flux.”
After the Court of Appeals ruling, the 14 horses in the Placitas case were checked for brands or ID chips and then returned to the landowners who had captured them, Reynolds said. The landowners then turned them over to a nearby Indian tribe.
Since then, more horses have been captured. Whenever that happens, the Livestock Board comes to the area with a portable testing unit. If no evidence of ownership is found, the horses are turned back over to the landowners who rounded them up.
Reynolds said he wasn’t familiar with the facts of the Ruidoso situation, but he wasn’t sure why the Livestock Board would not be doing the same thing with the Alto herd.
The New Mexico Supreme Court refused to review the Court of Appeals ruling, so it is now binding. The Placitas case was sent back to the district court, which originally had agreed with the Livestock Board that the wild herd was livestock and dismissed the case. WHOA then appealed to the Court of Appeals.
Reynolds said there will be a hearing next week in which the district court will consider whether to end the case since the horses are now gone and the legal issues in the case have been resolved.
But he said the 2nd District Court might choose to keep the case alive if a fresh case with the same issues crops up in the 12th District Court.
Sanders said he hoped that might happen as early as late Monday afternoon.