Wild horses signs removed then returned to highway

Dianne L Stallings , Ruidoso News 2:04 p.m. MT Feb. 28, 2017

Wild horses" signs attracted tourists as well as warned of potential traffic hazards

(Photo: Courtesy/Melissa Babcock)

Story Highlights

• New signs warning of "wildlife" slated as replacements

The often photographed signs on New Mexico Highway 48 and Ski Run Road warning drivers of wild horses in the area were removed last week by a state Department of Transportation crew.
The Ruidoso News contacted the department Monday and on Tuesday, at least two of the signs were back in place on NM48, but that may only be a temporary action.
     Emilee Cantrell, DOT public information officer, said new signs more in line with Federal Highway Administration guidelines will take the place of the horse signs soon.
     “Keeping our roads safe is our number one priority,” she said. “There have been more than 100 accidents in the area over the last five years, so it’s absolutely imperative that we do all we can to make travel safer. That’s why we are changing the signs to better protect motorists in the area.”
     However, until the new signs are ready for installation, the old signs were put back in place.
    An advocate for the wild horse herds that roam the Alto area leading into Ruidoso said the four horse signs instilled local pride in the uniqueness of the area and they drew tourists. “Wildlife Crossing” signs would be a significant come down on the “mystique” and tourism scale, she said.
     The advocate for the herds, including a dozen horses now impounded locally while the court decides their fate, said she thinks the action by the DOT is connected to that court case.
     The signs are reminders of the conviction of many locals that the herds are wild by common definition and have been for generations, she said.
     The signs were located north of Alto Café on NM48, one at Angus, and two on Ski Run Road.
     Several calls by concerned residents were made to the New Mexico Highway Department asking if that agency had removed the signs. They claim they were told initially that the signs were not removed and that because of the cost of the signs, such a theft would be a felony. But a subsequent call confirmed the action was taken by the DOT.
     “I firmly believe it is because of our pending court case regarding the Wild Horses of Lincoln County in an effort to get everything set up for us to fail in future cases should there be any,” the advocate said. “After all, how can they continue to claim the horses aren't wild, if the State of New Mexico placed the Wild Horses signs in the first place?”
     The case is pending in the 12th Judicial District Court and depending on the outcome, could place jurisdiction for the herds of roaming horses in the hands of the Livestock Board to be handled like cattle.

Wild horse bill would designate new experts

Dave Tomlin, Ruidoso News 9:36 a.m. MT Feb. 22, 2017

(Photo: Courtesy)

     Joe Cook and the museum he runs are designated by state law as experts on wild horses with the power to order them captured, moved, neutered or even euthanized. He has no idea why.
     “It was really a mistake,” he says.
     Cook is director of the University of New Mexico Museum of Southwestern Biology and also curator of its mammal division.
     The state law currently being disputed between the New Mexico Livestock Board and advocates for Ruidoso’s free-roaming horses puts the museum in sole charge of determining whether any given herd of wild horses is too big for its own good or for the range it occupies.
     “That language was put in there 10 or 12 years ago without our knowledge,” Cook told the News in a phone interview Tuesday. “It was slipped in there, and unfortunately we didn’t know about it.”
Cook would like very much to see the museum slipped back out of the law, and it’s possible he may get his wish.
      A bill currently making its way through the state Senate would amend the law to remove Cook’s museum and give its statutory job to something called the Range Improvement Task Force at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
       This time legislators have at least given their designated wild horse experts a heads up.
    “I’ve been approached,” said Task Force coordinator Samuel Smallidge, who has a doctorate in range science. “I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about it. I know these things have a tendency to be amended.”
     Smallidge is probably right not to invest too much time in the new assignment yet. The main thrust of Senate Bill 126 involves other changes to the law that may encounter stiff resistance, since they appear to strengthen the Livestock Board’s control over wild horses that some horse advocates don’t think the board should have.
     Swapping in the NMSU Task Force for the Museum of Southwestern Biology appears unrelated to that goal, except for one thing. The proposed new language would get the Task Force involved with wild horses only when the Livestock Board called on them.
     The existing state law contains no such requirement. The museum’s mammal division is authorized to take action on its own if it determines “that a wild horse herd exceeds the number of horses that is necessary for preserving the genetic stock of the herd and for preserving and maintaining the range.”
     In such a case, the museum can order birth control measures on the herd, and have excess animals either moved to other public land or to a horse preserve, or adopted or sent to a rescue facility. Animals found by a veterinarian to be crippled or unhealthy can be euthanized on the museum’s authority.
      The museum wasn’t a completely off-the-wall choice for the job. Cook has a doctorate in biology, and he and his staff do study the relationship between wildlife populations and their environments.
     “But not wild horses,” he said. “We feel we’re not the right people to help figure out anything about wild horses in New Mexico. We’re not horse specialists.”
     But under the proposed amendments, the Task Force would do nothing unless the Livestock Board asked it to assess any given herd of wild horses.
     “Upon request of the board to determine the viability of a specific New Mexico wild horse herd on the range they occupy,” the statute says the Task Force will make an assessment and report back to the Livestock Board. Then it’s up to the board to do all the things the law now says the museum would do, i.e. moving, adopting, neutering or euthanizing excess animals.
     One other change from existing law is that there’s no mention in the proposed amendments of “preserving the genetic stock of the herd.” The focus of the Task Force would be entirely on the range.
     Smallidge said the Task Force is well qualified for the role the proposed amendments would assign to it.
     “The Range Improvement Task Force does represent demonstrated capabilities in collecting scientific data to inform decision makers regarding the ecology and management of New Mexico rangelands,” Smallidge said.
     “Regarding the legislation,” he added, “I will leave that in the hands of the New Mexico Legislature and respond appropriately to their decision.”

Senate committee passes horse as livestock bill

Dianne L Stallings , Ruidoso News Published 2:53 p.m. MT Feb. 9, 2017 | Updated 12:26 p.m. MT Feb. 13, 2017

Senate Conservation Committee passes bill that eliminates the classification of domesticated horse and lumps equines as livestock with specific exceptions

Story Highlights

• Advocates fear new provisions could lead to the elimination of wild herds
• Evaluation of range carrying capacity could result in herd reductions

Local advocates for wild horse herds in New Mexico piled into a bus at 3:30 a.m. Thursday and headed to Santa Fe to voice their views on an amended version of a state senate bill they fead would lead to the elimination of wild horse herds that roam the Alto area north of Ruidoso.

Despite the efforts of advocates, they reported that members of the Senate Conservation Committee passed the bill in less than five minutes.The bill was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.  A series of hearings before the conservation committee led to modifications of the original bill submitted by State Sen. Pat Woods, a Republican from Quay County, that eliminates the classification of domesticated horse.

While under the amended version horses still would be lumped into the broad definition for livestock that fall under the jurisdiction of the New Mexico Livestock Board, specific exceptions were included for Spanish colonial horses and for a “wild horse” defined as an “unclaimed horse without obvious brands or other evidence of private ownership that is determined by the board to originate from public land or federal land or to be part of or descended from a herd that lives on or originates from public land; but does not include horses that are subject to the jurisdiction of the federal government pursuant to the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.”

Public land does not include federal land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service or state trust land.

Under the amended version, a wild horse captured on private land in New Mexico at the discretion of the livestock board “shall be” humanely captured and relocated to state public land or to a public or private horse preserve; adopted by a qualified person (for an adoption fee); or humanely euthanized provided the option is the last resort when the horse is determined by a licensed veterinarian to be crippled or otherwise unhealthy or cannot be relocated to a public or private wild horse preserve or adopted.

A new section throws in another wrinkle for the future of “wild horses” such as the herds in Alto. That section in the amended bill provides when requested by the board to determine the viability of a specific New Mexico wild horse herd on the range they occupy, the range improvement task force of New Mexico State University will evaluate the range conditions to determine the number of wild horses that the range can support while maintaining its ecological health.

The task force will report the results of the evaluation to the board. “If required, the board may cause control of the New Mexico wild horse herd population through the use of birth control and may cause excess horses to be humanely captured” and relocated, adopted or euthanized.

A second bill introduced by Woods, SB284, which has not yet been heard in committee, specifically deals with trespassing horses on private land. It gives the livestock board jurisdiction over any horse trespassing on fee simple private land and charges board representatives to attempt to determine ownership and simultaneously to notify animal rescue organizations.

“If no owner can be identified after five days, the horse shall be offered to animal rescue organizations. If no animal rescue organization assumes ownership after two days, the board may auction the horse,” SB284 states.

“These people apparently are hell bent on getting rid of the wild horses,’ one wild herd advocate said.

Noting that the incoming president of the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association backed the bill, contending it provided a remedy for a private land owner beleaguered by trespassing unowned horses, a Santa Fe attorney with government background said, “My question is, if a deer or elk eats her trees, does she had a remedy? If a skunk sprays her dog, does she have a remedy? If a coyote eats her cat, does she have a remedy? Is the state required to provide a remedy at taxpayer expense for every intrusion of wildlife onto private property?” The attorney also questioned if any data exists showing that overgrazing by wild horses has occurred on private land and how that data compared to grazing by other wild animals.

Local wild herd advocates mobilized in large numbers after the livestock board in August 2016 hauled away a dozen members of a herd in Alto that had been penned by a private land owner.  A lawsuit was filed by the Wild Horse Observers Association that resulted in a temporary restraining order against the sale of any of the horses in the herd. Under an agreement approved by the court, the horses were returned to the county until the court decides on the status of the herd as wild. That case still is pending in the 12th Judicial District Court.

Update on Legislative Bill - info from ZozoCommunity news

As I understand it, a proposed New Mexico Senate Bill 126 ("Wild Horse Kill Bill 126") will re-define ALL horses in the state as "livestock".  This will mandate authorities to round up and place feral horses into a system which can include capture, removal, possible adoption, and possible slaughter.  Other, humane protocols are being developed, and this law will block that.  This would directly impact the "Alto Wild Horses" still awaiting a legal judgment.

There will be a Committee Meeting Thursday morning, and our voices must be heard before then to prevent this bill from proceeding.

PLEASE contact each senator below. Simply click on their email address and write " I object to SB126 ". It only takes 5 minutes -- or call and leave a brief message.  (you can also add each of their addresses to the same email)

We need to take a breather and consider what is best for the horses. This really is important.

Background  The New Mexico Livestock Board (NMLB) is in court for allegedly abducting and selling protected wild horses illegally at auction, and to kill buyers.

Senator Pat Woods and the Attorney General are trying to change the law midstream to enable wild horses to be considered livestock and disenfranchise the people and the judicial branch of government.

This bill as amended, states livestock does not have to be domestic or owned, which is required by federal law, and weakens the status of our wild horses.

- This definition would conflict with the federal definition of livestock
- Allows road kill of many animals to be defined as Livestock
- Allows exotic animals in captivity to be defined as livestock!
- Conflicts with the NM State Wild Horse protection statute
- Endangers federally protected wild horses

Lastly the unintended consequence of passage of this bill by removing federally required domesticated language would be to allow non-domesticated feral or wild equines and exotic animals to be slaughtered or sold for food in New Mexico.

Editor’s Note:  I realize this was an inflammatory issue before, but I’m not sure the changes posed are really going to help.  If you think this is important, please send the email.  If not, don’t do anything and just see what happens. 

Senator Joseph Cervantes (Chair)
Capitol Phone: (505) 986-4861
Email: Joseph@cervanteslawnm.com

Senator Pat Woods (Author of Bill 126)
Capitol Phone: (505) 986-4393
Email: pat.woods@nmlegis.gov

 
Senator Liz Stefanics Capitol Phone: (505) 986-4377
Email: liz.stefanics@nmlegis.gov

 
Senator Ron Griggs Capitol Phone: (505) 986-4369
Email: ron.griggs@nmlegis.gov

Senator Richard Martinez Capitol Phone: (505) 986-4487
Email: richard.martinez@nmlegis.gov

 
Senator McSorley Capitol Phone: (505) 986-4389
Email: cisco.mcsorley@nmlegis.gov

 
Senator William Payne
Capitol Phone: (505) 986-4703

Email: william.payne@nmlegis.gov

 Senator Bill Soules
Capitol Phone: (505) 986-4834
Email: bill.soules@nmlegis.gov

 Senator Peter Wirth Capitol Phone: (505) 986-4393
Email: peter.wirth@nmlegis.gov

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