The U.S. Forest Service first began removing wild horses from the Apache National Forest in Arizona in 2022 after reaching a 2021 stipulated agreement in federal with environmental groups that sued over the horses’ impact on the endangered New Mexico meadow jumping mouse and other federally listed species.

The horses, located near Alpine, Ariz., are not afforded protection under the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming and Burros Act. The law directed the USFS to identify unclaimed horses or burros located on the lands they manage, but there were none in the Apache National Forest at the time of the act’s passage, according to the USFS. While others maintain the horses have long been there, the USFS says that the horses are unauthorized livestock that most likely came from outside the forest, including from the neighboring Fort Apache Indian Reservation, probably after a 2011 wildfire destroyed 14 miles of fencing.

After a breakdown in communication between the USFS and wild horse advocates, captured horses were shipped by the roundup contractor to Bowie, Texas, where horses are routinely purchased and shipped to Mexico for slaughter.

Return to Freedom worked with the nonprofit rescue organization All Seated in a Barn to rescue 46 members of the Alpine herd from slaughter in in December 2023. Since then, 11 foals have been born to mares transported to RTF’s headquarters sanctuary in Lompoc, Calif. As of this writing, the geldings remain in Texas under the care of All Seated in a Barn. Read more about the rescue.

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