Tonite please keep us in your prayers and positive thoughts for the hearing tomorrow morning! This is Nova, from Applejack’s band, one of the 13 Alpine wild horses subject to the Temporary Restraining Order Against the Apache Sitgreaves National Forest which halted the sale of Alpine wild horses at the Cleburne Texas livestock auction owned and operated by a known kill buyer.

As you can see in the before picture, she looked beautiful and healthy in the forest and there she is emaciated and dehydrated at the Cleburne auction. We are very worried, because the Forest Service is now talking about only 12 horses subject to the TRO!

The hearing on the fate of these horses is scheduled for tomorrow Friday, August 2nd, at 9:30 am, and it will be open to the public who can listen over the phone. Call 855-244-8681 and put in Access Code 2305 337 5206.

We thought you could join by zoom, but it is just a phonecall in which you’ll be able to hear what is happening in the court. You have to mute your phone or otherwise the court will hang up on you! Ofcourse we will also report the outcome right after!
For those of you interested in the legal merits:

According to the law, the USFS must post a sale notice of unauthorized livestock, which the Alpine wild horses were wrongly classified as, specifying the date, time and place of the sale. This notice must be published in a local newspaper and posted at the county courthouse and in one or more local post office. The Forest failed to comply with this ahead of the planned sale.
The TRO, granted on July 24th, states, “SRWH and AWHC will suffer irreparable harm if Defendants are permitted to permanently remove the wild horses from the Apache Forest without following the provisions of 36 C.F.R 2662.10. “SRWH, and AWHC will suffer irreparable harm if the U.S. Forest Service’s planned July 24th, 2024 sale of the horses from the Apache Forest is allowed to proceed.”

The Forest Service has been systematically removing these historic Alpine wild horses from the Apache Forest in Northern Arizona. To date, the USFS has removed almost 500 wild horses, and shipped many of them out of state and to well known slaughter auctions.

SRWHMG has been working tirelessly to find homes for as many of these horses as possible. However, the failure to follow federal regulations and the short notices issued by the Forest Service have hindered our ability to meaningfully participate in the auctions severely.

“The USFS’ failure to follow federal regulations severely limits our ability to rescue the Alpine wild horses.” said Simone Netherlands, president of SRWHMG. “These historic horses deserve protection, not slaughter. The temporary restraining order is a crucial step in holding the Forest Service accountable.”

In addition to securing the TRO, the SRWHMG and the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) have filed an amended complaint. The complaint outlines the numerous injustices over the past two years, including refusal to allow horse advocates to participate in online auctions as well as animal cruelty.

“The hidden sale of the Alpine wild horses at a slaughter auction is completely unacceptable,” said Suzanne Roy, Executive Director of AWHC. “This herd is vital to Arizona’s cultural fabric and must be treated as such.”

Justice is the sword we carry. Wish us luck.