A coalition of wild horse advocacy groups, including Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation, Front Range Equine Rescue, and The Gila Herd Foundation, has demanded the U.S. Forest Service immediately halt the removal of wild horses from Arizona’s Sitgreaves National Forest. The groups argue that the Forest Service’s classification of these horses as “unauthorized livestock” is legally flawed and violates protections under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. They claim the agency has not met the legal burden to prove the horses were privately placed on public land or that they do not intermingle with the federally protected Heber herd.

The advocates are calling on the Forest Service to rescind the “unauthorized livestock” designation and suspend all capture operations in the Heber Wild Horse Territory until proper genetic testing, behavioral studies, and field surveys are conducted to determine the horses’ status accurately. The Heber Wild Horse Territory, established in 1974, spans about 19,700 acres within the Sitgreaves National Forest and is federally protected. The Forest Service has not yet responded publicly to the coalition’s demands.