Little did they know when gathered last week Tuesday at Saguaro Lake’s Butcher Jones Recreation Area that so many people were also gathering there -- just for them.

The wild horses roaming the Salt River not too far from Fountain Hills have become celebrities in their own right since news broke the U.S. Forest Service was looking to remove them.

Almost as if on cue, about a dozen horses were at the Butcher Jones picnic area Aug. 4 to picnic on some grass while a protest and press conference were just beginning to start.

Perhaps it was the hordes of people, or the chants of protestors, but the horses were nowhere to be seen halfway through the conference.

Tonto National Forest officials no doubt expected some pushback when it posted a public notice in The Arizona Capitol Times stating the Salt River horses would be removed over the course of the next year.

It is believed about 100 horses roam the Tonto National Forest near the Salt River.

However, the “pushback” was severe, swift and calculated as animal lovers, attorneys, elected officials and the public in general weighed in against the government’s plans via social media, online petitions, press conferences and the like.

So severe, in fact, that the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday afternoon announced it would “take another look” at the proposed gathering of stray horses.

“The Forest Service will continue to engage with the local community, state and federal officials to explore potential alternatives for meeting our obligations for both land stewardship and public safety,” said Neil Bosworth, forest supervisor for the Tonto National Forest.

Bill Miller, representing the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking an injunction against the planned removal of the wild horses.

A federal judge denied the temporary restraining order, however, the group said that was primarily a procedural issue since the defendants hadn’t yet been the proper paperwork.

The judge set a hearing on the matter for today, Aug. 12.

Tonto officials had been saying the roundup wasn’t imminent, but they were primarily citing safety concerns as the number one reason for the horses’ removal.

In a taped interview, Chandler Mundy of TNF said horses in the Salt River area have been removed before and that state regulations would be followed in their removal.

“We understand the emotion tied to the horses,” he said.

But officials say the horses are creating both a danger and a nuisance. They say several have been killed by cars on the Bush Highway northeast of Fountain Hills, while others have trampled campgrounds.

“They’ve taken to this campground in the past year,” Mundy said in reference to the popular Butcher Jones area.

“This is an immediate safety concern. They are here right now. They are untamed animals. People are treating them as domestic, friendly animals.

“It’s a problem waiting to happen.”

Wild horse advocates, meanwhile, say the horses have not hurt any humans and that there is no concerted effort to roundup elk or deer, for example, in Arizona.

Alternatives?

In a written statement, the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group said it has submitted a 50-page proposal to the Forest Service setting forth a humane and sustainable management protocol for the “iconic” horses, which includes humane birth control.

The group says in 1971 the Forest Service was mandated by the Wild Free Horse and Burro Act to establish wild horse territories where wild horses and burros existed at that time.

“The Forest Service admits that the Salt River Wild Horses were present in and around the Salt River at that time and many eyewitnesses and articles prove that fact, yet they did not create a territory for the herd, the reason for this has never been answered by the Forest Service,” the group wrote.

“There is no reason why the Forest Service should want to rob Arizona of this historically, economically and ecologically significant herd.”

The group says historic news articles published between 1890 and 1927 document a population of more than 500,000 wild horses roaming the plains of Arizona at the turn of the century.

They believe they were brought to this area by Spanish missionary Father Eusebio Kino in the 17th century.

Today there are fewer than 500 wild horses remaining on public lands in Arizona.

Stray vs. wild

Others have speculated, however, that some of the Salt River horses are actually strays from adjacent areas such as ranches and possibly Indian reservations.

Officials have said federal law protects truly wild horses and burros, but the Salt River horses and many others in Arizona are not covered by the law because the Forest Service does not consider them to be true wild horses.

In the 1970s, the Forest Service determined that all the horses in the forest had been claimed, most by surrounding Native American tribes, TNF spokesperson Carrie Templin told The Arizona Republic.

Because of those findings, no wild-horse territory was created on the TNF lands. Officials said that means the horses currently on the land are categorized as “stray” livestock under the law and not “wild.”

The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group disputes those findings.

Miller said he will argue in court that federal law was violated by not designating the Salt River horses as “wild horses” back in the 1970s.

He will also demand various impact studies be done today before anything is done with the horses.

The non-profit group was set up to monitor and scientifically study the Salt River wild horses.

Each horse has its own records with birthdates and bloodlines, some of which date back 20 years.

The group has a “sanctuary” in Prescott where it has offered to take the animals.

The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community noted that since the 1970s it has had an active Wild Free-Roaming Horse Ordinance.

It noted that the Salt River horses are often within its legal territory, thus subject to its ordinance.

“At any given time, there are approximately 60 wild free-roaming horses in the river area within the tribal boundaries of the Community near the Salt and Verde Rivers,” the statement read.

“Additionally, the Community has a Northern Range herd that has approximately 180 wild horses within the range area of the Community. If a wild free-roaming horse is within the Community boundaries, it is subject to the Community’s ordinance for protection.”

This is not a “new” issue.

The Arizona Republic back in 2012 published a news story about the horses, detailing the different views between horse advocates and government officials.

The Forest Service at that time was considering removing the horses from TNF.

Records at that time showed the mystery of the origin of the horses and what to do with them has been a dilemma for at least a decade.

Forest Service officials at that time said they cannot manage the horses as “wild horses” because they have no legal territory and were never designated as wild horses.