Alto wild horse herd coming home

• Horses were healthy and not carrying any diseases to the surprise of livestock officials

The news that 12 mares and foals of the wild herd of Alto rounded up Friday by the New Mexico Livestock Board will be coming home next week brought the hundreds attending a town hall meeting on the fate of the equines to their feet for a standing ovation Monday.

Melissa Babcock, one of the major organizers of the effort to return the horses to Lincoln County after they were penned by a private landowner who declared them destructive nuisances, and were hauled to Santa Fe by livestock board officials, said she expected the session at the Horton Complex to focus on a division of effort toward the goal, but that everything changed with a telephone call.

“I had this whole agenda, but we had some incoming news literally minutes ago and I think rather than boring you with all of the logistics I was going to bore you about, I’m just going to let Shelley McAlister take the mike and she will share what we have found out.”

McAlister said she just received a call from William Bunce, executive director of the livestock board, and Ray Baca, deputy director. “They have agreed to return the horses to us,” she said, to thunderous applause and cheers that drowned out her next words. “There are conditions. We have to keep them contained until we get the legal process of being able to turn them back into the wild. They have agreed not to offer them up for adoption to anyone else. They are going to hold them for five days and we will pick them up and bring them back.

“We’re going to continue to care for them (while) we continue pursuing the legal options of returning them to the wild, which is our ultimate goal. We do need continuing support, volunteers to tend the horses. These are not tame pets that people can just walk up to and we have to have people who know horses and can keep themselves safe. We have to protect them from other people.”

While the good news was celebrated Monday, on Tuesday, Bunce in an email to the Ruidoso News in response to a request for confirmation seemed to qualify the terms of release saying “It is not an accurate statement to say with any certainty that the horses will go back.”

The horses remain in a secured environment in Santa Fe County, he wrote.

“Yesterday, in late afternoon, they were individually posted on the NMLB web-site, solely for the purpose of potential discovery of any previous ownership that could be verified,” he stated. “Frankly, I doubt very seriously that this will be the case, however it is a step in the process that must be completed. This is a 5-day period and there are no bids being taken at this time.

“Once the 5-day period expires, and if no one can legally claim or provide proof of ownership on these horses, we can make a final decision on the transfer of ownership. The standard procedure in these cases has been an open bid system, again for a 5-day period. That is one option.

“The other possibility,” he wrote stressing the word possibility, “in this extremely unusual circumstance, is to explore the legalities of an option to the open-bid system, whereby we could legally transfer ownership. I am hopeful and at the moment encouraged. However, it is not an accurate statement to say with any certainty that the horses will go back.

“I can say, that is what we are hoping for, and for which we are working very hard to confirm the legality of such transfer. Until such time, the horses will remain in place. Regardless, of the method of establishment of ownership, New Mexico Law does not allow provision for free roaming livestock to trespass on the lands of others or to run free on highways. That will be the case with these horses, regardless of who takes ownership or how that is completed.”

While he understands differing opinions exist regarding “wild” versus “livestock,” that was not the subject of his response, Bunce stated, adding, “But I do want to clarify what seems to be an incorrect assumption about the horses ‘at this time.’”

He wrote that the common goal he believes everyone hopes for is for the horses to come back to their home area. “That said, we have to ensure this is done carefully and legally,” Bunce wrote.

During the Monday meeting, McAlister said the time has come to stop criticizing brand inspectors or the woman who initiated the complaint and roundup. “In fairness, I don’t think she or any of us knew how big this was going to get,” Babcock said. “We need to stop (issuing threatening messages to the woman), because we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

“We don’t have to buy these horses back,” she said. “They are coming home next week. The five-day hold is the law. We are trying to change the law so that this doesn’t happen to any of the other wild herds here or anywhere else in New Mexico.”

A lawyer has been retained to pursue that goal, she said, again thanking the crowd and the other people at the podium, saying it has been a group effort.

Babcock said this is a “gentleman’s agreement” with the livestock board. “They didn’t have to do this, but of course, they didn’t have to do what they did (taking the horses),” she said. “We made an agreement that we will house them until the issue sees its way through court. We have to be honorable. But keep in mind if we don’t hold up our end and somebody thinks they will just open the fence and let them out, that would null and void the agreement.”

Free the horses was the ultimate goal, but save the horses was the most immediate goal and will be accomplished next week, she said. The horses will be confined to 10 acres near Enchanted Forest, where McAlister said Big Boss, the name given to the herd stallion who was not collected with the mares and foals, likely will find them and be reunited, under whatever specific conditions that may be required by the livestock board.

Advocate Teeatta Lippert, who started a “gofundme” for the herd, was introduced by Babcock to show supporters she is a “real person, that this is totally legitimate.”

All of the expenditures from the fund will be open to public scrutiny, she said.

Noting that she is a fourth generation resident of Lincoln County, Lippert said when her daughter told her about the horses being rounded up, “I was sad, because they are ours. I talked to some people and they said maybe we can get a couple and they said anything is better than all being gone. We thought $2,000 or $3,000 will maybe buy us five.”

But more than $21,000 was raised and more is flowing in, she said. “The money came in so quickly I couldn’t keep up with the thank you button,” she said. “It’s overwhelming how much faith you have in all of us standing up here. We all have the same goal. We want them home, whatever the cost.”

Money needs to continue to be donated, because the price of caring for the veterinary expenses and food for 14 horses will be costly, Babcock said.

During questioning after the main session, McAlister said that under the livestock board rules, any colts old enough must be gelded before they leave the holding facility in Santa Fe, but said Tuesday that the foals picked up were too young for that procedure.

Advocate Barbara Yates, who helped initiate the legal proceedings, thanked the supporters for their backing, saying without them, the resolution never would have happened.

Bruna Campos, who has tended the needs of herd members for years and gelded a male called Rock Star, who two years ago was lost to an auction by the livestock board after he was the subject of a complaint, also was introduced, along with State Reps. Zach Cook, a Republican from Ruidoso and State Sen. Bill Burt, a Republican from Alamogordo.

Sen. Ted Barela , a Republican in District 39, said he was bombarded with calls to the point that his answering machine had to be cleared twice. “The executive director (of the livestock board) was very cooperative today when I spoke with him and they were looking at every avenue to make sure they were not violating a statute to get the horses back here,” he said, adding that he is ready to push for a change in the state legislature to make sure similar situations do not recur.

“I know firsthand, they did lot of background work and made a lot of calls on our behalf,” Babcock said of the elected officials

Dave Smith, who served in a previous administration, said he and his wife were among the five who witnessed the removal of the horses and the stallion running up and down the fence line as they were loaded. After they were hauled away, he hit the telephone and contacted livestock board officials, state and federal elected officials, and state and federal agencies.

“My former position with the state was important enough that I could get my foot in the door of some of these key offices,” he said. “I was called back from some pretty high level people,” including a liaison to U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, an assistant to the governor and the head of the Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico.

He said he spoke to the director of the state Game and Fish about including the horses in the agency’s proclamation of protected species. In talking to Bunce, he complained about a previous encounter with Baca when the Rock Star incident occurred under similar circumstances “and nothing has been done based on my recommendations to change these regulations as I requested years ago. We’re tired of the board treating these animals as estrays and livestock.”

Smith said Brunce questioned if the horses really are wild, when someone could pet one on the head.  Smith said he replied, “(Heck), I can walk up and pet a mule deer on the head.”

“These are wild horses. The babies were born in the wild. If they came off the reservation or someone’s land, they are dead by now,” Smith said. He pointed out that wild horse signs were put up by the state Department of Transportation on New Mexico Highway 48 as it enters the Ruidoso area. “Let this play out guys. This is monumental because of you,” Smith said.

Information conveyed during questioning from those in the audience included that the horses returned will be microchipped; that transportation will be provided by the organizers to bring them back from Santa Fe, but that volunteers will be needed for care of the horses; the horses all were deemed to be in good health and carrying no diseases, which impressed livestock board officials; and that livestock officials are not going to try to round up members of the other Ski Run Road herd. A website may be established for the herd and businesses can contact organizers about setting up collection buckets at their sites.

Camera surveillance is already up around the acreage where the herd will be kept and neighbors also will watch closely to ensure no vandalism occurs or that any harm comes to the horses, McAlister said.