46 TIME April 11/April 18, 2022
As Nixon approached, the illy took of, racing past the dead
bodies of Raven and her mother.
Three years later, Nixon has chronicled the shootings of
at least 40 wild horses in this forest in northeastern Arizona,
where several hundred of the Heber herd, named for the un-
incorporated town surrounded by the forest, roam. Each
day she sets out on often miles-long treks, recording the live
horses she sees and the ones she inds too late. The most re-
cent shootings that anyone knows of were in late December,
when three dead wild horses were found. So far, necropsies
have yielded few clues.
“I just don’t understand who would shoot a horse and leave
it there,” says Jefrey Todd, a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest
Service, Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests. “It’s strange.”
After the December killings, the Forest Service announced
a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and
conviction. Wild horses are federally protected, and killing
one on public land is punishable by up to a year in jail and a
$2,000 ine, under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Bur-
ros Act of 1971.
But in the 51 years since the law passed, it has proved
diicult to enforce. Most killings or abuse of the animals
occur in remote areas, far from public view, and the survi-
vors can’t describe their assailants. And some people might
NATION
Winter had frozen over the
Apache-Sitgreaves National
Forests in late January 2019 when
Betty Nixon saw the dead stallion,
known to locals as Raven. His right
leg bone was shattered by a bullet,
and near him lay a red-coated
pregnant mare, Sparrow, who had
been shot in her belly and neck. Not
far away, behind a stand of junipers,
the mare’s illy stood alone, lost.
be reluctant to turn in a shooter as population growth, cli-
mate change, and success in replenishing wild-horse herds
across the West heighten tensions between humans and
beasts sharing the land.
Ranchers, hunters, horse advocates, and forest oicials
in Arizona have been struggling for years over how to man-
age the growing Heber herd, which Todd estimates could
number up to 500. Now someone may have taken it upon
themselves.
Defenders of the free-roaming horses say they play an im-
portant role in the ecosystem, breaking ice over water sources
so they and other forest animals can drink in winter, and help-
ing to trim down brush and grasses. Others say the horses are
ecosystem invaders, little more than a misplaced symbol of
freedom in the West.
“There’s only so much food in the forest,” says John
Koleszar, a hunter and former president of the Arizona Deer
Association and Arizona Sportsmen for Wildlife Conserva-
tion. He compares the situation to hosting a dinner party for
eight guests with a turkey and a ham, and having 100 people
show up. But Koleszar describes the killings as “appalling.”
“We don’t in any way, shape, or form approve of that activity.”
The debate has pitted neighbor against neighbor, in a set-
ting cherished by all.