PHOENIX — The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group posted a video of a kayaker who chased a group of horses out of the Salt River.
"This was clear harassment to us because the horses were just standing there peacefully, harming no one. There was no reason for him to kayak towards the horses. He's actually doing extra effort to kayak up the river to scare the horses out of the river,” said Simone Netherlands, president of the Salt River Wild Horse Management Group, a nonprofit organization who advocates for the wild horses that roam along the Salt River
The video shows an unidentified kayaker paddling towards a group of wild horses who were in the Salt River. As he gets closer the horses scurry in a panic up a steep river’s edge.
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Netherlands says the harassment of wild horses is not harmless fun – several things can go wrong.
"They can run into sticks. We have a lot of wild horses that have lost an eye that way. Foals can get run over in a panic. They can break their legs on the rocks,” said Netherlands.
It is illegal to harass the horses, but it's difficult for law enforcement to catch the offender and what's legally considered harassment is unclear.
“Unfortunately, we see it a lot. You never know what the reason, but some people feel the need to pursue the horses. Sometimes it’s on the bicycle. Sometimes on foot. We’ve even seen drones pursuing them. This time it’s a guy in a kayak paddling his heart out just for the fun of chasing wild horses,” said Netherlands.
The Salt River Wild Horse Management Group wants everyone to see how dangerous scaring the horses can be.
"What if there was a person on the other side where this guy scared the horses into, and that person got run over. Then what? It's just not a safe situation to scare horses," said Netherlands.
