Plan to Remove Horses From Island Upheld

Perhaps sealing the fate of the wild horses that run free on Santa Cruz Island, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court decision Friday to remove the equines from their island home.

In a seven-page opinion, the judges ruled that the horses must be removed because they are the private property of the Gherini family. The Gherinis owned the eastern tip of the island until it was taken over by the National Park Service in early 1997.

The news came as a shock to the Santa Barbara-based Foundation for Horses and Other Animals, which says that the horses are a unique breed descended from ranch animals brought to California by Spanish settlers in the 1800s. As such, they say, the horses should stay where they are.

“We’re terribly disappointed,” said Lynne Sherman, a director of the foundation. “We feel that the horses really are unique, and that they would be such a glorious part of diversity on the islands. The foundation has worked hard to try to preserve the horses. This has come as a definite setback to us.”

The group has not yet decided whether to appeal.

As part of its plan to restore the Channel Islands to their state prior to the Europeans’ arrival, the Park Service has tried since last year to move the horses off 24-mile-long Santa Cruz Island. The horses, along with thousands of feral pigs and sheep, are blamed for eating grasses down to the nub and denuding the island’s east end over the years.

But believing that plans to deport the horses could threaten a rare breed, the Santa Barbara-based Foundation for Horses and Other Animals sued the Park Service and John Gherini, the former part owner of the island, to keep the herd where it is.

Members say that the long-isolated herd has no resistance to mainland diseases, and that the horses may be of scientific importance in addition to their historical value.