PLAN TO MOVE WILD HORSES `POSTPONED INDEFINITELY'

Congressman Bill Emerson said late Wednesday that the National Park Service has backed off its plan to remove a herd of wild horses in Southern Missouri.

The park service announced that efforts to remove the horses within the Ozark National Scenic Riverways will be "indefinitely postponed."

Riverways Superintendent Art Sullivan said, "In view of the wide public support generated by this issue, we will postpone the removal of the horses to give the National Park Service, the Missouri Wild Horse League, and the general public time to examine a wide range of alternatives."

Emerson called the move a victory for the people of Southern Missouri.

He said it was evident to most anyone involved with the situation that "an unwieldy bureaucracy tried to intervene and solve a problem that simply wasn't there."

He added, "Hopefully this will be the final chapter in a sad tale about a government bureaucracy pushing its weight around. In the end I am happy to report the will of the people prevailed."

Emerson had asked Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt to directly intervene in the case - after the congressman received a letter Sept. 21 from a department assistant saying the wild horses would be removed as planned.

The Eighth District congressman commended the grassroots effort that turned the tide.

"I have received hundreds -- even thousands -- of phone calls, letters, and personal visits from people in the surrounding area opposing the National Park Service's original edict wanting to remove the wild horses.

"The animals are not hurting anyone or anything, and as the people adamantly expressed: they want the horses left alone."