Dead horses found dumped with brands cut off [link]
05:21 PM MST on Thursday, February 5, 2009
KTVB.COM with NewsChannel 7’s Ysabel Bilbao
Horse owners can't afford to feed them
BOISE - Someone is leaving domestic horses on public land, without a way for the animals to eat or survive.
The latest case involved 15 dead horses dumped on Bureau of Land Management property in Gem County in the past few weeks. BLM officials say the animals were found dead about six miles southwest of Emmett near County Line Road. The animals were found with the brand cut off the carcasses so their owner could not be identified.
Overall, the BLM says 32 horses have been left dead or let loose on public land across southwestern Idaho recently. A BLM law enforcement ranger speculated that increasing hay prices and decreased demand for horses have left owners unable to pay to feed the horses, and unable to sell them - so instead they are illegally releasing them on public land.
"It's kind of a hard time for some individuals... with the price of hay even though it's starting to go down," BLM Law Enforcement Ranger Lee Kliman said. "The economic times are harder, it's hard to sell horses, it's hard for a lot of individuals to find homes for horses."
The horses are domesticated and cannot fend for themselves in the wild.
Anyone found responsible could be charged on the federal level with unlawful commercial dumping, and on the state level with dumping of horses. The charges come with a $100,000 fine.
In the Gem County case, the Bureau of Land Management is working with the Gem County Sheriff's Office to determine who is responsible for the illegal dumping.
And just yesterday, someone was trying to convince me that there's no such thing as "unwanted horses" ... that there was no "hard data" ... so, what exactly are 15 carcasses, then?
