Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire $25,000 reward offered in case of slaughtered wild horses

Non-native, invasive species, competing with wildlife for scarce resources in the desert.

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2023...ughtered-nevada-wild-horses/69837025007/

More than a year after five wild horses were slaughtered outside Ely, the Bureau of Land Management and wild horse advocacy groups are still seeking answers as to who killed the horses and why.

In November of 2021, five horses were discovered within 600 yards of each other about two miles south of Hwy. 50 in Jakes Valley.

An aborted horse fetus was attached to one of the dead horses. Another horse was found alive, but it was wounded so severely it was euthanized.

A necropsy revealed the horses were 18 months to six years old. The BLM estimates they were killed within 24 hours of their discovery.

A $25,000 reward is now being offered for information leading to the arrest of who shot and mortally wounded the horses. The National Mustang Association contributed $10,000, American wild horse campaign contributed $5,000 and Wild Horse Education added $5,000.

The 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act of 1971 declares the animals “be protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death.”

In 1998, nearly three dozen wild horses were shot to death at close range with a rifle in a canyon east of Reno. Some were maimed, and at least one was tortured after being shot.

Three Wooster High School graduates were eventually arrested for the shootings. The men were accused of grand theft, grand larceny and poisoning, and maiming or killing another person’s animal.


The 1998 slaughter was believed to be the largest single shooting of wild horses in the state since the mid-1980’s, when roughly 600 horses were killed over a two-year period due to friction with ranchers, the BLM said at the time.

That should be a reward for thinning the herd.

I don't hate horses, but I hate those 4-legged locust. They have NO niche in any North American echo system and destroy the habitat for native species.

I wouldn’t even mind a few of them running around, but they have no natural predators and destroy the range. Madeline Pickens, the uber rich wife of T Boone; bought a ranch about five miles south of us when I lived in NV. She filled it full of those things. Her (well, his) money I guess but of all the things to waste it on. BLM does a piss poor job of managing them; mostly so they can complain about scarce resources and get more money. Because, you know, the millions they already get for this specific job isn’t enough. It must be tens of thousands they spend annually per horse! They can be easily controlled by turning them into dog food but there’s no tax dollars to be had from that!

The price zoo keepers have to pay for beef to feed their carnivores is outrageous. Why not horses?

You guys are way too logical, and sane.

Pretty sure a training program for a lot less $ would improve that person's marksmanship. #tagdon'twasteammo

As for torturing the horse per above.... same to them. Psychopaths ...

They're a lot easier to hit than groundhogs or prairie dogs, and the buzzards get better fed cleaning up after the hunters. Ship 'em to France- - - - -I hear the Frogs like horse meat!

Dogs are a lot healthier on a meat diet than the cornmeal diet they get in most dogfood. No wonder so many dogs are diabetic.

That should have been their reward for killing the horses.

Seems like good target medium for testing elk bullets.

Maybe bring in some wolves? Let the two sacred species work things out.

Osky

I did some antelope hunting in Jake's Valley last fall. The number of wild horses I saw there and south of Eureka was pretty amazing.

Feral...not wild.

Thinning the herd is probably a good thing and they should not be protected. However shooting and wounding any animal, just for fun, is not the sign of a decent human being. Some people are just scum and these guys seem to fit the category pretty well.
I am, frankly, surprised that horses do as well as they do in such a demanding environment. Horses we've had seemed to wake up in the morning and start planning on how they were going to get sick or injured before the day was done. Seen up close, those I've seen in southern Nevada didn't look real well-fed. GD

No shortage of them in the Owyhees desert of sw Idaho. I could hike for miles and not see a single deer or antelope.
Feral horses, sage sparrows, once in a while a jack-rabbit and coyote.

The Navajo Nation was going to open a season on wild horses a few years ago.
Tree huggers got it stopped.
I kept going through my safes, asking myself, what cartridge for horse ??
It would have only cost me $5.00.

Actually, I had horse in Europe back in the 80's. It was delicious. Mint jelly was a fine compliment to it. Brisket, if I remember.

Locally here.....

Even after the BLM rounded up a bunch & moved them to adaption corrals

They are still around...just not as many....maybe see 15-20....not 40-45 head

Predators ? Year or so ago...a winter day trip I spotted the snow very disturbed in a dry wash

Got off SxS to take a look...group of horses ran down into wash from a high sandy bank

Hmmm......mountain lion tracks in the fresh snow trying to jump one

Ya'd think a Desert Sheep lamb would be an easier meal

pic 2 a favored meadow for the horses

That's more reward than is usually offered for murderers!
Sad that animals are valued more than humans!

They'll never catch me.

I wonder how many of those “wild” horses are wearing shoes?
Some places in the west outstaters are moving in on their 5 acre “ranches” and think they ought to own a horse or two. Once the new wears off, the kids lose interest, and the bills pile in those horses get a one way evening ride in a trailer to where they are let out.

There is a lot of that going on, dam things blend in and add to the destruction.

There are other Indian reservations in the west I know of that are also overrun by horses feral and otherwise.

Osky