Light fine draws protest from horse advocates

Friday, Aug. 14, 1998 | 10:07 a.m.

Louie Damonte pleaded no contest to three counts of possessing estray horses. He was arrested after he was stopped in January with 12 horses in a trailer on U.S. Interstate 80 outside of Fernley.

Wild horses living in the 520-acre Virginia Foothills south of Reno are considered state property. It is illegal to gather or possess them without notifying the state agriculture department.

Fernley Justice Court Judge Stephen Lehman ordered Damonte to pay a $100 fine and suspended a five-day jail sentence.

Damonte will have to pay another $900 and serve the jail time if he commits a second offense over the next year.

Dawn Lappin, director of Wild Horse Organized Assistance, said the fine was nothing more than a slap on the wrist. She said it costs as much as $10,000 to treat, house and find homes for the animals after their capture.

"I think the $100 fine says the law is just a mockery," Lappin told the Daily Sparks Tribune.

"It will set a precedent that other people can take horses because it doesn't mean anything to the justice system," added Bobbi Royle, founder of the horse-advoacy group, Wild Horse Spirit.

"If the legal system doesn't defend their own law then the horses don't have a chance, and neither do the people who are trying to get a fair shake for the horses."

Lappin said one livestock company in Fallon is getting anywhere from 5 cents to 44 cents a pound for horses. She said Damonte may have been able to sell the estrays for up to $13,000.

Damonte of the Virginia Foothills was stopped after a brand inspector for the Nevada Department of Agriculture recognized some of the estray horses.

Deputy District Attorney Julie Slabaugh said the state could only prove identification of three of the estrays captured by Damonte.