Fifteen wild horses killed in Wyoming

William Simonsen

Saturday, Jan. 6, 2001 | 12:42 p.m.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Fifteen wild horses have been found shot to death on southwest Wyoming's public lands in recent weeks, including 10 northeast of Rock Springs on Thursday.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials were acting on a tip when they found the 10 horses over several hundred yards of the Red Desert. Nine of the horses were dead and one had to be euthanized, according to BLM spokesman Mike Brown.

"It was a very hard thing to do," Brown said. "It had been suffering for about two days."

Also, four dead horses were found Dec. 15 in the same area 30 miles from Rock Springs. And one horse carcass was found Wednesday near Rawlins.

All the shootings were on public land and federal officials were investigating. BLM law enforcement rangers declined to disclose the sex or age of the horses or what type of firearm killed them.

Examinations of the carcasses were planned, although scavengers had beaten investigators to some of them, according to Al Pierson, BLM director for Wyoming.

"These incidents will be fully investigated ... We will prosecute those responsible to the fullest extent of the law," he said.

Wild horses are protected by the federal Wild-Free Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971. Killing them is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine per horse.

The 10 horses were found a mile from the Divide Basin Herd Management Area.

The 778,915-acre Great Divide Basin is home to about 1,020 wild horses. A two-week BLM roundup there captured 260 horses for adoption recently, Brown said.

A government trapper found the horse near Rawlins in the 470,000-acre Adobe Town Herd Management Area, home to about 1,600 horses.

The wild horses were not the first killed in Wyoming over the past year. Three were shot south of Rock Springs about a year ago, also on federal land.

That case remained under investigation, according to Brown.