Rescue groups plan to save 800 wild horses

Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A spokesman for a coalition of 18 animal rescue groups from throughout the nation said Tuesday they expect to keep an estimated 800 wild horses from being slaughtered, thanks to the Internet and a deadline extension.

The rescue groups have committed to pay the state to take control of the horses when they are rounded up in Northern Nevada by the Bureau of Land Management, officials said.

Friday had been the deadline for the arrangements and deposits to save the animals but State Brand Inspector Jim Connelley said Tuesday that the deadline has now been postponed to next month. Some 800 to 900 animals will be rounded up by the BLM because they are on public lands covering 219,000 acres, most of it in Eureka County, without a grazing permit.

He said inspectors will examine the animals to determine if they are branded and belong to anybody. Most, if not all, of the horses are believed to lack brands. Those horses will be sold by the state because it doesn't have the money to house and feed the animals, officials said.

Connelley said he sent out an appeal to the protection groups to buy the wild horses to keep them from going to slaughterhouses.

The animal rescue coalition's spokesman, Jerry Finch, founder of Habitat For Horses in Texas, said the response to the group's call for donations to save the animals has been "marvelous."

The groups used the Internet to find people to adopt the horses and to seek contributions to be able to buy the animals. The coalition needed to raise more than $26,000. Prominent publicity in National Geographic has helped spread the word.

"We still have to raise a lot of money but I'm a lot more confident than I was three days ago," Finch said Tuesday.

Connelley had originally set a Jan. 17 deadline for the protection organizations to submit their applications and a $25 advance fee. The horses have not yet been rounded up and he has moved the deadline back to early February. The groups will have to pay $50 a head to cover paperwork and blood tests for the animals.

In addition to the purchase commitment from the animal groups, a sanctuary in Virginia has agreed to take 60 of the older and crippled horses, Connelley said.

Liz Clancy Lyons of the Doris Day Animal League in Washington said wild horses in the herd management areas are protected by federal law. She said she feared that some federally protected wild horses might have strayed from protection areas and will be among the herds that are rounded up.

But BLM spokeswoman Maxine Shane said a wild horse must be in a herd management area or close to the area to be protected under the federal law. In this case, there is a long distance between the public lands where the horses are and the herd management area, Shane said.

Lyons also described the predicament of the Northern Nevada horses as "desperate." She said if they are unclaimed, they will be sent to Montana to be fattened and then sold in Canada.

But Connelley said the horses will be sent to Palomino Valley near Reno and to Fallon after they become property of the state. Once there, the rescue groups can pick them up.

After purchasing the horses, the nonprofit protection groups can can sell them for $300 to individuals who have homes for the horses, officials said.

If they are not claimed by the groups, the horses "will end up in dog food cans," Connelley said.

But Finch said that doesn't happen any more. These days, unwanted horses "are cut into steaks and end up overseas" where they are consumed by people, Finch said.

Shane said some of the horses may be claimed by Carrie and Mary Dann, Shoshone sisters who have carried on a long fight, claiming the land in question is Indian tribal land and does not belong to the federal government. The Danns' land grazing and ownership dispute is one of the reasons for the roundup. Shane said notice has been sent to the Dann sisters that the roundup will be before the foaling season, which is at the end of February. The Dann sisters will be able to reclaim the horses but will have to pay a trespass penalty.

The unclaimed horses will be classified as "estrays" which become property of the state Department of Agriculture, Connelley said.

The word from the governor's office on down, Connelley said, has been to find homes for the horses.