The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1894-10-11
TURNING HORSES INTO FOOD.
Pacific Coat Project for Utilizing Vast
Herds of Wild Animals.

j. U. Brown, prominent business
man OF San Francisco, has returned
from the north after several weeks alb
sence. He brings the information that
a company has been organized to cap
ture 100000 wild horses and treat
them in the al attoirs at Trout Dale, on
the Columbia river, reducing certain
parts TO oil, saving the hams for the
people of France to eat and utilizing
the hides and bones i'll various WAYS.
Those backing the enterprise are l..
Zimmerman, T. May, +. ID. Gardner
and Felix Faugher welsknown stock
men and capitalists of the northwest.
For some time the horses that have
grown wild in the mountains and iso-
lated valleys, and those in the ranges
not classed as wild, have fallen so low
in price that they are worth but the
mere bagatelle of from s.. 80 to So each.
The aforesaid capitalists figured that
they could make 81 head. or a total
of $4,000, by capturing the wild horses
and shipping them to the abattoirs.
Since they got to work on the pro-
ject, however, they have concluded that
the opportunities are larger; that they
and will make a vast sum before thew
get through with it. They have, there
fore, incorporated a company and will
employ skilled crew of vagueros and
do great business Many of the
horses have no owners, and they will
be caught wherever they are and
brought to the abattoirs. Vast numbers
besides these will be bought at the low
figures mentioned and brought to Trout
Dale. a dispatch from Portland, print
ed in the Examiner, gave some of the
details:
There are vast number of mongrel
horses now in various parts of the
northwest, and it is proposed to get rid
of them at a profit, and, at the same
time, give the growers of good Ameri-
can horses better market for them
The mOngrels will, therefore, be brought
to the abattoirs and killed. The flesh
will be rendered of its oil and the resi-
due, with the bones and hoofs, will be
made into fertilizer. The hides. that
have always a market value, will be
salted, and the hair, with the names
and tails, will be used in upholstery
work. A portion of the meat will be
compressed for use as chicken food. 1t
is estimated tlat in Oregon. Washing
ton, Montana, Nevada and Idaho there
are at present 1000, 900 half-breed wild
horses for VIII Oh no market can now be
found. The industry of reducing the
horses hides to shoe leather has come
to be considered SO important that the
company proposes to build a new abat-
toir at Portland.
Another dispatch gives more details.
Several parties, both here and on Puget
sound, have been figuring for some
weeks on Strengthening the horses.
There are large numbers of half
and cayuse horses eating the grass on
stock ranges in eastern Oregon and
Idaho which cannot be sold anywhere
at any price. 1t is thought that thou
sands of these horses can be bought for
from 81 to 81 a head, and S!at they
might be slaughtered at small profit
There is a sale for the skins. lones. oil.
etc, and ii was even imagined that the
hams might be cured and shipped to
Paris where horseiesh is eaten by the
poorer classes"
In addition to the hundreds of thou
sands of wild and mongrel horses in
the regions alluded to there are many
in British Columbia. In the whole of
the Upper Fraser and Dog Greek sta
tons of Vancouver ii is estimated there
are s, 600 horses never branded Or las
seed roaming the hills, Wild anl agile
as deer. a proposition was rade three
years ago to shoot them i0Aa - save
the ranges. but it was deemed imprac-
ticable, and if captured the trouble of
breaking is more than they are worth.
The horses are not in bands OF any
great numbers, but wander here and
there over an immense district. so that
any scheme to utilize them would in
volve killing them in scattered places
and transporting the hides and u.ue and
reproducing sections Of the ,-.Ilcasses
for long distances to tie railway. Be-
yond the mountains, near Fort Peiiy. is
band of LOCO or loo vIich defv
capture. They are 100 miles FROM the
railroad. Here and there throughout
the millions of acres OF prairie are lnany
other wild horses. Some escaped from
ranchers. Others are let 20 as not
worth looking after"