Morris tribune., 1897-06-09
HUNTING WILD HORSES.
Queer Fun for Sportsmen I'M South
ern Utah. Il

queer run TOR SportSmen mi SOUR
ern Utah.
'SYou may talk about hunting dee
and elk or mountain goats, but TO
real sport horse hunting is destine'
to lay all such shooting in the shad
| in the near future"
i This remark was Efade BY B. F
| Saunders, one Of the cattle kings 0.
| Utah. AIR, Saunders each year SELL
about $500 head Of cattle to Montana
stockmen. Continuing, he said:
In the Rocky mountain ranges
there are now roaming about fully
| 100000 horses that may be said to
belong to no one. The. range horse
| has become so worthless and such a
drug on the market that for several
years past stockmen havenot branded
the young horses growing up, The
horses on the plains now are about
one-half without brands, and are re-
lapsed into a perfectly wild state.
Down in the southern part of
Utah where my cattle range all the
year boys are shooting these wild
horses whenever they get a chance.
This practice, Of course, makes those
horses that escape wilder than ever,
and it is only now and then that a
band of horses can be approached
near enough to get a shot at them.
There is no danger of anyone being
injured by this sport, as the horses
are nuisance, and all cattlemen wish
to see them exterminated. Many cat
tlemen themselves own bands of
horses that are running wild, and
when they go out to round up it is
not as Of old to brand, but to shoot
them zssse-sst4.->.
Tn the Rocky mountain ranges in
Montana Utah, Nevada and else
where, it is now generally acEnowl-
edged that range horses are a public
nuisance, and they ought to be ex-
terminated. They eat up the. grass
needed for the cattle and they are as
hard on a range as sheep. The horses
eat grass right down to the roots, thus
in dry weather completely destroying
the range they Craze over.
''There was a time not many years
ago when big band Of horses, was
considered very valuable property
and guarded carefully. A horse
thief was considered on the range one
degree worse than a murderer, and
was hanged sometimes on very slight
evidence.
GA man who would now go out on
the range and steal few bands Of
horses would be allowed to ship them
away and be hailed as a public bene-
factor. Around his neck, instead Of
a rope, would be thrown wreaths Of
flowers, and all men would praisehi1a
as a philanthropist of very high ]
order.
Tits a fact that anyone who wished
could round up all the horses he could
find in almost any section of the
Rocky mountain range and no one
would question his right The day
of the range horse is past, and it will
never come again. The tifneis COM
ing, in my mind, when the horse, like
the buffalo, will be in danger of be-
coming extinct.
s'Don't you know that in recent
years the railroads compel shipper
to prepay freight on horses, which is
the only sort Of live stock where such
a rule applies.
"The sport of hunting horses is
encouraged by stockmen and can be
INDUCED in with impunity. It isdes-
tined, think, to become very popu-
lar, as it exciting and somewhat dam
gerous.
'"The proposition Of canning horse
meat for the European market was
thought at one time to be a way of
the range horse toadvantage,
but that is evidently a failure. TWAS
talked of for some time, but nothing
more was heard Of it. The only way
| can see of getting>rid Of horses is to
make the sport of shooting them pop
ular, as'I believe it is destined to be-
come.
"Of course, dead horse is no good,
but,thousands Of buffaloes were killed
for the sport there was in hunting
them, SO why not horses Butte ]
Miner. 4