The morning times., 1897-03-07
HUNTING WILD HORSES.
Vast Field for Sportsmen May
Be Found in Southern Utah.

Be Found in Southern Utah.
"You may talk ahout hunting for deer
and elk or mountain goats, but for real
sport horse hunting is destined TO lay
all such shooting i'll tie shade in the near
futurc.''
This remark was made last night by
b. +. Saunders, one of the cattle kings
OF Utah. Mr. Saunders each year sells
al oft 2,5OO head OF caCtie to Montana
stockmen. He is EeTe -at rIosent II busi-
Ness, and VIII return o his home in salt
Lake in day or TWO. Continuing, he
said
In tie Rocky Mountain ranges there
are row roaming about fully 2,CGo,O00
horses that may be said To belong TO
10 one. The range hoIse has become so
worthless and such dug on the mar
ket that for several years past stock
men have not branded the, young horses
growing up. The horses on tie plains
now are about one-haif without brands
and relapsed ini o leIfectly wild state.
Down in the southern part of Utah,
where my cattle range all the year, boys
are shooting these wild horses when
ever they get chance This practice.
cape wilder than ever, and it is only
now and then that a band OF horses can
be approached near enough TO get shot
at them. There is To danger TO anyone
being injured by this sport, as the horses
are nuisance and all cattlemen wish
To see them exte minated. Many cattle
men themselves own bands OF horses
that are running wild, and when they
go out BOW to round them up il is not
as of old To brand, but TO shoot them.
In the Rocky Mountain ranges in
Montana, Utah, Nevada and elsewhere
IL is now generally acknowledged that
range horses are 4 public nuisance and
they ought to be exte minated They
eat up the grass needed for the cattle
and they are as hard on a range OF
sheep. They eat up the grass right down
to the roots thus in dry weather com
pietely destTo wing the range they Craze
over
There was q time rot many years
ago when big band Of horses was con
sidered very valuable property AMI
guarded carefully 4 horse thief was
considered OF the range one degree worse
than murderer and was hanged some
times on very slight evidence
A ma who would now so out on the
range and stea, few bands OF horses
would be allowed TO ship them away
and be hailed as a public benefactor
Around his neck, inste.i OF rope, would
be thrown wredths of flowers, and all
men would praise him as philanthropist
of a very high order.
1t Is d fact that anyone who wished
20 MD all 10 ha n
find in almo st any section Of the Rocky
No ountan range and no one would ques-
ton his right The day of the range
no rse S past and it will never come
again. The time is coming, in my mind
when the no rse, like tie buffalo, will be
in danger Of becoming extinct.
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 huntinghorsesi is encouraged
by stockmen and can be INDUCED in with
impunity. 1t is destined l think, to be-
come very popular, as it is exciting and
somewhat dangerous.
The proposition of canning horse meat
for the European market was thought at
one time to be a way of utilizing the range
horse to advantage, but that is evidently
failure. 1t was talked of for some time,
butnotiling more was heard of it. The only
way | can see of getting rid of the horses
is to make the sport OF shooting them popu-
lar, as l believe it is destined to become.
.'Of course, a dead horse is no good, but
thousands of buffaloes were killed for the
snort there was in hunting them, so why
not horSes3', 3',-Butte Miner