Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1897-09-09
HUNTING WILD HORSES


Su''' i'' ~ t'"ppN ~porlsInPn In
southern Utah.
You may talk about hunting dre-
and elk or mountain goats but for lr,r
sport horse hunting is destined To tr
all such shooting IN the shade in m.
near future.
This remark was made by E T
Saunders. one of the cattle kings of
Utah Mr. Saunders each yem sells
about 2, 800 head of cattle to Montau,
stOckmen
In the Rocky mountam ranges tbera
are now roaming about fully 1000. 600
horses that may be said to belong TO no
one. The range horse has become 81
worthless and such a drug on the mar.
ket that for several years past stockmep
have not branded the young horses
growing up The horses on the plains
now are about one-half without brands
and are relapsed INTO a perfectly wild
state.
Down III the southern part of Utah
where my cattle range all the vear.
pON7 hIS oiipolihS NHtSN Win HORSES
whenever they get a chance. This prac,
tice. 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 any one
being injured by this sport, as the
horses are a nuisance, and all cattlemen
wish TO see them exterminated Many
cattlcmen themselves OWE bands of
horses that are running wild, and when
they go out TO round them up it is not
as of old to brand, but to shoot them.
In the Rocky mountain ranges in
Montana, Utah, Nevada and elsewhere
it is now generally acknowledged that
range horses are a public nuisance and
they ought to be eXterminated They
eat up the grass needed for 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 a big band of horses was con
sidered 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.
"A man who would now go out on
the range aud steal a few bands Of
horses would be allowed to ship them
away and be hailed as a public benefac.
tor, Around his neck, instead of a rope.
would be thrown wreaths of flowers,
and all men would praise him as a
philanthropis. of a very high order
1T is a fact that any one who wished
could round up all the horses he could
find III almost any section Of the Rocky
mountain range and no II would ques-
ton his right The day of the range
horse is past, and it will never come
again The time is coming, in my mind,
when the horse, like the buffalo, will
be in danger of becoming extinct.
Don't you know that in recent years
the railroads compel a Shippert to prepay
freight on horses, which is the only sort
of live stock where such a rule applies
The sport of hunting horses is en-
couraged by stockmen and can be III
dulged IN with impunity 1t Is destined,
| think, to become very popular, as 1t Is
exciting and somewhat dangerous.
The proposition of canning horse
meat for the European market was
thought at one time to be IL way Of utll-
izing the range horse to advantage, but
that is evidently failure 1t was talked
of for some time, but nothing more l.
heard OF 1t. The only way | can see Of
getting rid of horses is to make the sport
of Shooting them popular. as believe 1t
Is destined to become.
''Of course a dead horse is no good,
but thousands of buffaloes were killed
for the sport there was hunting them
so why not horses?''-Butte Miner