The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1924-05-30
WILD HORSES ARE
MENACE TO RANGE
NUMBER OF OWNERLESS CAY
USES RUNNING WILD ESTIM-
ATED AT 100000
Legislation VIII Be Asked for to Rid
the Country of These Animals,
Which Are Useless and For Which
There is No Market.

There is No Market.
What is to be done to rid Mon
mated to number half a million,
that are depicting the forage and
which serve no useful purpose?
This is question that K. A.
Phillips, secretary of the state live
stock association, is attempting to
find an answer for, with the CO.
operation of livestock men who APP
pointed committee at the recent
convention at Dillon to work ON
the problem.
The automobile has destroyed
whatever market there ever was for
the 700-pound to 900-pound range
pony, Secretary Phillips declares
and month by month their numbers
are increasing on the range until the
public pastures are overrun with
them and the problem has become a
serious one. Secretary Phillips says
that livestock men estimate that one
range horse consumes or destroys
twice as much range as a COW, so If
the worthless wild horse could be
driven out of Montana, he declares,
additional range would be supplied
for approximately a million cattle.
For a number of years the stock
men have had in mind the drafting
of law which would make 1t pos
sible to slaughter the unbranded, ap-
parently ownerless bronchos which
infest the mountains and prairies of
this state, but they have as yet found
it impossible to frame law which
would not be confiscatory and which
would not infringe or endanger the
rights of owners of branded horses
or of unbranded horses which are
considered by the owners to have a
potential value
Authorizing large drives and the
of the cayuse has been con-
sidered in contemplating legislation,
but a law of this kind, the secretary
Of the stockmen's association be-
lieves, would involve the risk of des-
troying animals that do have a value
Most of the range horses are SO
wild that hunters would have to
shoot them from a considerable dis
.ance with the result that, and par
.icularly so after the slaughter had
been in progress few weeks, being
Unable to see brands, the hunters
night kill stock of value.
A few years ago there was some
talk of starting an in
1ustry in the state to utilize horse
flesh for meat, but American CON
'umers have never been educated to
he taste of horse meat and suffi-
,ient capital for the project could
lot be obtained In some of the
European countries, horse meat is
aten with a relish, and by many is
onsidered superior to beef. In the
Id days, Indians ate horseflesh but
.mong the white residents of the
vest, there has been no appetite for
his kind of meat. The only possible
alue that these horses would have,
slaughtered, would be for their
ides, Secretary Phillips states, and
his source of revenue would not
reduce enough to pay for the
laughter.
OF the half million horses esti-
lated to be running wild on the
Iontana ranges, 80 per cent are of
ne Indian cayuse type and for them
he future holds no promise, accord
lg to Secretary Phillips. With au-
mobiles selling from 5000 up, the
ony has been supplanted in the af-
,ctions of the youth of the country
,rever, he believes. Rounding I'M
nd selling the ponies, however, even
there were a market, would avail
othfng unless they were shipped orr
the state, for the history of past
of this kind has shown that
,oner or later most of the ponies
'unded up and disposed of in whole
lie lots at low prices, have event
lilly found their way back to tie
nge.
At the Dillon meeting Wall
of Two Dot was named
airman of a committee of tin
ockmen to conduct an investigate
to the problem created by tho
ptd increase of the range horse.
her members of the committee arc =
F. Clark of Great Falls, E. @.
lway of Dillon, DR.. John A. Done
n of Butte and c. j. Mcnamara of
G Sandy.
1t is considered probable that this
mmittee may be able to formulate
me legislation which can be pres
ted to the next session of the leg-
ature as having the support of the
'ckmen. Most of the livestock men
the state-sheep men as we'll
cretary Phillips states, are in favor
Kidding the range of these pests
a way can be devised to do SO ard
protect the property rights OF
rse owners.