The Wolf Point herald., 1924-05-29
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.


What is to be done to rid Mon
tana ranges of the cayuses, esti-
mated to number half million,
that are depicting the forage and
which serve no useful purpose?
This is question that E. A.
Phillips, secretary of the state live
stock association, is attempting to
find an answer for, with the CO.
!, operation of livestock men who ap-
pointed committee at the recent
convention at Dillon to work on
the problem.
The automobile has destroyed
whatever market there ever was for
the 7O0-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 II
the worthless wild horse could be
driven out of Montana, he declares,
additional range would be supplied
for approximately million cattle.
For a number of years the stock
men have had in mind the drafting
of law which would make it 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 a 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
shooting 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 value.
Most of the range horses are so
wild that hunters would have to
shoot them from a considerable dis
tance with the result that, and par
ticularly so after the slaughter had
been in progress a few weeks, being
unable to see brands, the hunters
might kill stock of value.
A few years ago there was some
substantial talk of starting an in
dustry in the state to utilize horse
flesh for meat, but American con-
sumers have never been educated to
the taste of horse meat and suffi-
cient capital for the project could
not be obtained. In some of the
European countries, horse meat is
eaten with relish, and by many is
superior to beef. In the
old days, Indians ate horseflesh but
the white residents of the
west, there has been no appetite for
this kind of meat. The only possible
value that these horses would have,
If slaughtered, would be for their
hides, Secretary Phillips states, and
this source of revenue would not
produce enough to pay for the
slaughter.
OF the half million horses esti-
mated to be running wild on the
Montana ranges, 80 per cent are of
the Indian cayuse type and for them
The future holds no promise, accord
ng to Secretary Phillips With au-
.omobiles selling from 5000 up, the
pony has been supplanted in the af-
fections Of the youth of the country
forever, he believes. Rounding up
and selling the ponies, however, even
f there we're a market, would avail
lothing unless they were shipped out
If the state, for the history of past
of this kind has shown that
sooner or later most of the ponies
'ounded up and disposed of in whole
ale lots at low prices, fhave event
tally found their way back to the
ange.
At the Dillon meeting Wallis
Iuidekoper of Two Dot was named
hairman of a committee of the
tockmen to conduct an investigation
nto the problem created by the
apid increase of the range horse
,ther members of the committee are
!. F. Clark of Great Falls, E. o.
elway of Dillon, DR.. John A. Dono-
an of Butte and G. J. Mcnamara of
ig Sandy.
1t is considered probable that this
)mmittee may be able to formulate
,me legislation which can be pres
lted to the next session of the leg
lature as having the support of the
ockmen. Most of the livestock men
the state-sheep men as we'll
scretary Phillips states, are in favor
ridding the range of these pests
way can be devised to do so and
It protect the property rights of
,rse owners.