The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-01-12
BOOTLEG HORSES
IN NORTHWEST FOR
FOOD PURPOSES
Rounded Up and Shipped to
Glue Plants and
Packers.
BU United Press

PORTLAND, Ore, Jan. 12.-Illicit
trafficking in liquor has a new rival
that Of bootlegging horses, a prac-
tice which hase developed along with
the problem of eliminating the wild
horse, or "fuz tail" from the range
lands of eastern Oregon and Wash
ington, Idaho, Montana and Wyo.
ming.
In the brave days of long ago,
when the West was wild, wicked and
womenless. 1t was a capital crime
to toss your lariat over the neck of
a steed belonging to another man.
The customary manner of register
ing disapproval OF such an act was
to loop the rope around the neck Of
the horse thief and hang him from
convenient tree to swing in the
breezes and furnish food for crows
and buzzards. The only consolation
was that in the juniper country,
trees Of the popular size are few and
far between.
Horse Thieves Unnoticed
But now it is different; yes, very
bands and women governors. A
horse thief or horse bootlegger, at
tracts less attention than would an
"old-fashioned girl"
The feminine form in attractive
proportions is pleasing to the eye,
and so are the outlines of a horse to
many men, butt appears-to a
lessor degree. Old Dobbin, as the
plainsmen know him, lost much of
his attraction in the wake of the
World War when the value Of an
unbroken "broom tail' crashed
as high as $50 to a price ranging
from SO to so cents.
Wild horses have been a western
nuisance for many years but the
present problem is not wild horses
but rather one Of controlling domes-
tic horses gone wild and herein lies
the factor Of horse bootlegging.
Valuable in War
During the war horses We're valu.
able and every animal capable of
bearing a saddle found a ready mar.
ket with the warning nations of
Europe competing for cannon fod.
der" Horses became a unit of value,
more than ever before; ranchers Dor.
rowed money on their free-running
stock. Then came the Armistice,
and the collapse Of the value Of the
horses.
Banks found that $4,000 Of war.
time horse securities had fadded to
less than cost Of catching the live
stock-the horsemen and rancher
made the same discovery. Horses
were abandoned by the hundreds and
being half wild already it was not
long before bands were formed and
the branded animals roamed the
plains as though their ancestors had
never known halter, bride or saddle.
Being a public nuisance, Oregon
passed a law authorizing the eradi-
cation of abandoned horses and 1t
covers the offspring o. such stock
which are unbranded.
Rounded Up
Horse bootlegging is this: The
wranglers must live and the range
feed must be saved for stock worth
more than horses, so the abandoned
animals as well as the wild ones are
being rounded up, shipped to glue
factories and meat packing plants
where the hoofs and bones are util-
lied and the meat sent to Europe
for human consumption.
These wranglers, at best, can't
make over wages, and on the part OF
many there Is no wild.eyed effort to
Identify ownership Of horses rounded
up. They grab ali in sight, includ-
ing some having owners-and there
fore, the term horse bootlegging
sprang into use.
But, like liquor. bootlegging in
many quarters, no one cares a whole
lot SO nothing much is done, about it.