New Discoveries of Slain Horses Spur Investigation

New discoveries of wild horses and deer slain in a rural section of Nevada near Great Basin National Park, allegedly by the employees of ranchers seeking to protect their grazing land, have spurred a fresh federal-state investigation.

A federal grand jury in Las Vegas has issued subpoenas for six White Pine County residents, and two rifles suspected of being used in the killings have been confiscated, as a result of the inquiry by at least four agencies, according to law enforcement officials in the eastern Nevada town of Ely.

Although an informant reported that as many as 400 horses and 200 deer had been killed, only 28 carcasses of slain horses and 20 of mule deer have been recovered, authorities said.

Slow Deaths

“They shot them in the stomach, so these animals would wander,” Undersheriff Harry Collins said Thursday. He explained that the animals take hours to die and that accordingly their carcasses are widely scattered and the numbers of killings are difficult to confirm.

The new killings occurred about 200 miles east of where another mass killing of at least 580 wild horses took place last year in Lander County in the central part of the state. Five people have been indicted for those killings and will go on trial this month and next in Reno on “gross misdemeanor” charges calling for up to $2,000 in fines and a year in jail.

The latest incident comes when litigation by the Sacramento-based Animal Protection Institute has blocked the planned captures of 3,000 Nevada wild horses by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which has an extensive horse adoption program in which the animals are sent to other states.

The halt in the captures, imposed almost a year ago, has reportedly intensified feelings among ranchers that a growing wild animal population is despoiling rangeland used by more than 500,000 cattle and sheep that are permitted to graze on the 87% of Nevada’s mostly barren land under federal control.

A Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman Thursday estimated the number of wild horses in the state at about 26,000. The horses have been legally protected under federal law since 1971. They are descendants of a 19th-Century wild horse population estimated as high as 2 million.

Statements about the latest killings varied in tone between local and federal officials, with the local officials taking a more dire view.

Local officials said the joint investigation is well along and has established that the animals were shot. They suggested that indictments will come soon.

But the Bureau of Land Management spokeswoman, Maxine Shane, characterized the investigation as only preliminary and said the causes of death have not been firmly established.

Bob Hillman, director of field services for the Animal Protection Institute, charged in an interview that “the BLM has a hard time following the 1971 law because it’s always been a cattlemen, stockmen agency. The sheriff and district attorney, by contrast, find these killings abhorrent and they don’t owe their allegiance to the ranchers.”

White Pine Dist. Atty. Dan Papez, however, cautioned that sheer maliciousness rather than economic interest could account for some of the killings.

“Unfortunately, these days we have widespread hooliganism and vandalism,” Papez said. “But there also could be a commercial concern. There’s been a longstanding disagreement on how the BLM manages the wild horses. They do a lot of damage to the range when their numbers are not controlled. Nonetheless, the law is the law and it’s unlawful to shoot them.”

Papez said the deer do less damage and with them he is convinced that the slayings were “just maliciousness.”

White Pine Sheriff Bernie Romemo said a search warrant was obtained May 31, leading to the seizure of the two rifles. “We’re looking at figures of 400 horses and 200 deer,” he said.

Shane of the Bureau of Land Management, by contrast, said that only 28 horse carcasses had been recovered and did not mention the deer. She said more carcasses may be recovered when snow melts in the mountains.