SPRAY -- Almost two dozen ownerless, hungry horses are haunting the lonesome rimrocks and canyons west of Spray in
this winter, and the cash-strapped county is making plans for a rescue it can't afford.
"They just stand around and stare; there is nothing to eat," said Sandy Taggart of Fossil. She operates the Animal Rescue Foundation, which takes in dogs but has no place for the unwanted horses.
Janet Wilson has counted 22 horses "that are literally starving to death" near her home along Alder Creek, 10 miles west of Spray. Wilson estimates 40 to 50 hungry horses could be roaming across several thousand acres in a half-dozen small bands. She's been putting out hay, but can't afford to feed all the horses, she said.
To help
The Wheeler County Sheriff's Office
is accepting donations for hay. Mail checks to Wheeler County, P.O. Box 345, Fossil, OR 97830.
Donations also may be mad
e to the Oregon Humane Society, P.O. Box 11364 Portland, OR 97211
Humane Society spokeswoman Linda Fielder
of Portland said her organization investigated 348 cases of suspected abuse and neglect of horses around the state last year. Still, it’s rare to hear about an entire herd starving and in trouble, she said. “So many of these things go unreported, and there’s no real way to share information around the different counties,” Fieldler said.
"Visitors think they all look pretty darn good in the summer, but nobody is there to see them in the winter when they're starving," Wilson said.
These aren't federally managed
mustangs. Instead, this herd probably got its start on a nearby ranch, said Chris Perry, chairman of the Wheeler County commissioners. Ranchers began turning horses loose in the county as early as the 1920s during the transition to motorized tractors, he said.
In the years since, the feral herd has multiplied and continued to roam the county's rugged rimrock country, where roundups are rare and difficult. The situation has turned into a crisis now as a summer drought killed grass and a harsh winter has driven the horses into canyon bottoms near homes.
Wheeler County Sheriff Chris Humphreys said rounding up, corralling and feeding so many unwanted horses will be a challenge for his two-person department. The county, with a population of only 1,441, is among Oregon's poorest.
Talks are underway with officials in Deschutes and Crook counties, who have had their own problems with feral horses in the past, to determine what to do with the herd once it's corralled, Perry said. Wheeler County officials intend to check the horses for brands, tattoos or implanted chips to track down owners if possible, he said.
A small group of half-wild horses munches hay left by a landowner along Alder Creek in Wheeler County. At least 22 ownerless horses roam this area, and the actual number may be closer to 50, neighbors said.
For an example of the costs involved, take
It spent $80,000 in 2011 confiscating about 150 horses from a snow-covered breeding farm near Troy, said Sheriff Steve Rogers of Enterprise. The northeastern Oregon county recovered all but about $15,000 of those costs by auctioning off the horses, he said. The bulk of the county's outlay went to buy hay, hire wranglers to gather and care for the hungry horses and lease property to pasture them.
The problem along Alder Creek came to light when the herd's stallions began tearing through landowners' fences, sometimes injuring domestic mares when they tried to breed with them and even chasing after a hiker in the area, Perry said.
Pongo Fund
The Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank is seeking money to buy hay for the horses. Contacts: Erin Bergstrom, 503-407-9464; thepongofund.org, which has a Paypal account for online donations; or Pongo Fund, PO Box 8244, Portland, OR 97207.
The county probably will try to find people who want to adopt the horses, he said. "I think everybody agrees they need to be humanely dealt with," he said.
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