Authorities are investigating the shooting deaths of 25 wild horses, the worst slaughter of free-roaming horses in the state in a decade.
"All of the horses appear to have been shot at close range with a high-powered rifle," Paul Iverson, administrator of the Nevada Division of Agriculture, said today.
"I think it's absolutely tragic. ... They weren't hurting anybody."
Several young colts and pregnant mares were among the dead horses discovered on Sunday and Monday in an area in northern Nevada known as "Devil's Flat," about 5 miles east of Sparks.
Investigators do not believe the killings are related in any way to ongoing disagreements between ranchers and government managers of wild horses, said John Tyson, a Storey County range management officer.
"It appears to be a killing of targets of opportunity," he told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
State Veterinarian David Thain said he would remove bullets from the carcasses to help find the killers.
"There are no words to describe how appalling it is," Thain said.
The horses are not technically considered wild horses as defined by the federal Wild Horse and Burro Act because they did not descend from horses living on public land at the time the act was passed in 1969, authorities said. Rather, they are believed to have descended from privately owned horses and were allowed to roam free.
"It's unusual when more than one or two are shot," said Bob Stewart, a spokesman for the Bureau of Land Management in Reno.
Numerous horses were shot on public land in central Nevada during the mid-1980s, he said. Some believed those shootings to be linked to friction with ranchers, but no one ever was prosecuted.
"It was all over central Nevada. We just never were able to get enough evidence to go to court with anybody," Stewart said.
The BLM manages more than 20,000 wild horses and burros on federal land in Nevada but has nothing to do so far with the dead horses discovered this week, Stewart said. The BLM might get involved if any of the dead horses turn out to have been on federal land. Case UpdatesTwo men accused of taking part in the slaughter of dozens of horses have received lenient sentences from a Nevada judge. Scott Brendle and Darien Brock could have been sentenced to as much as a year in jail. Instead, Judge Michael Griffin ordered them to spend 39 days in jail and pay a fine of $2,000 each. A third man who allegedly took part in the killings, Anthony Merlino, has been placed on probation for one year and fined $1,000. The three former high school friends must also complete 100 hours of community service work and split a $1,500 restitution fee.
Thirty-three mustangs were found shot to death in December 1998 near Largomarcino Canyon in northeastern Storey County, not far from Reno. Acting on a tip, Storey and Washoe county officials questioned and arrested Brendle and Brock, both Marine lance corporals at the time, and Merlino, a Reno construction worker. Originally, the men faced multiple felony charges related to the incident. But in March 1999, Judge Griffin dismissed all but one charge of killing a horse, ruling that there was insufficient evidence to connect the men to more than one of the deaths.
Brendle and Brock pleaded no contest to the remaining charge at a hearing this January. Merlino admitted to shooting one of the horses, but claimed it was a mercy killing.
(Update from ALDF - Update posted on Apr 12, 2002 - 12:00AM |
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