SALT LAKE CITY — The Uintah County Commission this week authorized the removal of between 300 and 500 stray or abandoned horses from a wide swath of land due to vehicle collisions, poor rangeland conditions and the health of the animals.
The move is somewhat unprecedented and is the first time in more than two decades the county has opted for removal of the horses.
County officials and the independent animal control district stress these are not “wild” horses and they do not occupy any herd management areas under the purview of the Bureau of Land Management, the federal agency which has oversight of protected wild horses and burros.
Christina Williams, executive director of the Uintah Animal Control and Shelter Special Service District, said the BLM in 2001 came in and gathered the entire herd in this area of Uintah County and essentially “zeroed” out the population of protected horses.
“These animals have just appeared because the price of hay was so expensive and the owners kick them out and hope for the best,” she said.
There have been a number of collisions with oil trucks and passenger vehicles, causing a public safety issue, and last year’s winter led to the death of several of the animals, Williams said.
“Watching them die a slow death last year was horrible,” she said. “There is just no feed out there. People have been begging the county and district to do something about this for quite a few years.”
All horses that are gathered, which will begin in phases in January, will be brand inspected by state and tribal officials and the district will attempt to reunite animals with their owners. All of them will get a veterinary health check as well.
The district is in the process of putting together a bid request for the aerial gathers.
“There are scattered pockets of horses all over the county,” she said. “We seem to be one of the worst areas.”
The executive order issued by the county on Monday explains that all unclaimed horses will be advertised for sale and held at the shelter.
Williams added that those unclaimed animals will ultimately be available at a sale barn in Ballard.
The fate of those unclaimed horses will remain an unknown, as Uintah County says they are under its jurisdiction and what a private buyer does with them is up to them — which could mean slaughter.
“The bottom line is if they are claimed, what the owner does with them is their decision and their business,” she said. “Our job is strictly to get them rounded up and get them off the range so they quit being a public safety hazard.”
Williams said she knows the project to gather horses from Ouray to the Colorado border will be controversial, and expects that advocates will put pressure on the county to leave them alone.
Correction: An earlier version incorrectly associated the Uintah Animal Control and Shelter District with Uintah County when it is an independent entity.