ROTHENBURGER – Shooting of wild horses latest sad chapter in their story

WILD HORSES, to many people, represent freedom. To others, they mean trouble.

The mysterious shooting of 17 feral horses north of Walhachin was a terrible act that re-ignites the debate between wild horse lovers and haters.

Both the Skeetchestn Indian Band and the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council have condemned the slaughter. While a news release from Skeetchestn noted that the shootings didn’t happen on Band land, a herd of mustangs has lived in the general area for decades. Estimates of their numbers range from a hundred or more.

I first learned about them years ago when I went for a ride with then-Skeetchestn Chief Ron Ignace in the hills above the reserve. We stopped to give our horses a rest and, as we sat looking down on the Deadman Valley, he told me about the wild horses.

I later got to know more about them when a Kamloops Daily News story on a roundup of some of the horses went viral.

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Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops, alternate TNRD director and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.