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Roaming horses a provincial problem

Ownership, culture and deteriorating fences all contribute to situation

Pemberton and Mount Currie aren't the only places that have seen errant horses roaming pastures.

Many have expressed frustration with the situation that has seen a herd of approximately 60 horses roaming Highway 99 between Pemberton and Mount Currie. Two horses were killed last month after collisions with motor vehicles. Despite the efforts of local authorities, concerns persist that the horses could escape their grounds again.

But the problem isn't confined to the Pemberton-Mount Currie area.

Laird Archie has seen it first-hand. A resident of the Canim Lake Indian Reserve near 100 Mile House, he helped bring to light the fact that about 50 horses were starving and dying on the reserve in the dead of winter last year. The problem, he said in an interview, was that the owner of the horses died and left them to his children, who didn't take care of them when he passed on.

"They didn't give them one bale of hay all winter," Archie said. "They're used to those horses fending for themselves. I offered them some hay, for free, they just helped me throw it off a trailer."

Archie discovered the horses on a drive out to the dead man's property last winter. He found four or five horses dead, then got out his snowmobile so he could get a closer look. He did a tour around the reserve on his sled and counted 27 dead horses. Others were starving where they stood.

"They were skin and bones," he said. "They were a rack and hide holding them together."

The situation got so dire that the SPCA stepped in to help coordinate a rescue mission. Together with the help of veterinarians and the RCMP, the assembled parties arranged to ship 30 horses to Kamloops, according to Archie, who added he was later shunned by the community for speaking out.

"I used to haul wood for the band," he said. "After this happened, I haven't hauled any logs for the band at all."

Mike Archie, Chief Councillor for the Canim Lake Band and Laird's cousin, would not provide any comment, saying that the First Nation had already put out a press release on the matter and had nothing more to say.

Horses have also been a problem closer to Penticton, where approximately 300 horses have been roaming the region around the traditional territory of the Penticton Indian Band.

Theresa Nolet, a resident of Penticton's West Bench area, said she's seen horses roam her region for 20 years. Last winter she was feeding between 15 and 17 horses in her yard. One had a baby on her lawn. The danger, she said, is increasing for the horses because they've started crossing Highway 97, a busy thoroughfare that links Penticton with communities such as Kelowna and Osoyoos.

She and an animal welfare organization called Critteraid is so worried about the horses breeding and multiplying that they've resorted to shooting them with contraceptives. Her organization has sent Dolly Kruger, a member of the Penticton Indian Band, to Montana for training in how to use a dart gun and administer a birth control vaccine to the horses.

"That's right, birth control for female horses," Nolet wrote in an e-mail. "This can be administered while a horse is pregnant without harming the foal."

Critteraid will be working with Kruger to start a business where Indian Bands can hire her to help control horse populations in a "humane fashion."

However not everyone in Penticton shares Nolet's concerns. Chief Jonathan Kruger of the Penticton Indian Band said the horses roam his territory because they're a "major part" of his people's culture.

"There's stories of horses in our communities and our nation where horses were here before the first contact of the first settlers," he said. "The Okanagan people were horsemen out of a lot of the tribes in British Columbia.

"We were like the first horsemen, which really helped us with a lot of fights and stuff back in the day."

Kruger said about half of the 300 horses belong to band members and the other half are wild. Though they form a big part of his people's culture, he admits there have been issues with them.

"There has been accidents where horses have been hit on the highway," he said. "The fences are so old in our reserves that it's definitely been a challenge with our horses. So yeah, there has been, quick and short, incidents where there has been fatalities with horses on the highway."

To manage the horses, the Penticton Band is working with the Okanagan-Similkameen Regional District on a proposal to improve fencing on reserve and they're considering the contraceptive solution to manage the horse population.

He added that some owners have already helped lower the population. Last year, Kruger said, there were 400 horses but this year they're down to 300, with reductions likely coming through horse auctions.

"I really feel like we're taking the right steps," Kruger said. "This is a solution that we can't fix overnight. We have noticed a lot that the horse populations have been down this year. Last year we were getting major complaints every day and this year we barely got any."

Back in Mount Currie, authorities are working on their own solutions. Wayne Andrew, owner of most of the horses, struggles to keep them contained but he constantly finds himself mending fences on his own. He's gone to the Mount Currie Band for help.

"These horses have been killed along this road for a long time," he said. "That's why I say, I went to them and asked them, what can we do about it? And then, I just never got no support from it.

"I don't want animals on the road because we've lost horses on the road too."