According to news reports from Lodge Grass, Montana, residents who were looking for missing horses recently discovered a field with the carcasses of over two dozen horses that had been shot and killed. Some of the horse's heads had been cut off.
Looking for answers in deaths of horses
Law enforcement officers from several agencies along with officials from the Montana State Livestock Department are investigating the deaths of over two dozen horses found shot to death in a field.
Law enforcement officers from several agencies along with officials from the state Livestock Department began investigating the deaths on Feb. 11. Some of the horsesâ heads had been cut off.
To date it isn't clear if anyone will be charged with killing the animals. Big Horn County Attorney Jay Harris said Friday that he hadnât seen a report of killings and Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement did not return phone calls from reporters. The BIA office in Billings was closed Monday because of the federal holiday.
Horses are allowed to roam freely on the Crow Reservation because it is open range. That means livestock owners arenât required to fence their animals in, but anyone who does not want stray livestock on his property must fence them out.
The Crow Reservation is located in southeastern Montana and is just south of Billings, Montana. This resource rich reservation is home to over 12,000 Crow enrolled tribal members and contains about 2,282,000 acres of land within its exterior boundary. There are about 1,511,975 acres of tribal and allotted surface trust acreage.
It is illegal to kill roaming livestock in open range country, said Christian McKay, executive officer of the state Livestock Department