Residents Tell Missoula Commissioners to Leave Horses Alone

Missoula County authorities say a proposed resolution dealing with a neighborhood feral horse herd is not an attempt to remove the horses altogether.

Dozens of people filled the county commissioners' hearing room yesterday to express overwhelming support for the horses, which have been in the area for decades, but have taken to wandering among the homes going up in the Miller Creek area.

Dennis Bragg photo

     County Chief Administrative Officer Chris Lounsbury says the draft proposal is merely to give landowners a process to follow in removing horses if they're causing property damage.

"It clarifies their legal status, and then it establishes a county-authorized process for the capture by private landowners when there are conflicts," Lounsbury explained during last week's hearing. "It requires the involvement of the Department of Livestock to make sure that these are not owned horses, that they don't belong to somebody, so we aren't taking away somebody's private property, and then it provides a lawful pathway for the placement of horses through either nonprofit partnerships, private ownership, or through the Department of Livestock."

READ MORE: Ideas Pour In For Miller Creek Horses

Residents show support for horses

Dozens of residents showed up at the courthouse for Thursday's hearing, many long-time residents and horse owners, urging the county to leave the big animals be, and do a better job of public education to keep people safe.

"We've enjoyed the horses. It's gonna make me emotional. Um, we had horses ourselves, and never had a problem out riding, that it's just enough range out there that they'd stay away," one woman told commissioners. "They'd stay on the mountains on either side. So to see them, and that they might be gone, is pretty hard. Keep it in perspective."

Another man wasn't buying the arguments of collisions with cars and horses, saying the hundreds of deer in Miller Creek are a bigger hazard.

"I'd like to know how many deer-car vehicle collisions that have happened on Upper North Creek Road."

Dennis Bragg photo

Comments will continue

The feral horse issue is already generating a near record amount of comments, with hundreds of people posting input on the county's website and social media. But commissioners will keep the door open for additional comments until mid-summer.