Wolves kill miniature horses in Montana

ST. REGIS, Mont. - When John and Mary Cheesman went to check on their miniature horses on Friday they noticed that four were missing. Being no more than 22 inches tall at the withers, John thought perhaps they'd slipped through a hole in the fence.

"We went down to a corner of the field because they liked to stay under the trees sometimes and I saw the rib cage there and we started looking for the others and we found them the same way," Mary Cheesman said.

The couple learned that they had lost all four of their horses to wolves: a 3-year-old gelding, a 9-month-old gelding, a 2-year-old filly and a 3-year-old filly. The tiny equines were the result of a 14-year breeding project they'd been working on.

"As far as these horses go, they were the end result of a 14-year project I was working on to breed a horse under 30 inches and now they're gone. I'll be 100 years old by the time I get back to the same point," John said.

"They were real nice little horses, pretty sweet. We were actually about to take them to homes where they would have been played with," Mary said.

On Saturday, a wildlife specialist from the United States Department of Agriculture wildlife services was out to investigate the incident. John Steuber, state director for USDA wildlife services, said that the specialist did confirm that the four horses were killed by wolves. Steuber said that they look at the carcass for hemorrhaging when the animal was killed, trauma, bruising, tracks and the distance between bite marks when they bite an animal and how the animal was fed upon.

"It was pretty obvious in the case of the horses that they had been heavily fed upon," he said. "It could only have been one very large animal or in this case a bunch of animals."

Steuber said that they are contracted with Fish, Wildlife and Parks to investigate such situations and said that they would wait to hear from them as to what action should be taken, as FWP is responsible for the management of the wolves since they were delisted.

Liz Bradley, FWP biologist said that they ran traps over the weekend in case the wolves might return, but they didn't. She said that they have gone ahead and authorized for the removal of what they are calling the "Superior pack," which they believe consists of about five wolves that have been causing trouble in the area.

She said that it is likely other wolves could come into the area, but said that they will continue to monitor their behavior and hope they don't develop destructive behavior patterns.

"It's a really sad incident," Bradley said, "and nobody wants to see this happen, but we're trying to remove the animals responsible and doing our best to make sure this doesn't happen again. That's why we keep an eye on the packs and encourage residents to report sightings so we can monitor their behavior. But it's a really unfortunate incident."