‘Heinous act’: Advocate reacts to feral horse shooting near Kamloops

As hundreds of feral horses live in the South Okanagan, a local advocate and Penticton Indian Band (PIB) official are reacting to what police are calling a ‘disheartening act’ in B.C.’s Interior.

Seventeen wild horses were shot and killed on Crown land just west of Kamloops, B.C., near the community of Walhachin.

“It’s shocking and disturbing and I question some people’s state of mind when they do something like that. I don’t know what the intention or motive is, but it is just unacceptable and cruel,” said PIB Chief Greg Gabriel.

Summerland resident Theresa Nolet has been an advocate for horses for years and says although shocking, this happens more often than is reported.

“It’s heartbreaking, absolutely, I can’t understand why a person would do such a cruel thing,” said Nolet.

“But it’s not as uncommon as people may think. We have incidents of that type of thing down here as well. In fact, one of the horses that I rescued was because someone had shot her mom and she was about a two-month-old foal at the time.”

Last year, the PIB estimated that close to 500 horses were roaming free in the Penticton area.

Nolet has been pushing for change to protect and control the wild horse population.

“The one thing would be to properly contain the animals, separate mares from stallions — that’s how every breeding operation goes,” she said.

“It’s all about changing people’s attitudes and perspectives, beliefs on how the horses should be allowed to interact, in my personal opinion.”

2:02 Penticton Indian Band say fencing to contain free-roaming horses deliberately cut

Meanwhile, the motive behind the shooting death of the Kamloops horses is unknown at this time.

“From my experience in this area, lots of times people get frustrated with having the horses on their properties. They’re large animals, they’re very intimidating, especially in herds so that may be the reason, but I have no idea,” said Nolet.

“It could have been for the pleasure of killing things, I don’t know, it’s unfortunate.”

Police acknowledged that the horses were of cultural significance to the local Skeetchestn Band.

An investigation is underway into the shooting, and anyone with information is being asked to contact the RCMP at 250-299-7462.

“I just hope that the band will pursue this with the RCMP and get some answers. And find out who did this heinous act,” said Nolet.

2:04 Grade 6 student prompts government to install feral horse signs in Oliver, B.C.