A recent post on the San Antonio Craigslist sent that local equestrian community into a furor. The ad offered horse hunting. To shoot the first horse would cost $200, any and other horses after that would cost $50. The poster claimed that he had collected a large herd of horses on his three hundred acre property where these animals could be hunted. Hunters also had to process their kill on the property. And, the young horses were not to be hunted... those he wanted for his own freezer.
The Post Reads:
"Horse hunts! I have a 300 acre ranch just outside of SA, I've been collecting unwanted horses and now I've got a plenty strong herd going. $200 for your first one $50 for each after that. You must process them here or take them but you can't leave what you've shot. No young horses, I like to save the foals for my freezer.”
As it turned out, the ad was a hoax. Journalists investigated the story and discovered that the ad was removed from Craigslist shortly after it was posted. The Facebook profile of the person who posted the ad was also deleted. All lasted just long enough to ruffle the feathers of horse lovers in the area who saw or heard of the ad.
As it turns out, this is not the first time an advertisement for such a hunt has been run. And, provocative ads, obviously meant to stir the emotion of horse lovers, do more than cause outrage. Real damage to the reputation of innocent people has been done. Such is the case of one story that used a photo of a horse that a couple living in Alaska picked up for another family living there. The horse, that died of natural causes, had to be removed because the carcass could attract marauding bears.
The photo, which shows a smiling group of people standing by a dead horse lying in the back of a pickup truck was used in a horse hunting prank ad. Now, one wonders at why you’d post a picture of yourself with a dead horse hanging out of truck bed online, but I guess these sort of things are a reality for these folks and all part of a day's work. But, when the photo was used by the pranksters, the family, who were doing a service for their neighbors in clearing up the dead horse, animal rights activists began spreading the photo and the bogus story far and wide suffered a blow to their reputations. It took some intense internet sleuthing and explaining to counter the allegations that they were involved in horse hunting.
A lot has been removed from the Texas Horse Hunts blog and you’re unlikely to get a response from their contact page or telephone number. A number of photos have been removed as well. No doubt it was a hoax, to begin with. But, it still gets a lot of people enraged. On ThePetitionSite, there is a petition to “Stop Texas Trophy Horse Hunts”, closed only four years ago.
Can horses be hunted anywhere? The answer is maybe. In some states, you might be able to hunt horses with a special permit. In March of this year, there was a proposal by the Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife to allow permitted hunters access to some of the 48,000 wild horses on a range spanning areas of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. On the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, horses are listed along with donkeys, camels, and bison with recommendations of the appropriate cartridge types for hunting. In Canada, horses are not hunted and to do so might be a criminal offense.
So, the next time you see a provocative post on social media, or a site like Craigslist or Kijiji, pause before reacting and engage your critical thinking skills. Chances are someone is just seeing what sort of furor they can stir up. If it’s real, the authorities are likely to be involved very quickly.
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