Heartbreaking final act of love for wild horse who got stuck in mud pit with her foal before both met horrific end
Gripping footage captured the tragic final moments of two wild horses after they became stuck in a mud puddle while desperately searching for drinking water.
Animal welfare groups were checking on horses at the Muddy Creek Herd Management Area in central Utah on Tuesday when they found the struggling horses.
The video shows an exhausted mare and two foals searching for drinking water in the cracked earth.
The mare and one of the foals fell through the scorched crust and the young horse sniffed his mother’s neck before being euthanized by the Bureau of Land Management.
“It’s heartbreaking. You can see one of those foals just saying, ‘Mommy, help us, get up, Mom,'” said Janelle Ghiorso, vice president of the Oregon Wild Horse Organization, ABC4.
The mare and one of the foals fell through the burnt crust and the young horse sniffed his mother’s neck before they were put down
According to the Bureau of Land Management, the trapped mare and foal had to be euthanized due to dehydration.
“Unfortunately, we had to euthanize that mare on the spot out of humane considerations,” Gus Warr, manager of the Utah Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse and burro program, told the local news station.
Emergency services rescued the trapped foal, but after an examination by a veterinarian, it was decided to put the horse to sleep due to extreme dehydration.
Advocates for the wild horses are outraged that the Bureau of Land Management is not doing more to give the animals access to safe drinking water.
βI was watching a tragedy unfold before my eyes and desperately reaching out for help,β said Jennifer Howe, who filmed the incident.
‘When I asked if emergency water could be obtained, the agency employee replied with a firm, “Absolutely not.”‘
The Wild Beauty Foundation According to the agency, livestock owners are allowed to graze in the protected area, which uses water for the horses.
The horses became stuck in a mud puddle while desperately searching for drinking water in the Muddy Creek Herd Management Area in central Utah
The Bureau of Land Management said the trapped mare and foal both had to be euthanized due to dehydration
βIt is unacceptable that the agency would allow any more government-protected animals to suffer such a horrific fate,β said Ashley Avis, founder of the Wild Beauty Foundation.
“Treating them as disposable pests, rather than the highly intelligent, emotional beings they are, speaks to the deeply disturbing mentality of the agency. This is a senseless tragedy that could have been prevented.”
Warr said the agency sometimes collects water for wild horses, but is reluctant to do so because they don’t want the horses to become dependent.
“We need to manage the animals, but we don’t need to make them pets,” he said. “They are wild animals and we need to treat them as such.”