Wyoming Wildfires May Have Forced Horses into Rescue Center
The director of the Broken Bandit Wildlife Center, Patricia Wyer, is seeking information about the horses’ previous owners and their veterinary histories. She suspects that the owners may have been forced to sell the animals due to the wildfires that devastated ranches and rangelands in northern Wyoming and southern Montana this summer.
Wyer expressed her concern for the former owners.
“If the owners loved these horses and were forced to sell them, I want them to know that they are safe and will be well cared for. They are also welcome to visit them,” she said.
Wyer’s center has recently expanded its rescue efforts to include large animals like draft horses.
The horses were purchased from sale yards in Colorado and Montana, but tracking their origins is a difficult task. According to Jann Parker, a horse sale manager in Billings, horses in the “loose horse” category are sold with little background information, making it hard to confirm if they were sold due to the fires.
Many ranchers in the region have faced significant losses from the wildfires, with animals displaced, missing, or sold due to destroyed grazing lands. While the future for these horses remains uncertain, they are receiving care at the rescue center. However, one of the mares recently aborted a foal, likely due to stress, while the other is expected to give birth soon.
