Devastating footage captured the tragic final moments of two wild horses after they became trapped in a mud hole while desperately searching for clean water.
Animal rights activists were checking on horses at the Muddy Creek Herd Management Area in central Utah on Tuesday when they found the horses struggling.
The video shows an exhausted mare and two foals standing next to the cracked earth looking for water to drink.
The mare and one of the foals fell through the burnt bark and the young horse nuzzled its mother’s neck before the Bureau of Land Management euthanized them.
“It’s heartbreaking. You can tell one of those foals is saying, ‘Mommy, help us, get up, Mommy,'” said Janelle Ghiorso, vice president of the Oregon Wild Horse Organization. ABC4.
The mare and one of the foals fell through the burnt bark and the young horse nuzzled its mother’s neck before they were slaughtered.
The Bureau of Land Management said the trapped mare and foal had to be euthanized due to dehydration.
“Unfortunately, we had to euthanize the mare for humane reasons right there,” Gus Warr, manager of the Bureau of Land Management’s Utah wild horse and burro program, told the local news station.
Crews rescued the trapped foal, but after a veterinary examination decided to euthanize the horse due to extreme dehydration.
Wild horse advocates are outraged that the Bureau of Land Management isn’t doing more to help the animals access safe drinking water.
“I was witnessing a tragedy before my eyes and I was desperate for help,” said Jennifer Howe, who filmed the incident.
“When I asked if emergency water could be transported, the agency official replied with a firm, “Absolutely not.”
He Wild Beauty Foundation He said the office allows ranchers to graze cattle in the protected area, which consumes water for the horses.
The horses became trapped in a mud hole while desperately searching for drinking water at the Muddy Creek Herd Management Area in central Utah.
The Bureau of Land Management said the trapped mare and foal had to be euthanized due to dehydration.
“It’s unconscionable that the agency would allow more federally protected animals to suffer such an agonizing fate,” said Ashley Avis, founder of the Wild Beauty Foundation.
“Treating them as disposable nuisances, rather than the intelligent, emotional beings they are, is a reflection of the agency’s deeply troubling mindset. It is a senseless tragedy that could have been prevented.”
Warr said the agency sometimes brings water for the wild horses, but is hesitant to do so because it doesn’t want the horses to become dependent on it.
“We have to manage animals, but not turn them into pets,” he said. “They are wild animals and we have to treat them as such.”
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