Feral Horses in Miller Creek

Leave them alone. They will wonder back to the mountains by next year when more food is available. It was a dry year.

My husband and I moved from Missoula city to Lower Miller Creek in June of this year. We see the horses pretty often, and the only way I can describe these interactions is absolute delight. They come through our yard often, and we see them around the neighborhood. They were here long before most people in this area and should have the right to stay. We truly love to see them, and we have been able to share them with local and out-of-state/country visitors alike. Everyone who has gotten to witness them is so excited and amazed that there is still a place where wild horses roam among us. It’s so Montana. If the horses didn’t want to be in the area, they would leave. They should 100% get to stay.

These horses have never affected anybody or livestock that I’ve seen or heard. All they do is roam around and eat grass and plants. I don’t understand what the big bother is. If anything, it’s the people trying to go and touch them, that’s the problem leave them alone. They are completely fine.

I am a resident that lives at the end of Trails End Road. I am also I lifelong horsewoman and own horses myself. My interest in the horses is about wanting what is best for them and their future. The feral horse issue in Miller Creek is much more complicated than "get rid of them" or "don't get rid of them". They are there and they will likely be a part of the landscape for the foreseeable future. There have been many problematic incidents involving the horses that upset me including vehicle collisions, people being injured by approaching them and feeding them, injured or trapped foals being orphaned by their band, foal predation, and diseases transmitted to domestic stock. I would like to see the County Commissioners act in the following way:
1. Establish common sense ordinances that make it unlawful to feed, water, or pet the feral horses and implement hefty fines for offenses.
2. Establish a community group to help with constructing a management plan, providing education to citizens, and making decisions and taking action when problems arise.
3. Provide signage on Miller Creek Road, Trails End Road and other major roadways in the area warning people to slow down and maintain a safe distance from the horses.
4. Assign a dedicated arm of county employees (i.e. Animal Control, County Sheriff, etc.) and grant them authority to respond to incidents and make decisions that weigh the best interests of the horses and the community.

I support the removal of the feral horses. Increasing development has reduced the amount of habitable land available to them, and rising traffic levels pose a significant danger to both the horses and the public. Additionally, lawn and garden vegetation is not an appropriate diet for horses and often leads to serious health complications such as founder and laminitis—hoof diseases that are magnified by improper forage.

Unlike mustangs that have access to BLM management on public land and proper holding facilities, these horses are wandering through residential yards, public roadways, and a handful of larger private properties. While the public Forest Service land outside of town would be a more suitable environment, the easy access to food and shelter in residential areas keeps the horses in urban spaces instead of allowing them to range where they naturally should. Thank you

The people are encroaching on the horses' habitat. They need to follow range laws & fence them out if they don't want them on their unnatural, manicured lawns, which attract wildlife with succulent, yet nutrient-poor, forages such as introduced grasses. Another option is for the homeowners to plant grasses that do not attract wildlife.

The horses are fine where they are! If people do not like living with the wildlife, they need to move somewhere else. Coming from someone who watched wild horses get decimated in Nv by the BLM. They chase these poor animals with atvs and helicopters to herd them into small pens and then auction them off to people and businesses like slaughter houses. (pet food and delicacy overseas) The horses get injured and they separate moms and foals. This is a small herd and darting the mares with birth control would make the numbers stay down. Please do not ruin the wildlife because people want green lawns and don’t like horse poop! If anything we need to be taking care of the deer population here since they are numerous and often a traffic hazard. They can be used to feed people. Please leave the horses alone.

Please leave them alone. They are lovely and not causing any harm. We live across from the park and it’s always a joy looking out the window and seeing them. Our neighbors do too. I’m not sure who is so unhappy. A majority are fine with the horses. The deer are a much bigger problem. Focus should be on what to do about the deer who are ruining gardens, getting stuck in fences, etc.

Please leave these horses alone. They are no different than the deer or elk, they don't cause any more harm than the other animals in the area. They deserve to be here & have been here for many years. They are a joy to many & are a part of what makes living here special.

The urban deer population is more of a burden on the community than these horses.

WE LOVE THE WILD HORSES!! Please don't take them away.
Leave some real Montana.
They don't hurt anythng!

Leave the horses alone. Let them be.

These horses have been around for almost all of my life. I am 50 years old. They don’t hurt anyone except for divits and deposits on lawns. People can fence their property if they want to keep them out.

You should have Sheriff Jeremiah Petersen on the committee, he’s familiar with the horses, lives in the neighborhood, and is the Sheriff, representing that county dept.

I’m in favor of letting the horses stay. I also think we would want to get a handle on the actual number of horses (if this hasn’t been done already). We can determine who should monitor numbers and issues with the horses before any decisions are made in the future.

I live in upper Miller Creek and I can tell you that most of us LOVE to see the wild horses up there. The herd is healthy and producing healthy offspring proven by the 3 foals born this year. This herd has been here long before we were and instead of looking for ways to get them out of their territory we need to be seeking how to protect this herd. Missoula has much bigger problems that need to be addressed such has cost of living across the board. If Missoula is worried about wild animals in town maybe we should start with a population control plan for the deer which cause a much larger problem in the urban interface.

I would like to submit a comment that I do not want the horses from Miller Creek removed. There may be a very small population of people who don't like them but the majority of us enjoy having them around and they are not causing the problems people say they are. They are wild animals who deserve freedom just as we do and just as the deer who roam our city do. I have never seen anything done about the excessive deer population around the city. And that's because they're not causing a problem just like the horses aren't. Please focus your efforts on more concerning issues in Missoula. If people don't like living around wild animals they should stop spreading out into the wildland urban interface. Not move to somewhere wild and then demand all of the wild animals be removed from that area because they are a minor inconveniences. That girl who got "kicked" by a horse made a very poor decision and her parents clearly were not supervising her well. You should be more concerned about the parents who let their child approach a wild horse rather than the horse's normal reaction to being approached by a human.