Horse lover Marty Felix can’t imagine anyone delivering a death sentence to a domestic horse by abandoning it in the wild. But that’s what she witnessed recently in the Little Book Cliffs area, northeast of Grand Junction.

Felix, a volunteer with the Bureau of Land Management who helps care for the local wild horse herd, said she identified a brown Appaloosa gelding April 11 that didn’t belong to the wild herd.

She and other volunteers working in the Main Canyon of Little Book Cliffs caught a glimpse of the man who set the horse free, but the man wasn’t caught. She said while some people may have romantic notions of letting a horse free in the wild to live out the end of its life, it is inhumane and against the law.

“Good grief, what is up there to eat?” Felix said about the chance of a domestic horse surviving in the Little Book Cliffs.

According to BLM spokeswoman Mel Lloyd, the mid-April incident was not the first time officials were apprised of domestic horses being set free in the Little Book Cliffs area. Last year a domestic horse and a mule were found. Felix said a similar incident occurred in 2003.

“We’ve all been accustomed to folks abandoning dogs and cats, and we’re beginning to see that happen with larger animals,” Lloyd said.

Lloyd said people caught abandoning horses are subject to state and federal penalties.

Domestic horses can be shunned or injured by wild horse herds, resulting in a slow and painful death. Domestic horses cannot adapt to the high-desert climate and can spread disease to wild herds, potentially inducing a catastrophic die-off of wild herds, Lloyd said.

Grand Junction’s BLM field office manages a herd of 150 wild horses in the 36,000-acre region. The agency manages about 29,000 wild horses nationwide.

Lloyd said cases of abandoned horses are occurring on a national level more than locally. However, she said even one domestic horse can spread a disease to wipe out a wild herd.

“It is a serious concern for us,” Lloyd said. “Domestic animals are exposed to diseases that wild animals are protected from.”

Felix said horse owners may feel burdened by the rising cost of horse maintenance, such as the increasing price of hay. Or, a horse owner may think their older horse may enjoy running free with a wild herd to live out the end of its days. Unfortunately, Felix said that is often the opposite of what happens. She said she witnessed the Appaloosa take a beating by a wild horse before Felix and friends were able to lead it to safety.

The horse has been removed from the area and is being cared for, Felix said.

“It just breaks my heart,” she said. “I just want to see this man brought to justice.”

Horse owners who can no longer care for animals should place an ad to find another owner, Lloyd said. It is more humane to euthanize an older animal than to let it suffer a slow death in the wild. She advised potential horse owners to consider the long-term commitment. Many horse rescue operations are overwhelmed, Lloyd said, but owners can research the groups to determine whether they are accepting horses.

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E-mail Amy Hamilton at ahamilton@gjds.com.