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Background.
Lyon County, Nevada is home to close to 1,000 free-roaming horses that dot the hills and wander through the neighborhoods. Unfortunately they also occasionally wander onto area highways.
Recently a large pack of coyotes had been causing trouble in town, eating mostly domestic dogs and cats. However they would also chase some of the horses.
During the night the coyotes apparently went after a band of three young bachelor studs, running them over US-50 where one was struck and killed by a motor vehicle.
The unfortunate horse was dragged from the highway where the coyotes returned to engage in a feast.
This is the same horse that last year we removed a wire basket from his head.
Later that day we received a call of an injured horse on a nearby street. The horse was identified as one that had been running with the horse that had been killed. The injured horse was reported as having difficulty getting about.
One of the animal services officers responded and requested a response from the large animal rescue volunteers.
The incident.
You find an injured wild horse standing in the middle of a gravel county road. He is significantly lame on his right hind leg. There is four-foot tall barbed wire fencing on either side of the road. If the horse was sound he could likely jump the fence. As you approach you can see that he has hobbled over to one of the fences and is considering a jump attempt in spite of his injuries.
You have available two initial responders with an Animal Services dog truck, the department's stock trailer enroute, the rescue team's portable panel cache enroute and two additional volunteers. The horse can be taken to the Department of Corrections Conservation Camp for treatment if he can be loaded in time to be delivered before they close for the day.
Skull Session Questions
- What are your priorities?
- What are the safety issues?
- What resources do you need?
- Describe your action plan.
Please post your answers to the Technical Large Animal Emergency Rescue group.
Skull Session rules.
Please post your answers independently of the answers posted by others. Please also recognize that there can be varying perceptions as to what these scenarios involve since these problems are being solved using limited information. The values of these sessions include the various approaches the participants may suggest based on their varying perceptions of the problem, so it's not a matter of someone being right and someone being wrong.
Please read, think, and post your answers to the TLAER Facebook group based on your perception of the problem presented.
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