Horse theft still alive in Montana

For more than a decade, the black mare had been a cornerstone of Mona and Kirk Moore's horse breeding business. Intelligent, gentle and sociable, Perfection At Lass was a consistent producer of foals with good minds that were easy to train.

And then one day she simply vanished. No carcass, no fences down, nothing to suggest Perfection At Lass might have wandered away. She was just gone, and her absence was the only clue.

Mona Moore doesn't want to believe the worst in human nature — that someone backed in a horse trailer, loaded up the pregnant mare and hauled her away. However the circumstances of Perfection At Lass' disappearance continue to push the Moore family toward a conclusion they did not want to reach.

"I keep hoping that I am wrong — that she is not stolen," Mona Moore said. "I would like to think the best of people, but we also have to do our due diligence and be aware of what's going on around us. We'll continue to look, but we've already canvassed the area pretty thoroughly. I'd like to think we live in an area where this doesn't happen — but it just does."

Perfection At Lass had been grazing in a pasture with eight other broodmares, just a couple of miles west of Choteau city limits. The Moores last checked on Perfection At Lass and the other mares on Jan. 8, one day before leaving on an overnight trip out of town. When Kirk Moore went to check on their horses, Perfection At Lass was gone. Mona Moore said the mare never displayed an inclination to run away or escape from the 80-acre pasture where she'd stayed, safe and sound for the preceding several months.

"She's not a loner," Moore said of the missing mare. "She's actually very attached to the lead mare in the group. You would hardly ever see them apart from one another. Just her disposition and nature over the years of owning her — you just know that she's not the kind that tries to get away. You could probably open a horse trailer door, and she would think — 'Oh, this is out of the wind' — and just walk in."

Horse theft and cattle rustling have a long and bitter history in Montana. It was a lucrative industry throughout the state's first half-century of settlement.

One of the territorial legislature's first acts after Montana was formed in 1864 was to establish brand laws for the nascent livestock industry, and the Montana Stockgrowers Association was organized in the early 1880s largely to combat widespread cattle rustling across the state.

Rustling has never entirely disappeared from the landscape, though today's rustler is more likely to commit the offense seated behind a desk than atop a saddle.

"The nostalgic rustling, where you see cowboys driving cattle up a box canyon and that kind of thing, is not something that happens very often today," said John Grainger, administrator of the Montana Department of Livestock's enforcement division. "I'm not saying that it doesn't exist, but people steal a lot more today financially than they do physically. They'll take possession of cattle and the check won't be any good, or they'll have a contract with somebody and there's a big fight over it. Things like that."

Stolen cows and calves butchered in some hidden corner of a rancher's pasture, then disappearing into the thief's freezer is also a common scenario in modern-day rustling.

According to Grainger, the Montana Department of Livestock returned more than $6 million worth of cattle, horses and sheep to their rightful owners in 2013. However the vast majority of these cases involved animals that simply wandered off, ending up in someone else's pasture without any criminal intent.

"Straying animals is a given," he said. "We're inspecting them, we find them, we return them. Without a 10-foot high cement wall, they are going to stray."

The fact is, loading a reluctant saddle horse or steer calf into a waiting horse trailer isn't as simple as it might seem at first glance. The process is likely to take more time, effort and exposure than even the most opportunistic thief would be willing to invest.

Nonetheless, with cattle prices now at record highs, a 700-pound steer will bring more than $1,500. A high-quality broodmare typically sells for between $4,000 and $7,000. Add in her unborn foal, and Perfection At Lass' disappearance likely means a financial loss exceeding $6,000.

The Moore family's case is complicated by the fact that Perfection At Lass was unbranded, an omission that will make the mare's recovery significantly more problematic.

"She's one of the few we've got that we have not branded," Mona Moore said of her family's horse herd. "There is a genetic DNA code for her registered with the American Quarter Horse Association that can be verified by just pulling a few of her mane or tail hairs. The parentage of the foal that she has in her belly can be verified through the University of California–Davis because both parents have been DNA sampled. It would be impossible for someone to register that foal because of the genetic record it has."

But if no one attempts to openly sell or register the horses, those genetic markers will be of little immediate value.

More than just the financial loss, Perfection At Lass' disappearance has levied a heavy emotional toll upon the Moore family. Losing a horse isn't like losing a car or any other material possession. It is something akin to losing a friend.

"These animals are — I have a passion for them," Mona Moore said, pausing briefly to gather her thoughts. "I don't raise horses just because I can, but because I appreciate their intelligence and trainability. When you can walk out to the pasture and bury your face in their neck, there really is an emotional attachment."

"It's not just business, it's a lifestyle for us," she added. "It's part of who we are. It identifies us. I am very, very attached."

To help

If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Perfection At Lass, please contact Mona Moore at 406-590-8558. General information or questions about lost, strayed or stolen livestock can be submitted to the Montana Department of Livestock at 406-444-2045, or visit the agency's website at liv.mt.gov.