A feral horse grazes just off McKinney Road in Oliver. Renewed concerns have been raised about wild horses being trapped for various purposes, one being for slaughter.
Some Oliver residents are upset that a local man has built a trap to capture wild horses on McCuddy Creek Road, near Mt. Baldy.
Late last month June Delitsikos awoke to find a pen, filled with hay, sitting just outside of her property on McCuddy Creek Road.
Delitsikos is a horse lover who for years has been feeding the feral horses who populate the area. She said the trap is “really, really upsetting” to her, because the man who set it up is selling some of the horses for slaughter.
That man is Aaron Stelkia.
After repeated attempts the Chronicle was unable to reach Stelkia by phone, but the Osoyoos Indian Band member recently told Global Okanagan he is rounding up the horses to regulate the population.
He said last summer’s severe drought left “too many horses, [a] lack of grass [and] lack of feed,” that is causing many of the animals to starve.
The horses he has captured, he said, will end up in several different places.
“Some may go for slaughter, some may go for people who want to buy a yearling or baby, and some will be kept,” he said.
Emaciated horses are a common sight in the area, and many residents find the feral beasts a nuisance (they are known to block traffic on the road and destroy property). Others, like Delitsikos, enjoy having the animals around, and want to see them left alone.
Delitsikos is particularly attached to the horses because she has been feeding them for more than a decade, and it is that fact that makes Stelkia’s actions so upsetting to her.
“We’ve known some of these horses for 14, 15 years,” she said. “Aaron has never tried to help them whatsoever . . . then he’s just decided to claim them. They wouldn’t even be left alive to slaughter today if it was up to him: they would have starved to death.”
Stelkia has said the horses are on “traditional territory” and he is allowed to round up the animals because he is a member of the Osoyoos Indian Band.
Theresa Nolet, who runs a small organization dedicated to rescuing wild horses, said if Stelkia wishes to exercise his right to control the population, she would like to see him do it “in a more humane way.”
She argued that many of the feral horses aren’t starving at all, but are perfectly healthy and should be left alone.
By Trevor Nichols
