The Martin County Sheriff’s Office is helping to feed and find homes for about a dozen wild horses found last week in Hendry County.

The Hendry County Sheriff’s Office rounded up the 13 wild mustangs on July 8 after they were found abandoned on roadways in the county. The Hendry County Sheriff’s Office is housing the horses in its impound facility and put out a call for help getting feed for the horses and finding them adoptive homes, according to a Martin County Sheriff’s Office report.

The Martin County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Posse, a volunteer group of ranchers and land owners that act as auxiliary deputies in Martin County, donated about 50 bales of hay earlier this week. A Palm City-based store, Ranch Feed & Supply, also helped supplying the feed. That should be enough to feed the mustangs for 10 days, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Rhonda Irons.

According to the report investigators believe the mustangs are all less than two years old and have all been neglected. Hendry County sheriff’s Lt. Susan Harrelle said investigators have not determined where the mustangs came from or if they have were abandoned or got loose. If somebody dumped the mustangs along the road and left them they could face felony animal cruelty charges, she said.

Members of the posse in Martin County have been spreading the word about the horses all week looking for people to adopt them, Irons said. They are also trying to get more hay to keep them fed.

Anyone who is interested in adopting one of the mustangs can call Hendry County Sheriff’s Office Agricultural Unit at (863) 674-5600, Harrelle said. The sheriff’s office is still trying to round up seven more mustangs, according to the report.

The mounted posse performs surveillance in the rural areas of western Martin County, where there are few residents and several ranches are more than 1,000 acres in size. The group also assists in manhunts and missing persons searches.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 4:50 pm and is filed under Martin County. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.