Authorities won't confirm whether there's a connection, but a Converse County man who claimed someone poisoned his five horses in July has now been ticketed for failing to feed five animals in July.
Joe Bright, 57, announced July 31 via his Facebook page Bright Ranch that someone had murdered his horses, and he was offering a $10,000 reward for that person’s arrest and conviction.
“They were found dead yesterday, I can’t go into details as the investigation is still underway. If you have any credible information, your identity will remain confidential,” reads the post that attracted 1,500 comments, most sympathetic.
In an update to the post, Bright wrote that biological samples were sent to a lab for analysis, and that the horses were given a neurological toxin.
“All I want is for whoever did this to answer for it,” Bright wrote.
These Five
Cowboy State Daily reported prior that four of the horses were found dead, while a fifth horse – also presumably poisoned – was treated and rescued by a Colorado State University veterinarian.
Bright, who lives in Shawnee, Wyoming, was ticketed Nov. 7 in Douglas Circuit Court, with five charges of failing to feed or failing to water confined animals. Each offense is punishable by up to six months in jail and between $100 and $750 in fines.
Terse, somewhat illegible writing lines the five citations, but all five of them say the offense happened between July 17 and July 30.
Bright married his wife July 17, according to the latter’s Facebook page.
Bright announced his horses had been poisoned July 31.
Except No One Will Talk
Bright did not respond by publication time to a Wednesday morning message requesting comment.
Chris Strang, the Wyoming Livestock Board officer who issued the five citations, did not return two Cowboy State Daily voicemails requesting comment Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Converse County Attorney declined to comment, referring Cowboy State Daily to the Douglas Circuit Court.
“What you see is what you get,” said a Douglas Circuit Court attendant, referring the outlet to the public case file.
Nobody would confirm whether the five confined animals Bright allegedly failed to feed or failed to water were horses, or whether they were the horses about which he wrote his post.
The case file says Bright was due to appear in court Monday but waived his initial appearance and is now set for a Dec. 14 review hearing.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
