Big Sky Horse Resource

The Montana Horse Welfare Council has been in existence for less than a year. Today, the group met in Missoula to brainstorm ideas to prevent horse about in Montana."Montana Horse Welfare Council is basically a coalition of a lot of people coming from across the state with a goal of helping Montana horse owners get through whatever hard times they may have,"said project manager Kathy Luedtke.The council is open to the public and has five committees, modeled off the Oregon Horse Welfare Council. The committees are: administration, education, adoption/foster, hay bank/vet, and law enforcement."Well we're hoping to get enough people involved, get our committees to grow so that when there's a crisis in a community, law enforcement or horse owners can call us and we can help, wherever that is in Montana,"said Humane Society State Director Wendy Hergenraeder.More than 500 horses have been reported as abused in the last two months in Montana."Whatever happens when horses are in crisis, you know that people have been through crisis as well, and so there is a level of empathy and to try and work towards a better, for both the people and the horses,"said Luedtke. This was the third meeting, and the next one is scheduled to be in Billings sometime in April. By Shaun Rainey for Montana NBC News