SUNDRE, Alberta, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Five activists opposed to a wild horse roundup in western Canada were arrested for allegedly interfering with the operation, a leader of the group says.
The Calgary Herald reported the five activists, who were arrested Tuesday and released that night, are to appear in court March 31.
Shannon Mann said the activists believed they were on public land near a capture pen while documenting the roundup near Sundre, Alberta, when Royal Canadian Mounties requested they leave the area. She said they were in the process of moving when the Mounties arrested three women and two men on mischief charges, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
"We asked them where should we move to, and we got three separate answers from three different officers so they didn't clearly really have a boundary," she said.
"Nobody was tampering with the site. We actually weren't even that close to it. But they told us that us being in that vicinity would prevent horses from going into his trap."
The Alberta government has issued 200 licenses allowing for the capture of wild horses for personal use or slaughter. The province has just under 1,000 feral horses and wants reduce the population to reduce their impact on the food supply for other animals.
The horses are the descendants of domestic horses used by loggers and miners in the early 20th century.
