LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Mt. Charleston is home to dozens of wild horses and burros.
Messing with them is not only dangerous, but illegal, and yet it keeps happening.
In a video making it’s way through social media, a man is seen getting too close to a horse in Mt. Charleston.
A Las Vegas wildlife photographer came across a man earlier in the week while hiking. She wanted to keep her identity anonymous.
The man was messing with a horse’s face, at times seen grabbing it to take a selfie.
“When it first happened, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh that guy is going to get hurt, and he is going to get kicked.’ He is grabbing the horse by the face and the horse is obviously trying to resist and he is pulling his camera to take a picture,” the photographer tells FOX5.
In a video being shared on social media, she wanted to show others what exactly you are not supposed to do when you see a wild horse.
“You don’t handle a horse like that, he physically grabbed it trying to take a picture with him with at least five other cars yelling at him to get back in the car,” she said.
The video is bringing outrage from other horse advocates.
“I wanted to make sure he received the picture he was looking for. Honestly, for him to see what we saw and that wasn’t okay,” the photographer said.
It is illegal to touch federally protected horses and burros.
FOX5 has done numerous stories of the wild horses not being afraid of humans because they get too close and feed them.
Last year, a little girl was kicked by a wild horse after getting too close.
The USDA Forest Service is looking into this video, and said if this man gets caught he can face 6 months in jail or a $5,000 fine.
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