More than 200 wild horses and burros were removed from the 3-Strikes Ranch near Alliance because of allegations of abuse and neglect, and ranch owner Jason Meduna, 42, was arrested last week on one count of animal cruelty. He posted 10 percent of a $20,000 bond and was released from jail.

The emaciated horses were legally surrendered last week to horse rescue groups Habitat for Horses and Lifesavers Foundation.

The ranch first came to the attention of law enforcement when Meduna contacted media and police last month regarding a mustang he believed to have been stolen. He also said someone had been poisoning his horses. Court documents indicate law enforcement interviewed neighbors who produced photos of horse carcasses allegedly left on Meduna's property, as well as pictures of overgrazed grass and of horses reaching across fences in an effort to find food.

The court records also say the Morrill County Sheriff's Department flew over the property April 9 and discovered a horse that appeared to have been down for days and a large number of horses in a corral with no evidence of feed. Earlier that week, the Bureau of Land Management visited the ranch to inspect five horses under BLM jurisdiction that were being boarded at 3-Strikes. Meduna told the BLM four of the horses had already died. The fifth horse, found in poor condition, was removed from the ranch.

An arrest affidavit cites BLM officials as saying that 175 horses were boarded at the 1,900-acre ranch.

Jerry Finch, of the Texas-based Habitat for Horses, found that Meduna's ranch in Morrill County had pastures devoid of grass with little or no edible grazing. On April 26, Finch accompanied a sheriff's deputy in a flyover of the property and discovered the bodies of more than 60 dead horses. Nearly all of the animals on the ranch were malnourished; their back, ribs and hip bones were very pronounced.

The horses were quickly moved to the Bridgeport Rodeo Grounds, where veterinarians and volunteers will examine and treat each horse as needed. Finch estimates that more than 30 stallions were comingled in herds, indicating that many of the mares may be pregnant. According to Jill Starr of Lifesavers Foundation, "the ultimate goal is to place these animals in homes and facilities capable of addressing their needs and where they will have the opportunity to thrive."

But Ray Fields, founder of the Wild Horse Foundation in Texas, said transporting the horses to other locations may have been premature and could have aided the spread of contagious diseases. Fields said blood work and nasal swabs should have been conducted before the animals were moved. He said failure to do so could possibly mean the spread of salmonella and rhinovirus.

Salmonella can be spread through air, water and direct contact. It can be transmitted to humans.

Fields said he has talked to Meduna since his arrest and believes he may have inadvertently adopted horses that had recently recovered from a salmonella outbreak at an adoption center in Nevada. Fields claims Meduna adopted horses from Palomino Valley Adoption Center in January 2008 and said there is at least the possibility that some of the infected horses were sent to Nebraska. Then, when the horses became stressed again, due either to harsh storms with fluctuating temperatures that the area experienced, inadequate feed or a combination of both, the salmonella may have resurfaced.

"All it takes is one to break out with salmonella or rhino, and everybody's got it," Fields said. "(Salmonella) is extremely detrimental to animals." Fields said he isn't trying to excuse any alleged neglect, but he is concerned about making sure if the horses are diseased that they are stopped from spreading those diseases. Moving the horses before they were given a complete examination, including blood work-ups and nasal swabs, was a mistake, he said. Officials should have put at least considered the possibility of disease once they knew some of the animals came from Palomino Valley.

If salmonella is a contributing factor to the horses' poor condition, moving them has spread the disease to every trailer used to haul them, as well as to the fairgrounds, which means more ranches and more horses could become infected. The disease can cause weight loss, dehydration and diarrhea and can live in the soil for more than 300 days.

Adoptions of the animals or moving them to the Texas and California-based rescue operations that have agreed to take them will further complicate the problem, Fields said.

He called for every horse to be tested immediately.

"This is about education. This is about prevention," he said. "How bad do they want this disease to be spread?"