McBride BC,-  Protection officer with the SPCA in Prince George , Chad Dohanan,  says the two horses rescued by in large part the snow mobile fraternity in McBride,  have been taken into custody by the SPCA under the Protection Act and are now being cared for on a McBride area ranch. He would not reveal that location.

The horses were discovered starving to death in seven feet of snow by snowmobilers who had gone to look for a missing sledder in the Renshaw area near McBride. The searchers discovered the horses in  near death condition and it was decided by a volunteer group to dig a trench more than 1 kilometre long to be able to get the animals out of their snowy grave. It took nearly one week but they accomplished the mission with the help of not only locals but some snowmobilers who had arrived on the scene to go for a ride.

The horses were walked out the 1 1/3 kilometre trench on Tuesday night to an area of hard packed snow and from there down to a forestry road.

It was here that the SPCA took the animals into their possession in order to nurse them back to health. A Prince George veterinarian who saw the animals when they were first discovered,  said they were in a condition 2, with  9 being the tops. In other words they were near death which ruled out the possibility to trying to helicopter them out of the area. It was at this point that the decision was made to dig them out by hand.

The owner of the horses is being investigated by the SPCA senior protection officer Kent Kokaska, who says that they have a person of interest in their investigation. He would not go further.