How Toxic Grass Puts Animals to Sleep

Legend has it that five railroad surveyors killed by Indians in 1854 in New Mexico lost their lives because they unwittingly allowed their horses to graze on "sleepy grass" the night before. The next morning, under attack, they jumped on their horses to escape — but the animals were frozen in place. Without the means for a quick getaway, they were doomed. Whether true or apocryphal — the story is unverified — it could have happened, considering the toxic effects of sleepy grass, also known as robust needle grass, which commonly grows in many western states and causes animals who eat it to turn into living statues — or, if they consume too much of it, even die. "Native Americans are said to have fed a single seed to colicky babies to quiet them, and they — and ranchers — have fed small amounts to cattle to make them more sedate and easily managed when moving them from summer to winter ranges in the mountains," said Stan Faeth, professor of biology and head of the biology department at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Moreover, in a book called "Horse Tradin," by Ben K. Green, the author recounts "how he bought a horse from the Mescalero Apaches in the 1920's which seemed tame and broken, but later found it was unbroken and wild — but had been fed a small amount of sleepy grass," Faeth added...more