Killing horses

I only ever kill a horse if someone is running after I catch them engaged in illegal activity, or if someone has been sent to jail.

 

Sheriffs are legally (from the handbook found here) allowed to kill a horse while the player is performing an illegal action. The actual quote says this, "You should chase the player and try to handcuff him, you can also kill his horse if he is using one. In general, your priority should be handcuffing rather than killing someone.
Note: You may kill the horse of a player you found performing an illegal action." This technically means yes, they can kill the horse even if they are just processing drugs, and not attempting to escape. I personally don't kill the horse in this situation because all the player needs is a ticket, rather than his/her horse being killed.

I see the point of the rule though, it's implying that the player is doing an illegal action, which assumes they will try to escape. I see another reason for this, being that if there was a rule that they couldn't kill the horse of a player and a sheriff kills it by accident if it is next to the player with a shotgun, the player can call abuse. There is almost no way to get out of the situation where someone prosecutes a sheriff for unfairly killing the player's horse without direct video evidence.

Killing a horse may be useful also if the player is known to just make a b-line out of the rebel base when they see a sheriff, so the sheriff kills the horse so they can have a fair chance of catching up to them on foot. It's really the sheriff's personal choice to kill the horse or not in this situation if they feel they need to. The rules just give them a little leeway just in case someone calls abuse for some reason like unfairly killing their horse.

 

sure

 

Jaetpack explained this perfectly. Yes, as per the rulebook, sheriff's are allowed to kill horses while you are performing an illegal task (even if you don't try to run). Most do not do this though. Question has been answered. Locked. PM me for questions or concerns.

 

You are mis-understanding the rule. For clarification: You may kill the horse of a player, but only AFTER arresting him. Before you handcuffed and inspected a player, you can not tell if he was doing something illegal.
You are only allowed to kill the horse of a player before handcuffing if he was caught in a situation which would justify handcuffing him and he is running away.