"we used to hang horse thieves because stealing a horse took away a mans means to make a living"
Actually, we hanged horse thieves because in the old west it could take a guy days or weeks to get to another town. If you lost your horse while you were in the wilderness, you were probably gonna die of starvation or thirst if you didn't kill yourself first. Not a happy fate. The good folks figured that if you made a fella starve to death in the wild you deserved to be hanged.