Wild horses adopted under U.S. program being slaughtered

Population numbers for wild horses and burros are out of control in the West. But popular sentiment against culling the animals has led the federal government to pursue other options, such as paying people to give the horses adoptive homes. But records show that some people who were paid $1,000 a head to adopt the horses are sending them to slaughterhouses once they get the money.

"The Bureau of Land Management, which is in charge of caring for the nation’s wild horses, created the $1,000-a-head Adoption Incentive Program in 2019 because it wanted to move a huge surplus of mustangs and burros out of government corrals and find them 'good homes.' Thousands of first-time adopters signed up, and the bureau hailed the program as a success," Dave Philipps reports for The New York Times. "But records show that instead of going to good homes, truckloads of horses were dumped at slaughter auctions as soon as their adopters got the federal money. A program intended to protect wild horses was instead subsidizing their path to destruction." 

A BLM spokesperson denied allegations that the practice is allowed, and noted that all adopters must sign affidavits promising not to resell horses to slaughterhouses or their middlemen. But the spokesperson also acknowledged the bureau has no authority to enforce such agreements or track violators.