Wild-horse advocacy group puts numbers on slaughter buys

Wild horses in a holding/adoption yard in Delta, Utah
(Photo by George Frey, Getty Images, via Greenwire)

The American Wild Horse Campaign says that since 2019, at least 840 horses and burros adopted from federal rangelands were sold at auctions that included known buyers from slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico, based on records it obtained through the Freedom of Information Act "and from affiliated wild horse rescue groups that attended the auctions," Scott Streater reports for Greenwire. It has long been presumed that foreign abattoirs were buying at U.S. auctions, but this appears to be the first documentation, with numbers of animals.

The federal Bureau of Land Management "offers $1,000 to people who adopt one of the nearly 60,000 wild horses and burros removed from federal rangelands and held in off-range holding corrals and pastures," Streater notes. "Participants receive $500 up front and an additional $500 per adopted animal a year later, after a follow-up review determines the adopter is properly caring for the horse or horses and title has been transferred to the private party. Since the program started in late 2019, it has helped adopt more than 8,200 wild horses and burros into private care."

The BLM declined to comment on the AWHC report. After complaints from wild-horse advocates, last year the agency added "steps to better screen adoption candidates and to help ensure that wild horses and burros transferred into private care through the adoption program are not later sold at auctions with known kill buyers in attendance," Streater reports. "BLM also visits adopted animals six months after adoption, instead of 12 months later."

AWHC reports says of the 840 “BLM-branded wild horses and burros identified in kill pens,” at least 312 were adopted through the incentive program. “The whereabouts of these animals remain unknown.” The group said it “identified 24 groups of related individuals” that it says have adopted multiple wild horses and burros “to the same address, then flipped all the animals to kill pens as a group after receiving the full incentive payments. . . . At least 130 BLM wild horses or burros were sent to kill pens as part of such coordinated schemes.” AWHC said the numbers “represent the tip of the iceberg, as many kill pens directly ship horses and burros to slaughter without advertising them.”

The BLM said last year that it adopted 7,369 wild horses and burros into private care in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, "the most in at least two decades," Streater reports, noting roundups aimed at making the range population "closer to the level BLM considers sustainable without damaging the rangelands, or placing the animals at risk of starvation or dying due to a lack of water — a growing concern as much of the West is experiencing extreme drought conditions. As of March 1, there are now an estimated 82,384 wild horses and burros roaming 27 million acres of federal herd management areas in 10 Western states — down from a record 95,114 in 2020."