Report: More than 1,000 wild horses sent to slaughter

The American Wild Horse Campaign released a report Friday documenting that 1,020 federally-protected wild horses and burros have been sold at slaughter auctions in the last 22 months.

The campaign, dedicated to preserving the American wild horses and burros in free-roaming herds, cited records it accumulated through an investigation into the Bureau of Land Management’s Adoption Incentive Program that started in 2019 and pays people $1,000 in taxpayer funds to adopt a wild, untamed horse or burro.

Wild horses are considered “living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West” and are protected by the federal government, which also maintains the animals’ populations and makes sure the animals are healthy. The wild horses and burros are found in 10 different western states, but Nevada has the highest population. The American Wild Horse Campaign also implements the world’s largest wild horse fertility control programs in partnership with Nevada.

If there are too many horses, they get placed into private care. The Bureau of Land Management has placed more than 240,000 wild horses and burros into private care since 1971, according to its website.

Since the Bureau of Land Management’s Adoption Incentive Program took effect three years ago, 1,020 wild horses and burros were sold in kill pens, which are livestock auctions that sell horses to slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico, the report says. The plants slaughter horses for human consumption for foreign markets, according to the report.

“While some of the horses and burros were rescued — sometimes hours before shipping to slaughter — many others were not,” the campaign said in a statement Friday.

The campaign alleges there is evidence that people are using the program to pocket the cash and then dump the horses at kill pens. Some groups have earned as much as $80,000 by adopting the maximum number of animals per person — which is four — and then selling them at the auctions, the campaign alleges.