[Animals]Wild horses put up for adoption by the government are ending up at risk for slaughter

[Ronaldskk.]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/wild-horses-adopted-at-risk-slaughter-rcna116913

Two of the three adopters listed on the records pertaining to the horses in the Oklahoma and Arkansas kill pens did not respond to requests for comment; the third denied ever having sent a branded horse to a kill pen but said she gave one adopted horse away to a friend after she rehabilitated it. 

When they advertise horses for sale, many kill pens suggest that they’re giving an animal a last chance to be saved before it gets shipped to slaughter — if someone is willing to pay to rescue it. These online ads often include a price tag that can approach $1,000 per horse. 

Even for animals that were once protected by law, the practice is not illegal as long as the adopter has obtained the ownership title to the horse.

“At that time, when they apply for private ownership and it’s granted to them, that animal then does become private property. It is no longer protected by the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act,” said Holle’ Waddell, division chief of the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, referring to the 1971 law. 

That makes it difficult to track how many branded horses end up at risk of slaughter; the BLM stops keeping tabs once an animal becomes privately owned.

As for horses considered “untitled” — not yet owned outright — the BLM said in a statement that it is “unaware of any evidence that untitled wild horses or burros are being sent to slaughter.”

“In the rare instance in which we hear of an untitled animal being sold without authorization, we take immediate action to retrieve the animal,” the statement said.

But advocates insist the adoption program is steering horses to be slaughtered.

“The Bureau of Land Management is wiping its hands clean of the fact that advocacy organizations like the American Wild Horse Campaign have been documenting wild horses and burros in droves ending up at kill pens all across the country because of the incentivizing of the cash for the adoption incentive program,” said Grace Kuhn, communications director at the American Wild Horse Campaign. 

Indeed, the issue is not new: A 2021 New York Times investigation found that some adopters were pocketing the incentive money and then selling the horses at auctions frequented by slaughterhouse brokers.

The BLM told NBC News that it “continues to work with wild horse advocates and other interested parties on additional potential changes to the adoption program to strengthen protections for adopted animals.” 

The agency maintains that the program is essential. There are more than 82,000 horses and burros on public land, BLM officials say, which is far higher than the roughly 26,000 the agency considers the appropriate level, and slightly higher than the total in 2018, before the adoption program began.