Mustang Advocates Say Report Proves Wild Horses From Wyoming Sent To Slaughter
Mustang advocates say a New York Times report proves horses rounded up from the range in Wyoming and other states have been sent to slaughter. An advocacy group is now asking Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to shut down all sales of wild horses.
Horse advocates are claiming a New York Times investigation proves their allegations that mustangs rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management have been funneled through dealers who sold them for slaughter.
That includes horses from Wyoming, wild-horse advocate Suzanne Roy told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday.
“We got a brand number for those horses,” said Roy, who worked on the investigation as a consultant for Skydog Ranch & Sanctuary out of Bend, Oregon.
Roy and Skydog Ranch & Sanctuary founder Clare Staples previously told Cowboy State Daily that horses passed through the Wind River Ranch near Lander were sent to dealers who sold them to slaughter.
They claimed the BLM broke its own rules in doing so because the agency isn’t authorized to send horses to slaughter, either directly or by proxy.
Skydog claimed in a statement Thursday that the Times investigative piece proves their allegations. The group said it sent a letter to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum demanding an immediate shutdown of all BLM wild-horse sales.
Horses captured during BLM roundups went to livestock trader Brandon Jones in Ohio, who bought them for $25 each, the Times reported Thursday.
According to livestock inspection records, mustangs sold by the government were sent to slaughterhouses in Canada, the Times wrote.
A request for comment sent from Cowboy State Daily to Burgum’s office wasn’t answered by publication time.
The BLM denies that it’s funneled horses to slaughter.
“The Bureau of Land Management does not sell or send wild horses or burros to slaughter, and allegations that individuals are violating federal law or the terms governing the sale of these animals are taken seriously,” according to an email from the agency’s national press office Thursday evening. “Violations of these laws may result in criminal fines and imprisonment. When BLM receives credible evidence of potential violations, the agency reviews that information and refers appropriate matters to law enforcement.”
The BLM said its mission remains to protect wild horses and burros, and to control their numbers though roundups and adoptions or sales, “while longstanding federal safeguards and BLM policy prohibit their sale for commercial processing. Those who abuse the program or attempt to circumvent its protections should not be confused with the thousands of responsible Americans who provide good homes for these animals.”
Mule Deer Foundation president and CEO Greg Sheehan, former head of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, said there have beencases of horses going from the BLM to slaughter sale dealers.
“A little bit of what they (horse advocates) describe has happened. But that was abuse of the system; any system can be abused,” Sheehan said. “Are there a few cases? Yes, there are, but it’s not systemic.”
Horse advocates say it’s been proven that mustangs rounded up in Wyoming have been sent to slaughterhouses in Canada. (Carol Walker)
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
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