Horse advocates are alleging that the Bureau of Land Management rushed rounded-up mustangs through holding corrals near Lander and sent them to dealers who subsequently sold them for slaughter.
Oregon-based Skydog Sanctuary has filed a complaint with the BLM. The group alleges the horses passed through the Lander Public Off-Range Pasture, also known as the Wind River Ranch, before they were sent to dealers in other states and sold for slaughter.
The BLM confirmed it sends horses to the Wind River Ranch.
"We do have a contract with that sanctuary, which is authorized to offer horses for adoption and direct sale,” BLM spokeswoman Courtney Whiteman said in an email to Cowboy State Daily.
Groups of horses, totaling 24 animals, arrived at the pasture in May and July. The Wind River Ranch is supposed to be a “long-term care” facility for mustangs rounded up off the range in Wyoming and other states, according to Skydog’s complaint.
But the horses were quickly sent to a dealer in Colorado, with no public notice of sale, Skydog claims.
“The horses whose sales were recorded were sold the same day as they arrived at Lander, indicating that the buyers were aware in advance that they were arriving,” according to Skydog.
Among those horses was at least one from Wyoming’s Salt Wells Creek herd, according to Skydog. That herd includes rare curly-haired mustangs.
“Nothing is as magnificent as the curlies that come out of Wyoming and the Salt Wells Creek herd,” Skydog founder Clare Staples told Cowboy State Daily.
She’s adopted several Wyoming mustangs, which live on her 9,000-acre horse and burro sanctuary near Bend, Oregon.
Did BLM Break Its Own Rules?
Staples said the latest complaint is the eighth Skydog and other wild-horse advocates have filed against the BLM recently.
However, the latest allegations stand out because of the status of the Wind River Ranch.
“This was unusual, because that’s supposed to be a semi-sanctuary facility,” she said. “Having the horses allegedly moved through so quickly and snatched up by one buyer really isn’t normal, like anything we’ve ever seen.”
She also noted that some of the horses allegedly later sold for slaughter were young and healthy.
“Horses that absolutely could find some wonderful homes, but they’re not being offered a chance,” she said.
Wild-horse advocate Suzanne Roy told Cowboy State Daily the complaint claims the BLM broke its own rules by sending horses to a dealer known to sell horses for slaughter.
Advocates contend the BLM is not to knowingly send horses to slaughter or knowingly send or sell them to dealers who might do so, said Roy, founder of American Wild Horse Conservation based in Davis, California.
There are no longer any horse-slaughter plants in the United States, so horses are shipped to slaughterhouses in Mexico.
There is an overseas market for horse meat. Belgian chef Alfons Gulickx previously told Cowboy State Daily horse meat is a popular item on his restaurant’s menu.
‘Continuous Check-Ins'
Whiteman said the BLM prioritizes getting mustangs adopted.
Adopted horses’ titles remain with the BLM for a year, during which time the agency conducts “continuous check-ins” to ensure the horses are well-cared for before the title is transferred to the new owner.
Even when horses can’t be adopted, the BLM looks out for their welfare, Whitman said.
"A horse may only be offered for direct sale after it has been unsuccessfully offered for adoption three times. With a direct sale comes an agreement where the buyer agrees they intend to keep the horse humanely, then a transfer of title,” she wrote. "BLM ensures all adopted and sold wild horses have met these conditions, and we investigate any complaints that come to us. After a horse's transfer of title, it is no longer under our jurisdiction. However, we do look into complaints regarding buyers or adopters potentially breaching the terms of their contract.”
Those who have concerns about the fate of mustangs should contact the BLM directly, Whiteman said.
"Our law enforcement and wild horse and burro specialist staff investigate these complaints thoroughly and seriously,” she wrote.
‘Tip Of The Iceberg’
As a method of population control, the BLM frequently rounds up mustangs in Wyoming and other states.
The agency’s mission should be to adopt those horses out to people who will give them good homes, Roy said.
However, she said she thinks the agency is moving away from that and toward funneling horses to slaughter dealers.
“They don’t call them ‘adoption events’ anymore. They call them ‘placement events,’” she said.
“We’ve tracked large groups of horses going straight from events to ‘kill pens,’ where they’re sold for slaughter,” she said.
Advocates claim about 320 horses have been sent to kill pens across the country, Roy said.
“That’s probably just the tip of the iceberg,” she added.
According to Skydog, Wyoming mustangs that have allegedly gone to kill pens include:
• A 7-year-old gelding from the White Mountain herd, sold at a kill pen in Oklahoma on June 22.
• A 5-year-old mare from the Steward Creek herd, sold May 30 in Colorado.
• A 4-year-old gelding from the Salt Wells Creek herd, sold May 8 in Texas.
• An 8-year-old mare from the Divide Basin herd, sold in Oklahoma on March 25.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
