An animal advocacy organization is filing suit to suspend the federal government’s wild horse and burro adoption program, stating that, despite federal protections, the animals are ending up in slaughterhouses.
The nonprofit Friends of Animals (FoA) filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado a suit against Bureau of Land Management (BLM), alleging its Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) violates Congress’ prohibition on slaughter and the agency did not follow proper procedures when it established the adoption program. In addition, the organization states the AIP is inconsistent with the Wild Horse and Burro Act (WHBA) of 1971.
“The WHBA was passed to protect the role of wild horses in maintaining the ecological balance of public lands. BLM being caught red-handed treating wild horses like garbage and betraying them during the 50th anniversary of the passing of the WHBA is a national disgrace,” said Priscilla Feral, president of FoA.
“For decades, the BLM has prioritized commercializing federal public lands over wild horses. It’s time for new policies that actually protect wild horses.”
In 2019, BLM established AIP, where qualified adopters are paid $1,000 to adopt an untrained wild horse or burro. The incentive was established to reduce the number of animals currently in off-range facilities, which cost over $50 million annually to maintain. Adopters receive $500 within 60 days of adoption and another $500 after the title is transferred in one year. In May, an article published in the New York Times found that wild horses and burros were sold to auction slaughterhouses after the adopters received their $1,000. The BLM states it “does not have the means or legal authority to track or direct the disposition of wild horses or burros once they pass into private ownership.”
“The latest incentive program, implemented in 2019, is a blatant violation of Congress’ mandate that BLM ensure wild horses are not sent to slaughter,” said Michael Harris, director of FoA’s Wildlife Law Program.
“In revising its adoption policy, BLM failed to follow the procedural requirements of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), hoping to avoid public scrutiny of a faulty program that removed any safeguard to prevent the horses from certain death.”
FoA asserts the AIP is arbitrary and capricious as BLM did not adhere to APA guidelines when it changed the adoption program by not complying with comment and rulemaking procedures. They also assert the AIP violates the 2019, 2020, and 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Acts, which prohibit the slaughter of horses, and violates NEPA for failing to analyze the program’s impact.
The organization has previously filed several lawsuits to stop wild horse roundups by the BLM. In 2014, FoA, along with Protect Mustangs, filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the state of Wyoming against the BLM to get even more wild horses removed from the state. The two groups filed suit in 2015 to stop a proposed wild horse gather in the Pine Nut Mountains in Nevada, stating the plan violated federal law and subjected the horses to the “damaging effects of a fertility-control drug.”
BLM dropped a research effort to sterilize 300 horses in Oregon, following a suit by FoA and several horse advocacy groups saying it was “unnecessary and barbaric.” In 2018, the groups sued over the proposed roundup of 10,000 horses over several herd management areas along the Nevada-Utah border.
FoA also argued that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service violated federal law for not considering the Pryor Mountain horse population under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Harris said the population is unique because the population has been isolated from other wild horses. A federal appeals court in May 2021 found that the service must review FoA’s petition to list the population on the ESA.
As of March 2020, BLM estimates the population of wild horses and burros at 95,114, nearly four times the appropriate management level of 26,770. In 2020, 6,133 wild horses and burros were adopted—a smaller number of animals due to COVID-19 restrictions than in 2019 with 7,104 adoptions.
FoA is asking the court to vacate the AIP program and stop BLM from adopting out any horses or burros until it complies with the law. — Charles Wallace, WLJ editor
