How a program meant to encourage the adoption of wild horses may be subsidizing their slaughter
In 2019, the federal government created a program to offer up to $1,000 to anyone who adopted a wild horse from the Bureau of Land Management, which had been racking up hefty bills while managing them on the public dime. There was just one problem: The agency had no power to monitor the well-being of horses after they were adopted. Now, it appears that some program participants may be taking in the protected horses—only to sell them to middlemen known as “kill buyers” at the first possible chance, according to a report in The New York Times. As we’ve reported in the past, those buyers then send wild horses abroad, where slaughter for food is legal.
