A federal judge on Monday dealt a major blow to the Bureau of Land Management’s ongoing efforts to reduce excess wild horses and burros trampling federal rangelands.
Senior Judge William J. Martinez of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado issued a ruling concluding that protection measures BLM implemented three years ago to ensure that thousands of animals adopted into private care each year are not being sold to slaughter were not done in accordance with federal law and are insufficient to safeguard the federally protected animals.
The ruling appears to at least temporarily shut down BLM’s adoption incentive program, which offers a $1,000 payment to take in an animal rounded up and removed from federal rangelands. The program, in its current format, would be stopped until the bureau conducts a new analysis on protection measures for the adopted wild horses and burros.
“This ruling halts this corrupt federal program that has funneled hundreds of federally-protected wild horses and burros into the slaughter pipeline in violation of congressional protections,” Suzanne Roy, executive director of American Wild Horse Conservation, said in a statement.
American Wild Horse Conservation, Skydog Sanctuary and several private petitioners originally filed the federal lawsuit in 2021 challenging BLM’s the program.
“We’re grateful that the court recognized what we have long known — that the BLM’s program was not only unlawful but also fundamentally at odds with the agency’s duty to protect these iconic animals and treat them humanely,” Roy added.
A BLM spokesperson said the agency had no comment.
The bureau has long maintained that it has found no evidence that wild horses that have gone through the adoption incentive program have been later sold to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada.
A Department of Justice spokesperson said the agency had no comment.
The adoption incentive program is critical to BLM’s ongoing and successful efforts to reduce the number of excess wild horses and burros on federal rangelands, mostly in the West. BLM’s use of roundups has resulted in the latest estimated rangewide wild horse and burro population count, as of March 1, 2024, of 73,520 animals — down from a record 95,114 in 2020.
But the result is that the bureau is, as of September, holding 66,236 wild horses and burros in off-range pastures and corrals, costing it millions of dollars each year to care for and feed the animals, consuming nearly two-thirds of BLM’s annual Wild Horse and Burro Program budget.
Since 2020, BLM has adopted out nearly 30,000 wild horses and burros into private care through the program, including 5,166 last year.
But the program has been dogged by allegations that some private adopters are collecting the $1,000 incentive payment and later selling the animals for profit to buyers from known slaughterhouses.
BLM in 2021 started an internal investigation into claims by wild horse advocates that were detailed in a New York Times story that estimated “truckloads” of adopted wild horses and burros were later sold at auction.
BLM has reported that it has found no credible evidence that adopted animals later ended up at foreign slaughterhouses.
The court decision Monday revolves around an instruction memorandum, or IM, that BLM formally unveiled to the public in 2022. It replaced the 2019 IM that established the adoption incentive program and that was the focus of the original lawsuit. The groups later amended the complaint to include the 2022 IM.
The updated memo included safeguards in the wake of the slaughterhouse allegations — the most substantial of which required that a person adopting a wild horse or burro will not receive the incentive payment until “a veterinarian or BLM-authorized officer” certifies that the adopter has complied with the requirements of the program.
Participants in the program previously received $500 upfront and an additional $500 per adopted animal a year later, after a follow-up review determined the adopter was properly caring for the horse or horses and title had been transferred to the private party.
But wild horse advocates have long argued that these changes still allow for an adopter, after the veterinarian or BLM-authorized officer signs off on the transaction, to later turn around and sell the animals to “kill buyers” at auction.
Martinez, an Obama appointee, concluded that the 2022 instruction memo failed to adhere to National Environmental Policy Act and Administrative Procedures Act requirements and sent it back to BLM, which could have to conduct an environmental impact statement to resolve the issues.
This reporter can be reached on Signal at s_streater.80.
