08/22/2026
The Trump administration is selling thousands of federally protected wild horses - and some are ending up in the slaughter pipeline, a New York Times investigation found.
The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management rounds up mustangs to control wild populations. With 58,000 horses in government holding facilities costing $100 million a year, it’s selling more to cut costs. Sales more than doubled in 2025, to 3,700.
Here’s the loophole: Once sold, horses lose federal protections. Buyers agree not to slaughter them or knowingly sell them for slaughter. But they can resell them to middlemen, who can legally send them to slaughter.
Please call the BLM’s Wild Horse & B***o
National Center at 866-468-7826 if you care about the illegal and horrific slaughtering of these beautiful creatures.
Jessica Yellin Chantal Hofstee Risdon Roberts