BLM Reverses Sale With Limitation Policy

Humane management on the range is vital to preserving America’s rapidly disappearing wild horse herds.

The Bureau of Land Management recently reversed its 2018 wild horse and burro sales policy change which allowed a single buyer to purchase up to 24 captured wild horses (or burros) per day — no questions asked and no waiting period. That policy had left the door wide open for kill buyers and their associates to buy up horses en masse for slaughter.

The new reversal of that policy means that BLM field offices will immediately revert to the policy set in 2014 which limits buyers to purchasing no more than four wild horses or burros every six months, unless they receive special permission.

The 2005 Burns amendment had given the BLM authority to sell captured horses over the age of 10 (and those offered for adoption 3 times but never placed) which was a serious blow to efforts to protect America’s wild horse and burros. When the sales policy changed in 2018, the BLM gave a green light for federally protected animals to be sent in large numbers for slaughter in plants across our borders.

It is hoped that ongoing advocacy efforts and the number of humane alternatives the BLM could choose to manage wild horses and burros will eventually lead to ending the sale program altogether.

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