by Carren Parson

Just a few years ago, Rep. Chris Stewart proposed to slaughter the wild horses, but Congress rejected this idea. The next move was the Incentive Adoption Program. That program was to gather, remove, and give the wild horses to the public for $1000, with a caveat to keep them for a year; then do with them what you want…even to put them in the slaughter pipeline.  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) says that happens infrequently. Yet every day in the social media wild horses are advertised as being in kill pens aka auction yards, from the NW to the SE and from the NE to the SW…not just 1-2 horses but 10-20 on average with some projected to be 1000 to 2000 yearly. Kind-hearted souls wanting to rescue them from the kill pens are becoming exhausted, now out of funds to help purchase them.

Recently six, two year old wild horses were purchased from a kill pen in Colorado. They had had a long journey from Litchfield, CA or Fallon, NV to Brighton Springs, WY, to MT, and on to a fairground in the Dakotas where they were to become part of the Adoption Incentive Program.  There they were purchased by couples 4 each for $8000, or by singles 4 each for $4000. Some of the horses went to a couple who run the Bar S Rodeo Co. in ND. with the wife saying to an informant, the wild horses were used in the rodeo. One year later, after two virtual meetings, titled horses and $8000 in pocket, the wild horses were dumped in the Philip Auction Yard  in SD and driven to Fabrizius Auction Yard in CO. There they were purchased by a “kind-hearted soul” who found them at two years old, pregnant, with alopecia (hair loss likely due to stress), with lost or crooked tails, head shy, and flighty. The damage was done with movement now to try to repair them to trust a human.

Cars, cars, cars, trailers lined up this past week to take young wild horses from Rock Springs in WY. Fill out an application, stamp “approved,” quickly take a horse , no time to assess them, done. With so many in kill pens now, it is likely many more through this seemingly  superficial program, will end up in kill pens as well or in isolating  pastures, or in filthy corrals. Yes, there are those who also will end up in good, safe homes. Yet this program appears to be a sneaky way to get rid of our American treasures with taxpayers footing the bill only to further brutalize the voiceless in our society. When does it stop? I would ask those of you who have taken these wild horses out of kill pens to look into their background, to write about it, to contact your lawmakers re: your findings, and to approach the BLM to refine or forget this insensitive, evildoing program.