A Colorado court has found a federal program may have contributed to the slaughter and abuse of wild horses and burros.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado’s decision stopped the Bureau of Land Management’s Adoption Incentive Program, which gave people $1,000 per wild horse or burro they adopted.
It’s “not hard to imagine” slaughtering wild horses could be “fairly traceable” to the incentive program, the court said, adding that the program failed to undergo certain regulations and public comment.
American Wild Horse Conservation was one of several animal welfare groups that filed the lawsuit against the BLM. Executive Director Suzanne Roy said the ruling “halts the pipeline to slaughter” for these animals, which have been federally protected since 1971.
“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 said.
A spokesperson for the BLM said the agency could not comment on litigation.
It’s illegal to kill wild horses and burros. The BLM has mainly controlled populations through rounding up, then adopting out the animals. The agency has taken out billboards promoting adoption and runs a blog filled with happy stories of horses and burros who’ve found their forever homes with families. At several correctional facilities across the U.S., training these animals has become a point of pride for inmates.
In 2019, the BLM added a $1,000 incentive per adopted animal, which American Wild Horse Conservation contends incentivized a production-line, cash-grab approach to caring for wild horses and burros. Investigations by the group and The New York Times found that after being adopted, some have gone to auction and eventually to slaughter, with their meat sold for dog food and even human consumption overseas.
While the conservation group says this is a “landmark” ruling against the incentive program, it would like to see the government’s approach to wild horses and burros change even more drastically.
“The BLM has just used this blunt-force approach,” said organization spokesperson Amelia Perrin, “round them up, scoop them off the land, adopt them out.”
Instead, she said the group is advocating for more use of non-permanent fertility control, which would mean darting mares every year to administer drugs. While the BLM does use this approach, its primary tool against overpopulation is roundups, which have become increasingly controversial in recent years.
Those roundups typically involve using low-flying helicopters to herd and capture wild horses. Animal advocates have criticized the practice as unnecessarily dangerous and stressful for the horses. Critics have also questioned the safety of facilities used to house the captured horses.
One mare was euthanized during a roundup in September after it broke its leg at the Little Book Cliffs Wild Horse Range near Palisade. The operation there rounded up 140 horses, 98 of which were permanently removed from the herd. A month later, another horse from the Little Book Cliffs roundup died from an injury it suffered at a holding facility.
Gov. Jared Polis has opposed the use of helicopters in roundups, and in 2023 created a working group to try and figure out new ways to manage herds. Last week, he declared March “Horse Protection Month” — a first in the U.S.
