BLM Sold 3,700 Wild Horses in 2025, Opening Slaughter Loophole

2 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Aug 20

Government records reviewed by The New York Times show the Bureau of Land Management quietly expanded bulk sales of wild horses to private traders, with some branded mustangs later appearing on trucks headed to Canadian slaughter plants.
The sales exploit a legal distinction: after three failed online listings, a horse can be deemed unadoptable and sold for as little as $25, immediately losing federal protections even though direct slaughter remains illegal.
That pipeline helps BLM cut a costly backlog—58,000 horses in holding cost about $100 million a year—and the agency estimated selling 3,700 horses in 2025 saved roughly $56 million.
Brandon Jones, an Ohio trader who received about 500 horses, became a central buyer after a court halted BLM's $1,000 adoption-incentive program; he denied sending mustangs to slaughter and refused to disclose where many went.
About 73,000 wild horses still roam Western public lands, and advocates say wider use of fertility-control darts—not more roundups and resale—would better reduce herds without feeding a slaughter pipeline.