08/23/2026
Yesterday The New York Times published a major investigation exposing how the Bureau of Land Management is selling federally protected wild horses for as little as $25, stripping them of their protections and allowing them to be quickly resold into the slaughter pipeline.
The findings are devastating. BLM sales more than doubled in 2025, reaching 3,700 horses. The agency spent thousands of taxpayer dollars rounding up each animal, then sold some by the truckload to bulk buyers. Government records and livestock inspections later traced mustangs to auctions frequented by kill buyers and trucks bound for Canadian slaughter plants.
Advocates (including the team at MCR) have repeatedly warned the BLM about where these horses are appearing. Yet the agency has continued selling young, healthy mustangs without adequately tracking where they go or ensuring their safety.
This investigation confirms what rescuers have been seeing for years: The BLMās sales program is failing to protect the very animals entrusted to its care.
Please take a moment to place a call to your Senators and Representative by calling the capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 to be directed. Demand that your member of congress investigate the Bureau of Land Management Sale Authority program for wild horses and burros so that none of these animals end up at slaughter.
