Six BLM "Sale Authority" Horses Shipped to Slaughter

A man posing as a preacher claiming his intentions to acquire horses for a youth program obtained six BLM sale authority animals under false pretenses. A short time later brand inspectors recorded freezemarks of these same six horses as being received at the Cavell International Slaughterhouse in DeKalb, IL.

On April 15th Dustin Herbert, from Meeker, OK, acquired the animals at BLM's Canon City facility. They had been originally gathered from the Antelope, WY HMA and reportedly were among the fleshier animals that were available. They were slaughtered on April 18th.

A Press Conference Washington, DC. has been scheduled with Mr. Rahall and Mr. Whitfield at 9:30am on Wednesday, April 27th. It will be held in room Rayburn 2322.

What YOU Can Do!

Congress cannot expect BLM to conduct sale authority safely without giving the agency the necessary tools to ensure that purchasers are legitimate. These animals are in holding facilities as a result of a Federal protection and management program. It is unconscionable for Congress to direct BLM to subject these animals to sale without laws or regulations protecting them from scam artists and get rich quick operators.

E-mail or telephone the Secretary of Interior Gale Norton's office and BLM Director Kathleen Clarke's office and ask BLM to:

• Suspend any more sales until this issue can be resolved (how this sale happened and how future misrepresented sales can be prevented.)

• Institute formal regulations before any more sales take place.

Secretary Norton can be contacted at [email protected] or 202-208-7351.

Director Clarke can be contacted at [email protected] or 202-208-6731.

Please contact Senator Burns, 202-224-2644 and Senator Reid, 202-224-3542 and express your displeasure about these horses being slaughtered. Ask them to stop the slaughter of America's wild horses and support HR 297 and S 576.

Contact your own Senators and ask them to support S.576.

• Locate your Senator here

Contact your Congressman and urge him/her to cosponsor H.R. 297.

• Locate your Congressman here

H.R. 297 and S.576 will again make it illegal to acquire wild horses for purposes of rendering them into commercial products. These bills are necessary and will only impact the scam artists and get rich quick schemers. To view the text of these bills please click here.

Wild horse advocates in northern Nevada have taken out a half page advertisement in the Nevada-Appeal, Carson City's newspaper. To view the ad please click here.

Karen Sussman and Robin Lohnes contributed to this report.