Federal Agencies Contradict Obama Administration's Anti-Horse Slaughter Stance

Interior Dept. Gearing Up to Send Wild Horses from Sheldon Wildlife Refuge to Slaughter Middleman & Theodore Nat'l Park Horses to Slaughter Auction

Washington, DC (September 19, 2013)…Despite receiving 14,000 faxes and emails from concerned citizens and inquiries fromCongress, the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is still poised to turn over an estimated 240 wild horses, captured from the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada last week, to a slaughter middleman in Mississippi.

At the same time, the National Park Service is gearing up tocapture approximately 100 wild horses from the Theodore Roosevelt National Parkin the North Dakota badlands and sell them on October 23 at alivestockauction frequented by kill buyers.

Last month, the U.S. Forest Service (FS)backed outof a plan to round up wild horses from public and tribal lands in Nevada and deliver them to a slaughter auction,but the tribe continued the roundupon its own with authorization from both the FS and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

These actions by federal agencies directly contradict the Obama Administration's public opposition to horse slaughter.

Last week a total of400 wild horses were capturedin a helicopter roundup at the Sheldon Refuge on the Nevada/Oregon border. The horses are being held and processed in corrals at Sheldon for the next 30 days. The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), a division of theDOI, operates the refuge and is prohibiting the public from viewing the captured horses. FWS plans to turn approximately 160 of the animals over to legitimate adoption contractors, leaving 240 for Stan Palmer of J&S Associates in Pelahatchie, Mississippi. The FWS will pay Palmer over $1,000 per horse to take the horses off the government’s hands, despite the department’sown internal investigationthat showed wild horses previously sent to Palmer had ended up in the slaughter pipeline.

The FWS intends toeradicate wild horses and burros from the refuge, despite excellent range conditions, broad public support and interest in viewing the horses on the refuge, and the animals’ historic significance to the area.

The Coalition is calling on the FWS to return to the range any captured Sheldon wild horses that cannot be responsibly adopted out. The horses could be givenfertility controlor sterilized before being set free. In addition to appealing to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and FWS director Daniel Ashe, advocates have turned for assistance to Senator Barbara Boxer, whose Environment and Public Works Committee in theSenatehas jurisdiction over FWS refuges.

Laura Leigh, Founder and President of Wild Horse Education, hasfiled a lawsuitagainst the FWS over its plans for the Sheldon horses. “Sheldon horses stand on the verge of being sent to slaughter buyers again,” stated Leigh. “It would be a tremendous American tragedy if we as a nation forget the contribution these animals played in our history and betrayed them, again.”

President Obama's 2014 budgetincludes languageto stop horse slaughter plants from operating in the U.S. by prohibiting federal funding for USDA horse meat inspections. In addition, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsackstated in Marchthat there must be a better way to deal with unwanted horses than slaughtering them for human consumption.

TheAmerican Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation), founded in 2004 by Return to Freedom, is a coalition of more than 50 horse advocacy, public interest, and conservation organizations dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come.

Return to Freedomis dedicated to preserving the freedom, diversity, and habitat of America’s wild horses through sanctuary, education, and conservation, while enriching the human spirit through direct experience with the natural world. Return to Freedom provides a safe haven to 400 wild horses and burros at its sanctuary in Santa Barbara, California.

Wild Horse Educationis a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting America’s wild herds from roundup, slaughter, and extinction.

For more information, please see:

Letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, AWHPC

Alert on Sheldon Roundup, AWHPC

Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge and America’s War Horses, the Ultimate Betrayal, Wild Horse Education