Interior Department to Transfer Captured Wild Horses to Mississippi Middleman Linked to Slaughter Pipeline

Federal Agency Actions Contradict Obama Stand Against Horse Slaughter

Pelahatchie, MS (September 19, 2013)….A Pelahatchie, Mississippi man is thecenter of a national controversyover the fate of wild horses rounded up from federal land in northern Nevada. 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 last week, to a slaughter middleman in Mississippi. The government will pay the middleman – Stan Palmer of J&S Associates in Pelahatchie, Mississippi – over $1,000 per horse to take the horses off the government’s hands, despite the department’s own internal investigation that showed wild horses previously sent to Palmer have ended up in the slaughter pipeline.

A total of400 wild horses were captured last weekin a helicopter roundup at the refuge last week. They 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.

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 wild horses of the Sheldon Refuge are America’s war horses. Their ancestors were cavalry mounts who fought in battles through World War I. These historic animals should be protected and preserved, not eradicated from ourpublic landsand callously dumped into the slaughter pipeline,” saidSuzanne Roy, Director of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign), a national coalition of more than 50 organizations.

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 returned 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."

"We stand ready to do anything and everything we can to prevent these amazing horses from landing in a sale yard," 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."

Although the Obama Administration is publicly opposed to horse slaughter, the FWS is just the latest federal agency to engage in plans to send wild horses frompublic landsto the slaughter pipeline. Last month, the U.S. Forest Servicebacked 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. Next month, the National Park Service willroundup 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.

“It’s time that federal agencies align their wild horse policies with the Obama Administration’s stand against the cruel practice of horse slaughter,” said Neda DeMayo, President of Return to Freedom, AWHC’s founding organization. “America is not a horse eating culture and the vast majority of Americans are opposed to horse slaughter. It’s an ongoing travesty for our government to use our tax dollars to deliver historic and cherished wild horses from ourpublic landsinto the slaughter pipeline, either directly or by third party laundering.”

TheAmerican Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign), founded in 2004 by Return to Freedom, is a coalition of more than 50 horseadvocacy, 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:

AWHCLetter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell

AWHCAlert on Sheldon Roundup

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

Background on Sheldon Wild Horse & Burro Eradication Plan

FWS Investigation of J&S Associates/Stan Palmer

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