President’s Budget Could Open Door to Massacre of 64,000 Wild Horses & Burros

Leading wild horse organization urges Congress to maintain slaughter ban

WASHINGTON D.C., (May 31, 2025): The Trump Administration’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal slashes funding for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program by 25% and removes long-standing protections against horse slaughter, paving the way for the mass killing of up to 64,000 federally protected wild horses and burros currently in government holding facilities.

American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC), the nation’s leading wild horse advocacy organization, condemned the proposal as an attack on animal welfare and America's public lands.

“This budget would be a bullet to the head of America’s wild horses if passed by Congress,” said Suzanne Roy, executive director of AWHC. “Slaughter is a barbaric solution to a fundamentally broken federal program. Humane, effective solutions exist – like fertility control and restoring lost habitat – and they reflect the will of the American people, 80% of whom want wild horses protected and slaughter banned.”

The proposal mirrors the Project 2025 agenda, which calls on Congress to grant BLM authority to “humanely dispose” of federally-protected wild horses and burros. The position contradicts President Trump’s stance during his first administration, which took lethal management off the table, citing the President’s lack of support. The FY26 budget revives that threat, putting tens of thousands of wild horses at risk of mass slaughter. 

The focus now turns to Congress as the appropriations process moves forward. Last week, 83 bipartisan members of Congress called for humane wild horse management in the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) House Appropriations legislation. Their request for increased funding for fertility control aligns with recommendations of the BLM’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board and overwhelming public opinion. 

“After decades of costly and ineffective roundups, the BLM now stockpiles more wild horses in government pens than remain free on the range,” added Roy. “Americans deserve a better federal plan that  genuinely tackles off-range holding issues without resorting to slaughter.”  

Among the solutions AWHC advocates for:

1. A moratorium on roundups and immediate expansion of fertility control efforts to immediately stop the influx of wild horses and burros to holding facilities. 

2. A focus on decreasing the holding population in costly costly short-term corrals by:

• Returning wild horses to reinstated Herd Areas on federal lands.
• Rewilding via partnerships with private landowners and nature preserves.
• Maximizing the use of cost-effective long-term pastures.
• Expanding adoptions through nonprofit collaborations. 

3. A phase out of the mass federal holding system in favor of on-range conservation.

“You don’t fix years of government mismanagement by slaughtering the very animals you’re legally-mandated to protect,” Roy concluded. “We’re ready to support real reform, but it starts with halting the flow of wild horses and burros into holding and keeping slaughter off the table.”

American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) is the nation’s leading nonprofit wild horse conservation organization, with more than 700,000 supporters and followers nationwide. AWHC is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse and burros in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage. In addition to advocating for the protection and preservation of America’s wild herds, AWHC implements the largest wild horse fertility control program in the world through a partnership with the State of Nevada for wild horses that live in the Virginia Range near Reno.

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