Senate Appropriators Maintain Wild Horse Slaughter Ban in FY26 Interior Dept. Funding Bill

Senate Appropriators Maintain Wild Horse Slaughter Ban in FY26 Interior Dept. Funding Bill

Legislation upholds core protections but falls short of driving meaningful change in federal wild horse management 

(WASHINGTON D.C., July 31 2025) – American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC) and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) applaud the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations for continuing critical protections for wild horses and burros in its Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 spending legislation, but express disappointment that the legislation stops short of holding the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) accountable for implementing long-overdue reform.

The Senate bill rejects the Trump Administration's FY26 Budget proposal:

• Maintains the longstanding ban on slaughter of wild horses and burros;
  
  
• Rejects the expansion of transfer authority to foreign governments that could enable backdoor sales to slaughter; and
  
  
• Rejects a proposed 25% funding cut.

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However, unlike the House Committee on Appropriations, the Senate did not include a provision to dedicate $11 million specifically to fertility control. The accompanying report instead echoes familiar language urging a “multipronged approach” that focuses on removals and off-range holding, essentially endorsing the same failed strategy that has created a costly holding crisis and left more than 62,000 horses in government confinement.

“While we appreciate the Senate’s continued support for the slaughter ban and rejection of expanded transfer authority, we’re disappointed that the committee failed to push for real reform,” said Suzanne Roy, executive director of AWHC. “Without clear direction to prioritize humane fertility control, the BLM will likely continue business as usual, rounding up wild horses by the thousands and warehousing them at taxpayer expense.”  

“Fortunately, despite the missed opportunity in the Senate bill, the House bill takes meaningful action to address the problem by prioritizing $11 million in funding for safe and effective humane fertility control,” Roy concluded.

“We are grateful to Senate appropriators for maintaining critical protections for wild horses and rejecting the administration’s attempt to omit them in its proposed budget,” said Joanna Grossman, Ph.D., AWI’s Equine Program Director. “As FY26 legislation is finalized in the coming months, we urge Congress to instruct the BLM to change course and implement humane fertility control to protect wild horses from brutal, ineffective, and costly helicopter roundups.”

Despite previous bipartisan directives from Congress, the BLM continues to spend less than 4% of its Wild Horse and Burro Program budget to fertility control. Meanwhile, in just one program, AWHC has delivered more than 10,000 fertility control treatments over the past five years, more than double what the BLM has achieved, demonstrating the viability and scalability of humane, on-range solutions.

As the FY26 process advances, AWHC and AWI urge lawmakers to adopt similar language to the House’s directive to allocate $11 million to fertility control. 

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About American Wild Horse Conservation

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.