What does the President’s FY26 Budget Mean for Wild Horses & Burros?

What does the President’s FY26 Budget Mean for Wild Horses & Burros? 

On May 30th, the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget was released with the longstanding ban on wild horse slaughter omitted. The Interior Department’s Budget in Brief further clarified the intent of the administration to “expand the use of appropriate tools to achieve better outcomes for Wild Horse and Burro (WHB) management, rangeland health, and containment of program costs.”  

The budget: 

• Slashes Wild Horse Program Funding: Cuts BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program budget by over 25%—from $143 million to $100 million. With 64,000 wild horses and burros already in confinement, the reduced budget would be almost entirely consumed by holding costs, leaving nothing for humane on-range management.
  
  
• Eliminates the Ban on Slaughter and Killing: Omits the long-standing prohibition on the destruction of healthy wild horses and burros and their sale for commercial slaughter.
  
  
• Weakens Transfer Safeguards: Removes slaughter protections from the transfer provision, allowing the BLM to give wild horses and burros away at no cost to state, local, and federal agencies – after which they lose their protected status.
  
  
• Expands Eligibility for Transfer Requests: Authorizes “approved” individuals, nonprofits, and foreign governments to initiate these transfers, effectively using government agencies as conduits to pass horses to private entities with no federal oversight or restrictions on their fate.
  
  
• Maintains USDA Inspection Ban: Continues the ban on federal funding for USDA horse slaughter plant inspections—keeping horse slaughter plants closed in the U.S.
• Enables Cross-Border Slaughter: With U.S. slaughter plants shuttered, the budget opens the door for thousands of federally protected wild horses to be sold or transferred to kill buyers for export to slaughterhouses in Canada or Mexico, keeping the cruelty out of sight of the American public.
• Creates a ‘Slaundering’ Scheme: The transfer provisions allow the federal government to distance itself from the slaughter by handing wild horses to other agencies, which could then profit by selling them to kill buyers. It's not just a loophole – it’s a laundered pathway to slaughter similar to the Adoption Incentive Program but on steroids.
• Implements Project 2025 Plan: The Project 2025 blueprint calls on Congress to grant the BLM authority to “humanely dispose” of “excess” wild horses and burros. This budget implements that recommendation. 

What Happens Next? 

The President’s budget is just a proposal – Congress controls the purse strings. Attention now turns to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, specifically their Interior Subcommittees, which are currently drafting their FY26 spending bills.

Once subcommittees “mark up” (finalize) their bills, they go to the full Appropriations Committees, then to the full House and Senate. After each chamber passes its version, a conference committee works to reconcile differences. The final bill must then be approved by both chambers.

It’s a complex process that can take months, but the decisions made along the way will determine the future of America’s wild horses and burros.

What is President Trump’s Position on Horse Slaughter?

President Trump has not publicly addressed horse slaughter in this budget cycle. However, the wild horse and burro provisions in his FY26 budget contradict the stance taken during his first administration, which explicitly took lethal management off the table, citing the president’s lack of support.

The proposal is also inconsistent with recent animal welfare advances under his leadership, including the U.S. Navy’s decision to end all testing on dogs and cats, and commitments by the EPA and FDA to phase out animal testing of chemicals and drugs.

We’ve Stopped Slaughter Before—We Can Do It Again

AWHC has been here before. In 2017, the U.S. House passed an appropriations bill that lifted the longstanding ban on the destruction of healthy wild horses and their sale for commercial slaughter. We fought back – organizing a nationwide grassroots uprising through TV ads, high-profile op-eds, social media campaigns, and news coverage to expose the truth. The American people – 80% of whom support protecting wild horses – stood with us. In the end, the Senate held the line, and the slaughter ban remained in place.

Now, we’re facing an even greater threat.

The FY26 budget opens the door to mass slaughter, and nothing short of an unprecedented response will save America’s wild horses and burros.

Our mission is clear: influence Congress, appeal directly to President Trump, and ensure the American people’s voice is heard—loud and unrelenting.

We stopped slaughter once. With your support, we will do it again. Fuel our fight here