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Posted on Aug 15, 2013

The Obama Administration's Stealth Horse Slaughter Program

The Obama Administration has said repeatedly that it opposes horse slaughter. But actions speak louder than words. What's happening now in Nevada suggests that the Administration -- through its federal agencies -- is actually complicit in sending horses to a slaughter auction.

by FreeWildHorses

Community Contributor

The unluckiest of America's wild horses end up in places like this: a livestock yard in rural Nevada, where potential buyers coolly assess each animal's physique, looking for a deal...In the crowd are so-called kill buyers scouting product to ship to a foreign slaughterhouse.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told reporters Wednesday Congress should come up with a better solution for handling unwanted horses than slaughtering the animals for meat for human consumption.

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A federal judge agreed to hear last-minute arguments Friday from wild horse advocates seeking to block the sale of hundreds of wild mustangs, likely for slaughterhouses if a weekend auction goes forward, claiming the animals are federally protected mustangs that were rounded up illegally by a Nevada tribe.

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The Obama Administration's Stealth Horse Slaughter Program

This notice of a livestock auction -- which is frequented by kill buyers who purchase horses and transport them to slaughterhouses in Canada or Mexico -- tipped us off that the Feds were up to something. 700 horses don't just appear out of nowhere, so we did some digging.

And we discovered this back room deal between the U.S. Forest Service and an Indian tribe to spend our tax dollars to capture wild horses and deliver them to the slaughter auction despite the stated opposition of the Administration to horse slaughter.

Under this arrangement, there is no way to distinguish between unbranded horses owned by the tribe from unbranded horses who are wild and protected under federal law.

This is why we brought legal pressure on the Forest Service who quickly folded and told us and the media that they would postpone the roundup and transfer of wild horses to the tribes.

What they didn't tell us was that the tribe executed the roundup anyways!

Now there are 417 wild horses awaiting their fate at the slaughter auction.

Including this yearling

And this mare and her foal

But kill buyers are already lining up to purchase these horses and truck them to slaughterhouses in Canada or Mexico.

UPDATE 8/16 @ 1:30pm ET: People are taking to Twitter, including well known actress Wendie Malick, to demand the USDA confiscate all unbranded horses.

UPDATE 8/17 @ 9:00am ET:

UPDATE 8/17 @ 11:30am ET: A Temporary Restraining Order has been served. We're on site.

UPDATE 8/17 @ 1:30pm ET: Horses are being sorted -- branded from unbranded -- to comply with TRO. Branded horses will go on sale soon. The first kill buyer just pulled into the lot...

The Obama Administration's Stealth Horse Slaughter Program

This notice of a livestock auction -- which is frequented by kill buyers who purchase horses and transport them to slaughterhouses in Canada or Mexico -- tipped us off that the Feds were up to something. 700 horses don't just appear out of nowhere, so we did some digging.

And we discovered this back room deal between the U.S. Forest Service and an Indian tribe to spend our tax dollars to capture wild horses and deliver them to the slaughter auction despite the stated opposition of the Administration to horse slaughter.

Under this arrangement, there is no way to distinguish between unbranded horses owned by the tribe from unbranded horses who are wild and protected under federal law.

This is why we brought legal pressure on the Forest Service who quickly folded and told us and the media that they would postpone the roundup and transfer of wild horses to the tribes.

What they didn't tell us was that the tribe executed the roundup anyways!

Now there are 417 wild horses awaiting their fate at the slaughter auction.

Including this yearling

And this mare and her foal

But kill buyers are already lining up to purchase these horses and truck them to slaughterhouses in Canada or Mexico.

UPDATE 8/16 @ 1:30pm ET: People are taking to Twitter, including well known actress Wendie Malick, to demand the USDA confiscate all unbranded horses.

UPDATE 8/17 @ 9:00am ET:

UPDATE 8/17 @ 11:30am ET: A Temporary Restraining Order has been served. We're on site.

UPDATE 8/17 @ 1:30pm ET: Horses are being sorted -- branded from unbranded -- to comply with TRO. Branded horses will go on sale soon. The first kill buyer just pulled into the lot...

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