Call to Action

Stop the BLM’s Sale Authority policy to funnel young wild horses & burros into the slaughter pipeline

As soon as a District Court in Colorado overturned the Adoption Incentive Program,  the Bureau of Land Management shifted to Sale Authority

When Clare rescued Felix and Elliot, she had her suspicions about how such young mustangs ended up in a kill pen. She began collecting evidence that confirmed her worst fears: They were Sale Authority (SA) horses whose owners hauled them there right after buying them at a BLM adoption event. This was just the beginning.

Sale Authority is a loophole created by the 2004 “Burns Amendment” to weaken the protections against sale to slaughter in the 1971 Wild Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Act. It allows the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to sell “excess” animals, which are defined as 10+ years of age; or younger equines passed over for adoption three times. Sale Authority transfers ownership immediately to the buyer, so the BLM can wash their hands of any responsibility for them. Once sold (for $25), they are no longer federally protected animals, so owners can - and do - haul the animals straight to kill pens and sell them for their meat price (around $400). Then they return to the BLM to buy more.

This coincided with budget cuts closing BLM adoption and training facilities. The Ewing facility suddenly shut down, effectively cutting off adoptions to Eastern States. The Cañon City prison program announced was closing, giving 2000 wild horses 60 days to find placement elsewhere. They want to move as many animals out of holding as quickly as possible. Sale Authority is the way they’re doing it.

We cannot emphasize strongly enough how dangerous this new policy is. It allows them to move huge numbers of mustangs and burros to kill pens. Selling babies straight into the slaughter pipeline is light years away from the BLM’s mandate and it must be stopped now.

Please contact your Representative, Senators, Secretary of the Department of Interior (DOI), and the BLM Deputy Director:

  • Demand that the BLM stop selling wild horses and burros younger than 10 into the slaughter pipeline as Sale Authority.

Insist that your Representative, Senators cosponsor and pass The Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act of 2025 

  • (H.R.1661 in the House / S.775 in the Senate) to permanently ban the slaughter of all American equines.

1. Call the Congressional Switchboard and ask to be transferred to their offices: (202) 224-3121
2. Email them via contact forms for constituents on their individual websites
3. For your convenience, you can send one email message simultaneously to both Senators and your Representative via one website: www.democracy.io

To Contact the Secretary of Department of Interior Doug Burgum:
Tel: (202) 208-3100 Email: exsec_exsec@ios.doi.gov 
Website Contact Form: https://www.doi.gov/contact-us

To Contact the Deputy Director of the BLM Bill Groffy: 1849 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20240 Tel: (202) 208-3801
Email: wildhorse@blm.gov Website Contact Form:
https://www.blm.gov/feedback

Social Media

Be sure to tag your Rep and Senators, Secretary Burgum, the DOI, and the BLM when posting.

Thank you for being a voice for these beautiful, innocent beings.

Please share this information to raise awareness about the BLM’s new fast track to slaughter.

 

The Kaufman 15

Fifteen young Mustangs - 12 mares and 3 geldings - were rounded up and held at the BLM’s Palomino Valley holding facility outside Reno, NV before being shipped to Texas. They were sent to an adoption event in Livingston, TX held on February 27-28. Sale records show they were purchased on February 28, 2026.

Two pairs of husbands and wives from Pollok, TX bought all fifteen. Then they drove them directly to Last Chance Direct Ship Horses kill pen in Kaufman. Each buyer signed a sales contract attesting under penalty of federal law that they would not do exactly what they did just hours later: resell them to an organization that will sell them for commercial slaughter.

This is a federal offense

The BLM may seek criminal penalties against the purchaser if, in the course of this sale, the purchaser knowingly and willfully falsifies, conceals, or covers up a material fact; makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or otherwise violates 18 U.S.C. § 1001.

Purchaser agrees to provide humane care and to not maliciously or negligently injure the listed animals.

Purchaser agrees not to process any of the listed animals into commercial products.

Purchaser agrees not to knowingly sell or transfer ownership of any listed animals to any person or organization whose intent is to process the animals or their remains into commercial products or whose intent is to resell, trade, or give away the animals or their remains for processing into commercial products.

If the purchaser makes any material misrepresentations in the applicable "Application to Purchase Wild Horses and Burros," "Bill of Sale," or during any negotiations with the BLM leading up to purchase, including, without limitations, representations about the purposes and/or use for which the animals are obtained, then the sale is voidable at the discretion of the BLM.

Purchased wild horses and/or burros cannot be returned to the public lands unless the

BLM has issued a permit or otherwise authorized the purchaser to do so, such as through a livestock grazing or recreational permit.

We reported these four individuals and hoped they would be be banned for life from buying any more wild horses or burros. In our letter of complaint, we demanded the BLM seize the Mustangs from the kill pen to prevent them being shipped to slaughter. KLAS 8 News Now in Los Vegas covered the story.

KLAS Las Vegas 8 News Now

Greg Haas / Mar 5, 2026

Skydog Sanctuary said unless federal authorities intervene or rescue organizations can secure their release, the horses are scheduled to ship to slaughter in Mexico today. Skydog called on federal officials to seize the 15 horses, and it has filed a formal report with the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse & Burro Program after identifying the horses in a Texas kill pen. “This constitutes a clear and documented violation of the BLM sale agreement,” Skydog wrote in its complaint to the agency. “It is also a direct violation of federal law.”

We worked with other good sanctuaries to save the remaining Mustangs. When the BLM failed to act and their shipping date was just a few days away, we stepped in. Thanks to an incredible donor who helped us bail and secure their safety, as well as a wonderful trainer, who agreed to help them, the remaining Mustangs loaded onto a trailer to Kentucky instead of a nightmare ride to Mexico. They have a chance at good, happy lives as domesticated horses with a safety net of sanctuary if any of them just won’t be tamed.

In the middle of all this, we were already working on saving two mares from another group of dumped Mustangs. I can’t tell you how hard it is to pick just two when so many need help. No sooner had we saved the Kaufman 15 when a load of 12 BLM Sale Authority burros were driven straight from an adoption event in Utah to a kill pen in Mississippi. Rescues, quarantines, fosters, and other places for them to go are maxed out and full of unhandled wild equines without a plan. Many are being boarded at kill pens that were bailed weeks ago, but don’t have a soft landing. It’s fair to say the rescue community is breaking under the weight of this never ending stream of wild horses.

KLAS Las Vegas 8 News Now

Greg Haas / Mar 12, 2026 /

Skydog Ranch & Sanctuary put the spotlight on the 15 horses last week, and that resulted in a delay in shipping them out of a Texas “kill pen.” The horses were found at the Last Chance Direct Ship Horses pen in Kaufman, Texas, about three hours away from where they had been purchased. The nine remaining horses are scheduled to be shipped on Monday.

BACKGROUND

What is the Burns Amendment?

Citation: Public Law 108-447
2004 H.R. 4818

In December 2004, Senator Conrad Burns (R-Montana), Chair of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, secretly slipped “The Burns Amendment” into an Omnibus spending bill. He never introduced it in Congress for discussion or a vote. The changes he made to Section 3 (16 USC §1331) ripped out the heart of the original Wild Free-Roaming Horse & Burro Act, which was passed by Congress unanimously in 1971 with tremendous public support and signed by President Nixon.

Burns removed language that protected wild equines from commercial sale and slaughter. He inserted  language that defined “excess animals” as 10+ years of age; or younger animals that failed to be adopted 3 times. It allowed for them to be sold “without limitation“, and “any excess animals sold under this provision shall no longer be considered to be free-roaming wild horses or burros for purposes of this Act.”

The vast majority of Americans, then and now, oppose horse slaughter. Sen. Burns defended his actions with, "I'm in the livestock business, and I've bought and sold horses all my life. Basically, the marketplace works." But he knew what he was doing. When horses can be bought as cheaply as $10 - $25 each, there is money to be made in the horse market by selling them for their meat price. The Burns Amendment’s Sale Authority has sent thousands of wild horses and burros to monstrous deaths in foreign slaughter plants.

What is Sale Authority?

It is illegal for the BLM to sell federally protected mustangs and burros for slaughter, but they have found ways around that. It is legal for private owners to ship their animals for slaughter outside US borders. By giving ownership to a middleman to do the dirty work, thousands of wild equines have shipped via the Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) and Sale Authority. Now that the former has been overturned in court, the number of BLM horses and burros being sold SA is staggering.

While the bureau has always denied that they sell animals for slaughter, they’ve been doing it for decades. This was brought to the public’s attention when journalist Dave Philipps revealed more than 1700 wild horses had gone to one man, a kill buyer: All the Missing Horses: What Happened to the Wild Horses Tom Davis Bought From the Gov't?

As training and adoption facilities begin to close, Sale Authority presents the gravest threat to wild horses and burros in holding. The number of burros going SA is extremely disturbing given the rise in the illegal trade in donkey hides for Ejiao.    Learn more about the Ejiao Trade