Horses await adoption while investigation of program continues

Saturday, Feb. 8, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

The horses have been rounded up through a federal program intended to protect and manage wild horses on public lands and will be put up for auction today at the state fairgrounds.

The U.S. Wild Horse and Burro Program has adopted out 165,000 animals and spent $250 million since it was created by Congress 25 years ago.

The program has come under scrutiny lately. The Associated Press reported last month that some people who have adopted the horses are selling them at a profit to slaughterhouses where they are chopped into cuts of meat.

Using freeze-brand numbers and computer records, the AP traced more than 57 former BLM horses sold to slaughterhouses since September.

Among those who have profited from the slaughter are employees of the Bureau of Land Management, the agency that administers the program.

The program's rules let anyone adopt up to four horses per year, paying $125 for each healthy animal. If the adopters properly care for the horses for one year, they get title to them in the form of BLM certificates.

Nothing in the law prevents anyone from selling the horses to slaughterhouses once they gain ownership. Nearly all former BLM horses sent to slaughter are young and healthy, according to slaughterhouses.

Rick Patterson, 43, is looking for a yearling that he can tame for trail riding. He is one of about 200 people who will attempt to adopt one of the 140 horses.

"We just want something we can work with. A young horse for the kids," Patterson said Friday afternoon.

Patterson, who lives in Newark and has three horses, says he's appalled that someone would send the horses to slaughter just to make money.

"I don't know how anybody could do that - you get so attached to them," he said. He heard about the adoption program from friends who have gotten horses through the government.

"Nobody I know of has done that, everyone we know is pleased as can be," he said.

Ron Mead, 56, came from Pleasant Hill near Dayton to look for a mare. He adopted a colt last year that primarily serves as a pet for his grandchildren. He can't imagine why someone would abuse the horses.

"Mine isn't abused at all," Mead said. "He's as fat as a butterball."

The government spends up to $1,100 to round up, vaccinate and adopt out a horse. After holding the horses for a year, the adopters are free to sell them for slaughter, typically receiving $700 per animal.

The federal government is conducting several reviews of the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program, with two audits and two reports to Congress expected to be completed in 1997.

Art DiGrazia, who supervises the adoption program in 21 eastern U.S., said the BLM does background checks of potential adopters and then follows up with them until the title is handed over.

"If there's a question in your mind and you think there might be something shady going on all you can do is check it out," he said.

All potential donors also must take part in a meeting that explains the regulations.

"It is my goal to make sure everyone of these horses is taken care of correctly and that starts when someone first calls our office about adopting an animal," DiGrazia said.

He said once the title is transferred there is nothing the BLM can do to stop the horses from being sent to slaughter.

"I don't want to see these horses go to slaughter, that's not the spirit of the program," DiGrazia said. "But we have to follow the law.

"But as a private citizen, I don't like it," DiGrazia said quietly, tilting his head toward the ground.