Group claims adopted wild horses still going to slaughter

Sandra Chereb

Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2000 | 4:56 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - An animal rights group claims the federal adopt-a-horse program has failed to prevent wild horses from going to slaughter despite a 1997 settlement requiring tougher oversight.

In a motion filed Monday in U.S. District Court here, the Fund for Animals alleged the U.S. Bureau of Land Management hasn't enforced a provision requiring people who adopt wild horses to sign an affidavit pledging that the animals will not be sold for commercial processing or bucking stock.

In some cases even when the pledge was signed, animals were sold within days or months of the owners receiving title, the group alleges.

"It's very, very troubling," said Andrea Lococo, spokeswoman for the New York-based group. "This adopt-a-horse program has been fraught with problems from its inception."

Tom Gorey, a BLM spokesman in Washington, D.C., said the agency could not comment on particulars in the lawsuit. But he defended the BLM's efforts in managing the 42,000 wild horses and burros on public lands in the West.

"We take our responsibility very seriously," Gorey said. "I think we've shown that, particularly in this season of drought and wildfires, we're making every effort to protect the horses, look after their needs on the range and carry out our duty."

Gorey said the adoption program had increased compliance inspections of animals from 2,500 in 1996 to 6,300 last year. All adopters are contacted by telephone within the first six months and before title is granted to check on the animals' welfare, he said.

In its motion, the Fund for Animals alleges that in the first year after the tougher requirements were to take effect, more than 575 federally protected wild horses wound up at butchering plants, some within months of the adopter taking title.

The animal group asks the court to enforce the 1997 agreement and make the BLM account for its actions in overseeing the adoption program.

Three years ago, the Fund for Animals and Animal Protection Institute of America Inc. sued the BLM, accusing it of looking the other way as untold numbers of horses protected under the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act went to slaughter.

The resulting settlement was designed to stem abuses in the program and give added protections to the animals deemed by Congress as "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West."