Advocacy Groups File Lawsuit to Block Slaughter of California Wild Horses

San Francisco, CA (October 22, 2018)... Late Friday, two California-based nationaladvocacyorganizationsfileda federal lawsuit to block the U.S. Forest Service from selling federally-protected wild horses in California for slaughter. The lawsuit, filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund and the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), aims to protect wild horses currently being rounded up from the Devils Garden Wild Horse Territory in the Modoc National Forest near Alturas, California.

Breaking with pastpolicyand practice, the Forest Service intends to sell captured wild horses over age 10 “without limitation” on slaughter after a period of 60 days. This would allow middlemen known as kill buyers to purchase the horses and truck them across the border where they would be horrifically butchered in slaughter plants to produce horsemeat for human consumption overseas.

“The vast majority of Americans want our iconic wild horses protected on ourpublic lands, not slaughtered,” saidSuzanne Roy, Executive Director of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign). “The Forest Service’s decision to treat these national treasures like trash by selling them by the truckload into the slaughter pipeline is unconscionable. Even worse, this is happening in California, a state that has banned the cruel practice of horse slaughter for two decades.”

“The Forest Service’s sudden decision to knowingly permit unrestricted sales of wild horses from the Devil’s Garden Wild Horse Territory will likely cause hundreds of wild horses to end up slaughtered,” said Stephen Wells, executive director for the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “The government’s haphazard and horrifying change inpolicyfailed to consider public input and violates several laws that protect these iconic creatures.”

The legal complaint, produced on behalf of the plaintiffs by William Eubanks of Meyer Glitzenstein and Eubanks, alleges that the Forest Service broke several federal laws in dramatically altering its longstandingpolicyand practice of selling horses “with limitations” on slaughter without engaging in required decision-making processes and analysis. The plan to sell horses without limitation on slaughter also violates California Penal Code section 598c, which makes the holding and export of horses for slaughter for human consumption a felony in the state.

The Forest Service is in the process ofusing helicopters to round up 1,000 wild horsesfrom the Devils Garden Wild Horse Territory. An estimated 300 horses age 10 and over are being sent to Forest Service holding corrals in the Modoc National Forest, where they will be sold for 60 days “with limitation” for $25 a piece, 24 horses per buyer. After 60 days, the Forest Service will sell remaining horses “without limitation” for $1 a piece, 36 horses per week.

Approximately 700 younger horses are being sent to the Bureau of Land Management’s Litchfield Holding Corrals in Susanville to be prepared and offered for adoption. Any horses not adopted after one year may face sale without limitation as well.

The Forest Service’s roundup and sale-for-slaughter plan has drawn widespread national outrage, national media scrutiny, and sharp rebuke from California’s senior U.S. Senator,Dianne Feinsteinas well as24 members of the state legislature.

TheAmerican Wild Horse Conservation(AWHC) is a national wild horseadvocacyorganization whose grassroots mission is endorsed by a coalition of more than 50 horseadvocacy, public interest, and conservation organizations. AWHC is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage.

TheAnimal Legal Defense Fundwas founded in 1979 to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. To accomplish this mission, the Animal Legal Defense Fund files high-impact lawsuits to protect animals from harm; provides free legal assistance and training to prosecutors to assure that animal abusers are punished for their crimes; supports tough animal protectionlegislationand fights harmfullegislation; and provides resources and opportunities to law students and professionals to advance the emerging field of animal law. For more information, please visitaldf.org.

Meyer, Glitzenstein & Eubanks, LLP, is the nation’s leading public interest law firm with offices in Washington, D.C., and Ft. Collins, Colorado.