Feds Begin Selling Wild Horses Captured in California for $1 Each

December 19, 2018

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS)announcedthis week it will sell offwild horsesrecently rounded up from theDevil's Garden Plateau Wild Horse Territoryinside California's Modoc National Forest for as low as $1 each, drawing condemnation from wild horse advocates who say the "fire sale price" will motivate buyers to launder the horses into slaughter.

About 200 horses are available for adoption and sale until Feb. 18. The fee for purchase "with limitations" has been reduced to $1 per horse, down from the original price of $25. The fee for adoption is $125.

"With limitations" includes a stipulation that prohibits using the horses for human consumption. Other requirements include appropriate transportation, adequate space, and healthy accommodations for the animals, according toRuidoso News.

The horses now up for sale and adoption are all 10 years and older. They were among the 932mustangsthat were gathered via helicopters in the territory near Alturas, California between Oct. 10 and Nov. 8.

The gathering of wild horses has prompted fierce debate about how to control populations. On the one hand, theUSFSbasically views the Devil's Garden horses as "a pest," as reporter Leighton Akio Woodhouse explained onThe Intercept:

On the other hand, advocates such as Suzanne Roy, the executive director of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), worry that the Devil's Garden horses up for sale will end up aslivestock.

In a press release emailed to EcoWatch, AWHC blasted the Forest Service's $1-a-piece sale.

AWHC said that the Forest Service is already facingcriticismfrom the public and federal and state officials, including U.S. SenatorDianne Feinsteinand California Attorney GeneralXavier Becerra, over its plans to offer horses for sale without limitation on slaughter.

"The sale of wild horses for $1 a piece is unprecedented in federal wild horse management, and renders the restrictions of salewithlimitation meaningless," Brieanah Schwartz, policy counsel for AWHC, said in a statement. "Not only are the horses being sold at a price that makes them essentially valueless, but also the Forest Service has absolutely no measures in place to enforce the sale with limitations restrictions."

The Forest Service is currently beingsuedby advocates—includingReturn to Freedom—over its plan to sell any horses that have not been adopted or sold after three attempts without limitations, according to ablog postfrom the nonprofit. Those sales could begin as early as Feb. 18.

AWHC is calling for immediate oversight measures including public review of all applications for five or more horses at a time before the horses are sold. Without such enforcement measures, AWHC said these new sales terms will encourage kill buyers to purchase the horses and transport them across the border for slaughter in Canada or Mexico.

Originally posted by Eco Watch