Victims of Federal Slaughter Program Find Refuge in Massachusetts
Worthington, Massachusetts (October 27, 2021): This week, two burros (donkeys) bearing federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) brands arrived at their new home in Worthington, Massachusetts after being rescued from the slaughter pipeline by Texas-based nonprofit Evanescent Mustang Rescue and Sanctuary. Massachusetts residents Mary Koncel, an employee of the American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign), and Dick Wagner stepped up to provide a forever home for the two burros, now named Huck and Puck.
The federally protected burros were captured from public lands in a BLM roundup and sold into the slaughter pipeline via the BLM’s controversial Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), which pays private individuals $1,000 to adopt untamed, unhandled horses and burros. The incentive is awarded in two payments, the first $500 within 60-90 days of adoption and the second within 60-90 days of title transfer. In May, a front-page New York Times report, prompted by an AWHC investigation, exposed the program as a pipeline to slaughter for truckloads of these iconic animals. The BLM, the agency charged with managing the nation’s wild horses and burros, created the program to clear its holding pens in preparation for its controversial plan to round up and remove tens of thousands of wild horses and burros from public lands over the next decade.
“The BLM is washing its hands of its legal obligation to protect and preserve America’s iconic wild horses and burros by continuing this roundup to slaughter pipeline,” said Koncel of AWHC. “These burros are symbolic of a broken promise to these iconic animals and the 80 percent of Americans who want them protected.”
The origins of the two burros can be traced back to Nevada’s Seven Troughs Herd Management Area (HMA) where they were captured and removed from their public lands habitat in a 2019 federal roundup operation. After capture, they were transferred to the National Wild Horse and Burro Center at Palomino Valley, a short-term holding facility from which they were adopted to an individual in Lindsay, Oklahoma through the federal incentive program. Three months after the new adopter received title, and the federal incentive payment was paid out, the burros were dumped at a well-known slaughter auction in Oklahoma.
“I’m happy to provide a forever home for Huck and Puck, but far too many are not as lucky and are being shipped across the border for commercial processing,” concluded Koncel.
As documented in the AWHC investigation that led to the Times exposé, the AIP continues to violate a long-standing Congressional ban on wild horse and burro slaughter. Adopters are defrauding taxpayers by signing a contract pledging under penalty of criminal prosecution not to sell the animals for slaughter, then sending them to slaughter auctions as soon as the AIP payments clear their bank accounts.
The BLM has so far resisted calls by AWHC, U.S. Senator Feinstein, and over 30 members of Congress to immediately suspend the program while a thorough investigation is undertaken. Recently, AWHC filed suit in federal court to halt the program.
About the American Wild Horse Conservation
The American Wild Horse Conservation (formerly American Wild Horse Campaign) (AWHC) is the nation’s leading wild horse protection organization, with more than 700,000 supporters and followers nationwide. AWHC is dedicated to preserving the American wild horse and burros in viable, free-roaming herds for generations to come, as part of our national heritage.