Photo taken at RTF’s sanctuary by Susan Papa
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A recent New York Times story about the increase in wild horses being sent to slaughter underscores the need for Congress to pass the Save America’s Forgotten Equines Act.
Kill buyers purchase wild horses and other equines on the cheap at auction, then ship them to Mexican or Canadian slaughterhouses. This preventable tragedy requires lawmakers to stop it.
The SAFE Act would place a lasting ban on equine slaughter inside the United States and bar the export of American equines for slaughter. In 2025, a total of 25,050 American horses, domestic and wild, were shipped to their deaths.
The Times story also highlights long-needed humane and fiscally responsible wild horse management that prioritizes keeping wild horses and burros on the range.
For decades, the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service have tried to manage wild horse and burro numbers through a ceaseless and unsustainable system of capture and removal.
The result: more than 58,000 wild horses and burros are now warehoused in overcrowded off-range government facilities costing over $100 million per year.
RTF has long advocated for the use of proven, safe, and humane fertility control as a tool that can begin phasing out capture and removal as the BLM’s primary management method.
The Times’ story omitted recent steps taken to improve protections for wild horses and burros after RTF’s team raised concerns to BLM leadership.
The bill of sale now says buyers cannot “recklessly or negligently” sell a horse to slaughter, directly or indirectly. The sales fee increased from $25 to $125.
While more needs to be done, these indicate steps in a better direction.
But until Congress passes the SAFE Act and forces the BLM to implement increasing amounts of fertility control, the threat of slaughter will loom over wild horses and burros.