The Bureau of Land Management's "Sale Authority" program, which offloads wild horses and burros deemed unadoptable after repeated failed adoption listings, is funneling some of those animals into commercial slaughter pipelines despite a federal ban on taxpayer-funded sales that result in slaughter, according to a New York Times investigation and a separate 19-month tracking effort by Skydog Sanctuary. Reporting on the investigation found more than 72% of horses in the sales reviewed went for $25 or less, and traced 333 horses to kill pens within days of resale. The Department of the Interior told Newsweek that "the BLM does not sell or send wild horses or burros to slaughter," and that any violations of sale-contract terms are referred to law enforcement.
Wild horses sold by federal program are turning up in slaughterhouses, investigations find; BLM denies sending horses to slaughter
The Bureau of Land Management's "Sale Authority" program, which offloads wild horses and burros deemed unadoptable after repeated failed adoption listings, is funneling some of those animals into commercial slaughter pipelines despite a federal ban on taxpayer-funded sales that result in slaughter, according to a New York Times investigation and a separate 19-month tracking effort by Skydog Sanctuary. Reporting on the investigation found more than 72% of horses in the sales reviewed went for $25 or less, and traced 333 horses to kill pens within days of resale. The Department of the Interior told Newsweek that "the BLM does not sell or send wild horses or burros to slaughter," and that any violations of sale-contract terms are referred to law enforcement.
Sales through BLM's Sale Authority program rose to roughly 3,700 wild horses in 2025, more than double the prior year, according to Newsweek's reporting on the New York Times investigation.
Skydog Sanctuary documented 6,331 wild horse sales over 19 months and says it traced 333 of those horses to kill pens shortly after resale, with more than 72% of the horses in the sales it reviewed going for $25 or less per animal, according to Equus Magazine's report on the sanctuary's investigation.
The sale mechanism: after three failed adoption listings, a horse is classified "unadoptable" and becomes eligible for sale. The initial buyer signs a contract pledging not to slaughter the horse or resell it to someone who would, but once that horse is resold again to a third-party intermediary, the new buyer is not bound by the original no-slaughter pledge — which advocates and reporting describe as the loophole that lets some horses reach slaughter-bound buyers in Canada despite the paperwork, according to the Daily Caller's and Newsweek's reporting.
Advocates trace the surge in Sale Authority transactions to a March 2025 federal court ruling that restricted a separate program, the Adoption Incentive Program; Equus Magazine reports that, according to the investigation, "the slaughter traffic simply migrated into the Sale Authority program" afterward.
The Trump administration says the increased pace of sales saved taxpayers $56 million in 2025 compared with the cost of continuing to hold unadopted horses in long-term government pastures, according to the Daily Caller. Sources differ on what that holding system costs annually — the Daily Caller cites $100 million a year, while Equus Magazine, citing Skydog Sanctuary, cites $140 million a year; C-IT-ALL has not independently verified either figure.
Skydog Sanctuary says it has filed eight formal complaints citing 13 separate violations of the federal ban on slaughter-bound sales, and that the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General declined to open its own investigation and referred the complaints back to BLM itself, according to Equus Magazine.
Where sources differ
- The Daily Caller cites BLM's holding-cost figure at $100 million/year; Equus Magazine (citing Skydog Sanctuary) cites $140 million/year.
- The Daily Caller reports BLM and the White House gave no comment on the New York Times investigation, while the Interior Department gave Newsweek an on-record denial and defense of the program.
- The original New York Times investigation is behind a paywall and was not directly reviewed for this piece; claims attributed to it here are as characterized by outlets (Newsweek, the Daily Caller, Equus Magazine) that reported on it.
- No source in this compilation provides a BLM-verified count — independent of advocacy tracking — of how many Sale Authority horses have actually reached slaughter.
- Sources disagree on the annual cost of BLM's long-term horse holding system ($100 million per the Daily Caller vs. $140 million per Equus Magazine/Skydog Sanctuary); the discrepancy is not resolved here.
- It is not established whether the finding that 72% of horses sold for $25 or less applies specifically to horses later traced to kill pens, or to the broader pool of Sale Authority sales Skydog Sanctuary reviewed.
- BLM has not published its own accounting of the complaints, violations found, or enforcement action taken in response to Skydog Sanctuary's eight formal complaints.