Investigation Temporarily Halts Slaughter

BLM Stops Wild Horse Sales While It Investigates Slaughtering

Wild horses routinely rounded up and sold by the Bureau of Land Management are being slaughtered, prompting the BLM to halt all horse sales while they investigate how to prevent it from happening again. News 3 First Response Team's Darcy Spears has been digging deeper into the controversial practice of slaughtering horses for human consumption. She's has an update on how the recently exposed wild horse slaughter may help a Nevada senator's case.

US Senator John Ensign has been trying to outlaw slaughtering horses for food for some time now. He's drafted a bill he expects to introduce in May after the recess, which may gain more steam now that a second batch of BLM horses has been sold to an Illinois slaughterhouse since last month.

It's a crazy cowboy game played out with a combination of horses and helicopters. The Bureau of Land Management rounds up wild horses to save them from starvation, but we found many of them are ending up dead anyway at a US meat packing plant...[READ MORE]


Interior Dept. Halts Delivery of Mustangs

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Interior Department abruptly halted delivery of mustangs to buyers while it investigates whether the slaughter of 41 wild horses in the West this month violates a federal contract requiring them to be treated humanely.

By enlisting last-minute financial help Monday from Ford Motor Co. - makers of the Mustang sports car - the agency saved the lives of 52 other mustangs.

The latest horses killed came from a broker who obtained them from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. The tribe traded 87 of the 105 aging horses it bought from the government for younger ones. Interior officials said they would review whether a federal contract had been violated. Tribal officials were unavailable for comment... [READ MORE]