The nation's largest buyer of wild horses repeatedly lied to federal officials and sent roughly 1,700 mustangs to the slaughterhouse, according to a federal report issued finding significant oversight lapses within a Bureau of Land Management program that is supposed to provide the horses with good homes.

Between 2008 and 2012, La Jara rancher and livestock hauler Tom Davis bought 1,794 horses from the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro Program, which manages tens of thousands of mustangs that roam across the West and are, to many, potent symbols of the land's unbridled majesty.

In purchasing the horses, Davis had to tell federal officials that he would not resell them for slaughter. According to the report, Davis told BLM marketing specialists that he was selling the horses to good homes, either to people wanting "pasture pets" or people hoping to graze the animals on their lands for tax breaks. He repeatedly refused to name his buyers, and BLM officials apparently did little to follow up on where the horses went.

When investigators from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General confronted Davis about the purchases and asked him how many of those horses had been resold for slaughter, he told them, "Probably close to all of them."

Tom Davis should be prosecuted for his deceit. His statement to the federal government validates that he lied. According to the inspector general report, Federal and State authorities in Colorado declined to prosecute Davis for his actions. Please sign this petition and let the officials in Colorado know that this is not acceptable.