Under the Trump administration, the Bureau of Land Management is rounding up thousands of mustangs across the U.S. and quietly selling them off for as little as $25 a horse. They're vanishing by the thousands — and recent reporting has documented BLM-sold horses later turning up in the slaughter pipeline.

Here's how it works: Helicopters chase these horses across public land, separate them from their herds, and drive them into holding pens at a cost of roughly $3,000 per horse to taxpayers. Once a horse is labeled "un-adoptable," the BLM sells it for a fraction of that through its Sale Authority program, stripping away its federal protections in the process. Buyers sign an agreement not to slaughter the horse or resell it to someone who will, but a New York Times investigation published this week found many of these same horses in "kill pens," the last stop before export to Canada or Mexico for slaughter. Since Trump took office, these sales have more than doubled, to over 3,700 horses.

Roughly 58,000 more horses already sit in federal holding facilities, and Trump's budget proposals have twice tried to strip out the rule that bans the BLM from killing or selling these horses for slaughter outright.

None of this has to happen. A vaccine called PZP already slows herd growth humanely, without a single roundup, and it's been used on BLM-managed herds for decades. The solution exists. What's missing is the will to fund it instead of the alternative.

We're calling on Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, BLM Director Jon Raby, and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to:

Close the loophole that allows BLM-sold horses to end up in the slaughter pipeline.
Make the ban on killing or selling these horses permanent — not something Congress has to refight every year.
Fund fertility control instead of roundups and holding pens.
Wild horses, by their very nature, play a significant role in maintaining the environment. They help spread seeds and nurture biodiversity, which is crucial in our increasingly threatened ecosystems. Furthermore, these horses have significant cultural and historical importance. Their existence is a reminder of our past and a guide for our future ecological responsibility.

Sign the petition now to tell Congress to protect our wild horses and reject brutal and unnecessary slaughter.