The U.S. Forest Service plans to round up thousands of wild horses in northern California once a year. These horses could wind up being sold to slaughterhouses and eventually for human consumption

The Forest Service says that the approximate 4,000 wild horses in the area are overfilling the ecosystem. They say that there is a lack of food, water, and habitat.

The Forest Service’s plan is try to adopt horses, and those that can’t be adopted will be put up for sale.

While the horses cannot be sold for meat in the U.S., a “kill buyer” middle man would likely buy the horses and ship them off to Canada or Mexico, where horse meat consumption is legal.

Pregnant and younger horses are typically adopted, but older horses aren’t usually so lucky.

After a certain deadline is up, if a horse is still not adopted, buyers can purchase up to 36 horses for as little as $1.

Tens of thousands of horses are being shipped to Canada and Mexico from the United States annually. They are killed under barbaric conditions.

As it stands now, the U.S. Forest Service will not guarantee that the horses will not be sold to slaughterhouses - but they need to. Demand they do.