FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 19, 1997
CONTACT:
Mike Markarian, (301) 585-2591, MikeM@fund.org
Howard Crystal, (202) 588-5206, HowCrystal@aol.com
RENO, NEV. -- Today, The Fund for Animals and Animal Protection Institute filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Reno, asking the Court to modify a decade-long injunction prohibiting the Bureau of Land Management from titling wild horses to adopters when BLM knows they plan to use them for commercial slaughter. Judge Howard McKibben issued the injunction in 1987, and the Court of Appeals later affirmed the decision, labeling the adoption program a "farce."
An Associated Press investigation earlier this year found that, despite the injunction, thousands of horses obtained through the BLM's adoption program had ended up at slaughterhouses, and that in some cases BLM officials had personally profited. More than 200 current BLM employees have adopted over 600 animals, and some could not account for the whereabouts of their horses while others acknowledged that they were sold to slaughter. After an adopter pays $125 for each horse, the animals can be sold for about $700 each at meatpacking plants.
Says Howard Crystal, attorney for the The Fund for Animals, "For a decade, the BLM's approach to this injunction has been don't ask, don't tell.' The BLM has amply demonstrated that it lacks the ability to reform its adoption program and abide by the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Judicial intervention is necessary to correct these grave abuses of the public trust."
The groups are asking the Court to modify its injunction to include several new provisions: (1) the BLM should inquire into an adopter's intentions, by requiring adopters to attest that they do not intend to use adopted animals for commercial purposes; (2) BLM should discontinue large-scale adoptions, group adoptions, and power-of-attorney adoptions, which have been a primary source of animals being sold to slaughter; (3) BLM should send a clear message that adopted animals cannot be used for slaughter; (4) BLM should prohibit its employees from participating in adoption for slaughter; and (5) the Court should maintain judicial oversight of the adoption program, and require BLM to provide annual reports on implementation of these measures.
Adds Mike Markarian, campaign director for The Fund for Animals, "The BLM has thumbed its nose at the Court, and thousands of horses are suffering. These horses should be living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West, not symbols of government corruption and cruelty."
If you would like to read a copy of the 30-page motion and memorandum, click here.
