PublicComment

It's a privilege to be allowed to deliver public comment to this Thursday June 29th session of the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board.

I am a multiple adopter of wild horses.  I have two and they are quite different than my domestic horses.  I am enjoying a 2-year-old and a recently received yearling.  My experience with the Adoption Incentive Program led me to an in-depth investigation of where these horses go after consignment to the adopter.

I am a Kansas resident.  I live 80 miles from a large BLM off-range holding facility.  I live 65 miles from a State Corrections facility with a Wild Mustang program.  I live 50 miles from a notorious livestock sales barn known as a 'kill pen' for equines.  And I live 40 miles from a family who adopted 12 BLM wild horses and disposed of them at the nearby kill pen.

I can say this with absolute certainty because I have obtained, through Freedom of Information Act requests, copies of the paperwork which consigned the animals to the adopter.  I have photographs and records taken at the livestock sales establishment which confirms the date of their transfer as one-year past the initial BLM consignment. 

The evidence I have gathered on Henry and Chandra Steckman and the BLM is incontrovertible.  It confirms from which source the family obtained the animals, that they received Incentive Payments, and that they dumped the animals into the slaughter pipeline shortly after being made liquid by the BLM.

These are the FACTS in this matter and they are not in dispute.

The Adoption Incentive Program AS IMPLEMENTED facilitates a NATION WIDE cottage industry whereby adoption of wild horses is executed not to provide them good homes -- but solely to sell them for slaughter.  Multiple sites across this country facilitate the unlawful transfer of these animals.

You have heard from previous speakers that this is a repeating saga of abuse.  My work as a volunteer with an equine rescue has made it clear that the operators of the slaughter pipeline use emotional blackmail and coercion to fraudulently obtain 'blood money' from well-meaning individuals and groups.  This scheme is conducted using social media to execute a well established cycle involving horses and burros as they exit the Adoption Incentive Program.

The BLM, this Advisory Board, and members of Congress are well aware of this problem.  The 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act did not specify how long the wild horses must be managed by the BLM.  The BLM has adopted internal rules and procedures which curtail protections which are supposed to be afforded America's Wild Horses and Burros.

These are the FACTS in this matter and they are not in dispute.

Thank you very much for allowing me to make a public comment on this day Thursday June 29th 2023 for the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board's second public comment session.