Just How Corrupt Is The BLM & USDA Wild Horse Programs Today?

Today we find corruption at many levels, or circumstances, regarding America’s Wild Horses. We can find the obvious at many levels — Government Agencies the BLM and USDA Forestry Programs — Corrupted Non-Profits — Corrupted Politicians — We find enough to understand quite clearly, many situations outright Feed-Off of the Co-Habitation Principle of Out Right Corrupted organizations.

John Cox, M.A. C/M

Scientific Critiques

The most comprehensive independent evaluation was conducted by the National Research Council (NRC). Their seminal report, Using Science to Improve the BLM Wild Horse and Burro Program, highlighted several structural failures:

• Population Counting: The BLM was heavily criticized for using non-rigorous methods to estimate herd sizes, resulting in inaccurate counts and population models that fail to predict the effects of management actions.
• Forage Allocation: Reviewers found that the BLM does not accurately assess the availability and use of forage on rangelands, often leading to disproportionate focus on horse removal compared to livestock grazing.
• Focus on Removals: Scientists concluded that the BLM’s historic reliance on “gather and remove” (often via helicopter) artificially stimulates population growth through a compensatory rebound effect, making it an ineffective long-term strategy.
  
  (Problem is: The BLM & Forestry Program numbers simply do not add up, and fraudulent. A good example, pointed out many times in paperwork and graphs from the BLM = One mare, according to their statistics, may give birth to 2 or more foal during the year — Or, the simplistic facts, the BLM/Forestry numbers become assumptive that Wild Horses do not die, or pass-away from old age, but live forever. Is this Fraud? Absolutely.)

Corrupted Administration Example: Much more when we break-down the actual Corruption

Allegations of corruption and severe mismanagement in the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program primarily center on the agency’s now-defunct Adoption Incentive Program (AIP). Launched to reduce holding facility costs, the cash-for-adoption scheme became a pipeline for federally protected mustangs to enter the slaughter pipeline.

The Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) Scandal

Introduced in 2019, the AIP paid individuals $1,000 to adopt an untrained wild horse or burro, allowing up to four animals per adopter. Investigations, including a landmark expose by The New York Times , revealed the following:

• The “Flipping” Scheme: Individuals and groups of related adopters exploited the cash incentive by claiming the maximum number of horses, waiting exactly one year to receive legal title, and then selling the animals to “kill buyers” who transport them to foreign slaughterhouses.
• Profiteering: The easy money facilitated organized fraud. In some cases, adopters pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in taxpayer-funded incentives while deliberately offloading the animals for profit.
• Program Overturned: Following a lawsuit, a federal court struck down the AIP, ruling that the BLM implemented the cash incentive unlawfully without the required environmental or administrative procedures, and that the program directly contributed to the mass slaughter of wild horses in violation of congressional bans.

Broader Institutional Concerns

Beyond the adoption scandal, investigations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Department of the Interior’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) have long identified structural issues and financial mismanagement within the program:

• The Slaughter Pipeline: In 2015, an OIG investigation found that 1,800 wild horses sold by the BLM to a known kill buyer were illegally slaughtered in Mexico.
• Mass Incarceration: The BLM’s policy of rounding up mustangs to appease private livestock interests has resulted in over 65,000 wild horses and burros being held in off-range corrals and pastures. Housing these animals consumes roughly two-thirds of the program’s entire annual budget, costing taxpayers millions.
• Financial Improprieties: Previous OIG audits have exposed millions of dollars in mismanaged funds, including improper over-payments to state prison systems for horse-training contracts and financial improprieties at the Mustang Heritage Foundation, a non-profit receiving over $1 million annually from the BLM.

The fact remains, when we break-down the Fertility-Control Programs — i.e. PZP/GONACON Programs and the hidden agenda of Experimentation forced upon the Wild Horses, we see another entire Arena of not only misinformation, but very corrupted government / Non-Profit Conflicts and Fraud. The corruption, in a more sly-way, obviously has infiltrated many nonprofit programs, as well.

This being simply a synopsis of the cultural and lack of integrity this type of Corruption develops — and worsens as time move forward. We do see a day when it will be put to an end, and the sooner the better — as it is inevitable anyway — so there is no time like the present to take action in putting an end to such travesties.”

John Cox, Experienced Horse and Wild Horse Advocate, as well as currently Administrator of Preservation of America’s Wildlife, an Advocacy to promote the Safety and Well Being of America’s Icon’s — the Wild Horses and Wildlife, as essential to our American Culture.