Advocates for wild horses say they are extremely suspicious about a sale of wild horses to a rancher in Wyoming.
Two-hundred wild horses, some from Nevada, were sold to a Wyoming L.L.C. where they will supposedly live out their lives. But horse activists like Jerry Reynoldson say the deal was cut in secrecy and that once it goes through, there is no way to check on what happens to the horses.
The owners can do what they want with the animals, even send them to slaughter.
Wyoming ranchers haven't exactly been friendly to wild horses in the past.
He adds that 600 more horses will be sold in the next few days and that BLM violated a promise to announce such sales well in advance.
(Mar. 1) -- Wild horses that once roamed Nevada's open range have found a home in Wyoming under a new federal law that allows animals deemed too old or otherwise unfit for adoption to be sold in mass to interested owners or for slaughter.
The 200 mares were sold to Wild Horses Wyoming, a company located in Centennial, Wyoming. In a written statement, the company says its committed to the long-term care of the animals.
The sale is the first under a new law passed by Congress and signed by President Bush in December as part of a spending bill. The law repealed a 34-year ban on selling wild horses -- deemed symbols of the American West -- for slaughter.
But Interior Department officials say they hope to find homes for roughly 84-hundred horses affected by the law, instead of sending them to slaughter houses.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
