Texas Parks and Wildlife Sells Park Horses to Known Slaughter Buyer

Earlier this year Big Bend State Park agreed to sell 11 of their park horses to a known slaughter buyer from Presidio, Texas for a total .25 cents a pound.

On a tip from an anonymous source, a record request was done asking TPWD for any and all documentation of the sale of horses, specifically from Big Bend State Park. Also requested were medical and health records on these animals but that information could not be provided.

03/19/2012: Office Memorandum

To: Dierdre Hisler

From: Barrett Durst: http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/bbspofficememorandumdeirdretobarrat.pdf

03/19/2012: Office Memorandum

To: Brent Leisure

From: Dierdre Hisler

http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/bbspofficememorandumbrenttodeirdre03192012.pdf

04/03/1012: Email correspondence concerning horse horses which includes “culling the herd,” “canner prices,” “not of quality,” etc….

http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/RE_%20Horse%20sale.eml

pdf file of email exchange http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/tpwdemailexchangeregardingsurplushorses.pdf

04/30/2012: Invoice for the horses: http://www.kaufmanzoning.net/bbspinvoicebrito.pdf

Statement by the Big Bend Superintendent in regards to the practice of selling horses at BBRSP:

 All horse sales at the park are for management of our own horse herd to keep the horses that we intend to use for our horse guided rides at the park. Every horse that we have sold has been either to thin the herd to keep a manageable number to approximately 10 horses - a horse has injured itself and can no longer be ridden for our purposes, the horses that we don’t ride have become wild, and we had a stud that was still breeding some mares.  We are not in the business of running a horse breeding facility and therefore we have reduced the herd to a manageable number. All horses have been sold to locals in the community, and has allowed us to support our community and keep our ties strong.