More wild horses slaughtered at Cavel as Interior
Department, Ford unite to save 52
WASHINGTON - The Interior Department abruptly halted
delivery of mustangs to buyers while it investigates the slaughter of 41 wild
horses at the Cavel International plant in DeKalb this month.
By enlisting last-minute financial help Monday from Ford Motor Co. - makers of
the Mustang sports car - the agency saved the lives of 52 other mustangs.
The latest horses killed came from a broker who obtained them from the Rosebud
Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. The tribe traded 87 of the 105 aging horses it
bought from the government for younger ones. Interior officials said they
would review whether a federal contract had been violated. Tribal officials
were unavailable for comment.
"I don't think it's fair to say they violated the agreement,"
Kathleen Clarke, director of Interior's Bureau of Land Management, told The
Associated Press. "They were not trading to the animal processing
facility. They were trading to a private individual."
The Sioux tribe had to sign an agreement with BLM that it would "provide
humane care" to each of the animals, documents show. Clarke said
Interior's top lawyer was investigating that arrangement.
The department also is investigating this month's sale of
six wild horses to an Oklahoma man and their slaughter at the Cavel plant, the
same place 35 of the 87 horses traded by the tribe were killed.
"It's incredibly disappointing," Clarke said. "It is not our
intent to have these animals killed. That's why we acted very
aggressively."
Congress in December replaced the 34-year-old ban on slaughtering mustangs
with a law permitting older and unwanted horses to be sold. Wild-horse
advocates warned that will allow the animals to be killed and sold for horse
meat, as dog food or for people to eat overseas.
"Horses that were free for 20 years are now being captured in a
completely strange situation and subject to being killed," Trina Bellak,
president of the advocacy group American Horse Defense Fund, said Monday.
BLM officials, tipped off by Agriculture Department inspectors, on Monday
persuaded the plant managers to stop the slaughter of the horses formerly
under the control of the BLM. That saved the lives of 16 mustangs about to be
killed.
The plant agreed to give the horses food and water until
BLM officials could arrange to have them picked up, which happened this
morning, according to Cavel General Manager Jim Tucker.
He wasn't sure where the horses were headed but said the trucker who took them
was from southern Illinois. The 16 horses as well as the others that came with
them that were slaughtered had just arrived at the plant on Monday, he said.
He said all the horses from the BLM program that were slaughtered were older
and of no use anymore.
Tucker said Cavel had not yet paid for the horses that were saved. That is
done after slaughter and is based on carcass weight.
BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington said last week that a new federal law allows
for the slaughter of the unwanted BLM horses, but that the agency has been
implementing the law with the intention of making sure the horses are adopted
by owners who intend to keep them alive.
"I think what the problem is is that they (BLM) want to encourage people
to adopt horses and they don't want to be seen as giving away horses just for
slaughter," Tucker said.
To the agency, having the wild horses slaughtered is a "public relations
problem," he said.
BLM officials also intervened to save 36 mustangs in Nebraska that were on
their way to the Cavel plant. Those horses were to be picked up separately
today and kept in the Midwest.
BLM, which captures the animals during government roundups aimed at reducing
the wild population, has sold and delivered nearly 1,000 horses since the new
law passed. BLM says 37,000 wild horses and burros forage its lands, 9,000
more than Western ranges can sustain.
Clarke said she ordered an immediate halt to the delivery of some 950 more
horses that have been sold. "We will not be making any more deliveries
until we can check on the situation," she said. "We just want to
reassess our program."
Clarke said she'd already been talking with Ford about
such a partnership even before she called the company for help Monday.
"We do not have any clear authority to buy private animals," Clarke
said. She persuaded Ford to pledge $19,000 to ship and care for the mustangs.
Daily Chronicle City Editor Chris Rickert contributed to this report.