In August 2026 The New York Times published an investigation titled “Under Trump, Protected Wild Horses Are Going to Slaughter,” reporting that the Bureau of Land Management has more than doubled its wild horse sales since Trump took office, with more than 3,700 mustangs sold.
The mechanism is the part that is not in dispute. Wild horses and burros have been federally protected since 1971, but the protection attaches to the animal only while the government owns it. Once BLM sells a horse, it loses the legal shield against capture, branding, harassment and death. BLM states on its own website that it does not track the animals after sale.
The Times reported that at least one buyer acquired horses for $25 a head and sold them to Canadian slaughterhouses, where they can fetch about $750. A significant number of animals, the paper reported, ended up in kill pens, the livestock auctions that feed slaughter plants outside the country.
BLM policy is “not to sell or send any wild horses or burros to slaughter,” and buyers sign a bill of sale promising not to slaughter them or resell them for slaughter.
One caveat belongs on the record. Snopes reviewed the reporting on August 21 and left the claim unrated, writing that the Times offered “very strong circumstantial evidence” but did not publish primary evidence such as ownership documents, photographs or video of the transfers. The sales, the prices, the volume and the loss of protection are documented. The final link, that specific buyers delivered specific horses to slaughter, rests on that circumstantial case.