Earlier this week, several members of Congress expressed their strong objections to the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to sell federally protected wild horses without restrictions on slaughter.
The horses at risk are from the Devil’s Garden Plateau Wild Horse Territory, located in northern California. Such territories are public lands that have been designated under the law to protect wild horses and allow them to live in their natural habitats.
The Forest Service rounded up 932 Devil’s Garden horses last fall, claiming there are too many horses in the 300,000-acre territory. Seemingly endless roundups and removals are regrettably par for the course in terms of how the federal government manages wild horses.