Among the most amazing animals of the desert are wild burros. Yet in the past three years, the Bureau of Land Management has removed more than 5,000 of them from their federally designated habitat. This year, it’s ratcheting up the assault.
On this week's Local Motion, KDNK's Amy Hadden Marsh interviews Suzanne Roy, executive director of the advocacy group American Wild Horse Campaign about
Wild horses under adoption program end up in slaughter houses, says investigation
Pixaby
and last updated 2021-05-27 17:27:54-04
WASHINGTON, D.C. â Wild horses and burros meant to be protected through a government program are sometimes sold to slaughter houses instead, and so a U.S. Senator is joining in the fight to suspend the program.
Government corrals held a huge surplus of wild horses and burros, and so the Adoption Incentive Program (AIP) was created to give them good homes.
Adopters of the abandoned animals must sign a contract promising to protect them from abuse, neglect, or slaughter.
An investigation by the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) and its coalition partners, however, found quite a different story; it discovered that groups of related individuals were adopting four horses or burros each (the BLMâs per-adopter limit), then dumping them at kill pens, collecting $30,000 or more in incentive payments and sales fees.
Horsetalk.co.nz Gene flow between Eurasian and North American horses revealed by ancient DNA
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Ancient horses crossed over the Bering Land Bridge in both directions between North America and Asia multiple times during the Pleistocene. Image: Julius Csotonyi
Analysis of ancient horse DNA reveals the gene flow between horse populations in North America, where they evolved, and Eurasia, where they were domesticated.
The study of DNA from horse fossils shows that horse populations on the two continents remained connected through the Bering Land Bridge, moving back and forth and interbreeding multiple times over hundreds of thousands of years.