CNN reports that on Wednesday Forest Service officials will begin removing 1,000 wild horses from federal land in Northern California and putting them up for sale and adoption.
Pregnant and younger horses — about 700 of the thousand — are likely be adopted, federal officials say, but horses over age 10 will be sent to another corral. There they could be sold for as little as $1 each to ranchers, trainers, and others — including some who might ship them to slaughterhouses.
The American Wild Horse Council says the federal government is exploiting a loophole that allows the Forest Service, but not the Bureau of Land Management, to sell healthy horses for possible slaughter.
The horses live on Devil’s Garden Plateau, inside Modoc National Forest near the Oregon border.
