If President Donald Trump’s budget proposal is approved, the federal government will save $10 million rounding up and selling wild horses in the Southwest.
Horse advocates are worried it will gut a nearly half-century program protecting the American West icons. They also fear thousands of free-roaming mustangs will be sold to foreign slaughterhouses for food.
Critics claim the Trump administration is bending to pressure from livestock lobbyists, who don’t want the horses competing with cattle for grassland.
The federal cost to manage and keep more than 100,000 wild horses across the region has doubled since 2009 to more than $80million annually.
The budget proposal is now being considered by Congress.
