The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) insists that the horses the agency captures and brands do not go to slaughter. But the BLM knows, and the slaughter industry knows, that this is not the case. The lie was exposed by none other than an official for a Canadian slaughter industry group deceptively named the “Horse Welfare Alliance of Canada.” Captured on video at a pro-horse slaughter conference in Las Vegas, the official, Bill DesBarres, stated bluntly that BLM-branded mustangs routinely show up on the slaughter floor. When asked how many, he replied with one word: “lots.”
To Carol Poole of the Mustang Freedom Foundation, this admission comes as no surprise. Poole has spent the last year and a half year rescuing more than a dozen mustangs from kill pens. These were wild horses who were captured by the BLM, removed from public lands in the West, adopted through the federal wild horse and burro program, and eventually sold to kill buyers. All of these horses were days away from being shipped to slaughter and most were rescued from just one kill pen – the New Holland, PA Livestock Auction. Such horse slaughter auctions take place all across the country.
In rescuing these horses, Poole’s dream is to restore the freedom that was taken from them so many years ago, or at least to provide a comfortable and safe life for them in their final years.
The story that follows is about two of these rescued mustangs – Nu-Pah-Hay and Tawn-Ha. Sadly, they exemplify the fate suffered by untold numbers of wild horses after they have been taken from their homes and families on the range. Thanks to Carol Poole and the wonderful Evelyn Alexander Home for Animals, located in Virginia, the story of these two mustangs has a happy ending. But for so many others like them, the story ends with unspeakable horror on the slaughterhouse floor.
Nu-Pah-hay (Two Mountains) is a 24-year-old, dark brown gelding. According to the records, he was rounded up in 1991 from the Twin Peaks Herd Management Area in northern California, taken from his home and family when he was just three years of age. Nu-Pah-Hay was adopted in 1992 and sold again in 1994. There the records end until 2008, when he was traded to a person in western Massachusetts. How many times Nu-Pah-hay was used, abused and betrayed in the interim is unknown. In October 2011, he was dumped at the New Holland Livestock Auction by an Amish man.
When Poole, who was monitoring the auction for mustangs, found Nu-Pah-hay in the kill pens, he was underweight, malnourished and very scared. His halter had cut into his face and his feet and teeth badly needed attention. Nu-Pah-hay bore marks on his face that appeared to have been inflicted by blinders. That, along with the way his mane and tail were cropped, led Poole to believe that Nu-Pah-hay had been used to pull carts or wagons.
“Nu-Pah-Hay was, by far, the saddest looking horse we have rescued from the kill pens yet. He was so skinny, frail and depressed, and he does not want or enjoy human contact. I can only imagine the good reasons he has for his fear of humans,” Poole recalls.
Tawn-ha (Beautiful) is a 25 year old strawberry roan mare with a bald face and four high white stockings. Tawn-ha was rounded up by the BLM from South Steens, Oregon Herd Management Area in December 1989 at two years of age. She was adopted through the BLM program in the spring of 1990 to a North Carolina resident. For the next two decades, the records are blank and Tawn-ha’s history is unknown. In October 2011, she appeared in New Holland, dropped off by her owner at the same kill-buyer lot where Nu-Pah-hay awaited his fate.
Poole describes Tawn-Ha as “beautiful and such a lady. She is a strong, quiet horse who loves to be groomed and fussed over. She does not look or act like a 25 year old horse!”
Poole describes Tawn-Ha as “beautiful and such a lady. She is a strong, quiet horse who loves to be groomed and fussed over. She does not look or act like a 25 year old horse!”
After raising the funds to purchase Nu-Pah-hay and Tawn-ha from the kill pens, Poole first transported the horses to a foster home and then boarded them in a temporary situation for many months until the Evelyn Alexander Home for Animals (EAHFA) stepped up to offer a loving and permanent home.
Nestled amongst the beautiful green rolling hills and stately horse farms of northern Virginia, EAHFA is a spacious, 280-acre property that provides permanent sanctuary to senior equines who have faced cruelty or neglect. Here, deserving horses have found a peaceful refuge in the loving care of EAHFA’s staff. Several of EAHFA’s equine residents were also rescued from slaughter. EAHFA’s mission is to rescue horses and then provide them with a forever home of safety, comfort, herd companionship and care.
In July, Nu-Pah-hay and Tawn-ha made their way safely to their forever home. According to EAHA director Rhonda Shumway, both horses arrived safely and are settling in. She reports, “Nu-Pah-hay and Tawn-ha seem quite happy thus far. They are within eye view 24 hours a day of ten horses, some young, some older. They are eating well and know when their feed buckets are coming. They wait at the gate for us. They prefer to share all feed, whether in a low feeder or hay on the ground. They do this without any tension toward one another at all. They finish one bucket before they go to the next. Too sweet! Most recently they have been released into a large pasture and we are watching them run and be the mustangs they were born to be! What a beautiful sight for human and horses alike.”
We are overjoyed that Nu-Pah-hay and Tawn-ha will be safe and lovingly cared for in their senior years, but our hearts still break for the untold numbers of other mustangs who are not so lucky. It is for these horses that American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign (AWHPC) fights so hard to keep America’s mustangs on the range where they belong. It’s clear that once the federal government removes wild horses from their homes, the threat of slaughter is ever present. Adoption is not a solution to the wild horse management dilemma. Not only is there a shortage of quality, qualified homes for mustangs, but also the path that adopted BLM horses take too often involves hardship and suffering, ending in terror on the slaughterhouse floor.
AWHPC is grateful to Carol Poole for her heroic efforts to save BLM-captured horses from slaughter, and to the Evelyn Alexander Home for Animals for caring and providing the quality life that Nu-Pah-hay and Tawn-ha, and the other horses fortunate enough to live at the sanctuary, so richly deserve.
To read more about the other rescued mustangs (Chon-Teh, Faith, Hope, Journey, Calico, Lakota, Nightingale, Paisley Desert, Fox Lake, Rosie & Sparky [is 8 months pregnant]) and to support the good work of Carol Poole and her Mustang Freedom Foundation, please visit her Facebook page.
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