The Trump Administration’s Budget Proposal for fiscal year 2026
A reversal of decades of federal protections for wild horses and burros.
A death sentence for the 64,000 wild horses and burros in the BLM’s holding system.
Call Your Members of Congress NOW!
The presidential budget is a proposal that Congress takes under consideration in deciding what will be funded in 2026. We still have time to change the language as it moves through committees before the final spending bill is approved by both chambers. Your Rep and Senators need to feel the pressure from overwhelming numbers of constituents to protect wild mustangs and burros, not slaughter them. Call them. Email them. Tell them:
* Maintain the slaughter ban to prohibit the destruction of healthy wild horses and burros and their sale for commercial slaughter.
* Prohibit transfers to other agencies, organizations, individuals, or foreign governments that could profit from selling them for slaughter.
* Do not grant the BLM power to “dispose of excess wild horses” as recommended by Project 2025.
* Follow recommendations from the Congressional Wild Horse Caucus on humane and cost-effective alternatives to wild equine management.
* Contact President Trump directly. Ask him to veto any legislation to legalize the slaughter of America’s horses and burros. During his first administration, lethal management of wild equines was taken off the table, citing the President’s lack of support for it.
The Budget Proposal As It Affects Wild Horses & Burros Outlined by the American Wild Horse Conservation:
* Slashes Wild Horse Program Funding: Cuts BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program budget by over 25%—from $143 million to $100 million. With 64,000 wild horses and burros already in confinement, the reduced budget would be almost entirely consumed by holding costs, leaving nothing for humane on-range management.
* Eliminates the Ban on Slaughter and Killing: Omits the long-standing prohibition on the destruction of healthy wild horses and burros and their sale for commercial slaughter.
* Weakens Transfer Safeguards: Removes slaughter protections from the transfer provision, allowing the BLM to give wild horses and burros away at no cost to state, local, and federal agencies – after which they lose their protected status.
* Expands Eligibility for Transfer Requests: Authorizes “approved” individuals, nonprofits, and foreign governments to initiate these transfers, effectively using government agencies as conduits to pass horses to private entities with no federal oversight or restrictions on their fate.
* Maintains USDA Inspection Ban: Continues the ban on federal funding for USDA horse slaughter plant inspections—keeping horse slaughter plants closed in the U.S.
* Enables Cross-Border Slaughter: With U.S. slaughter plants shuttered, the budget opens the door for thousands of federally protected wild horses to be sold or transferred to kill buyers for export to slaughterhouses in Canada or Mexico, keeping the cruelty out of sight of the American public.
* Creates a Slaughtering Scheme: The transfer provisions allow the federal government to distance itself from the slaughter by handing wild horses to other agencies, which could then profit by selling them to kill buyers. It's not just a loophole – it’s a laundered pathway to slaughter similar to the Adoption Incentive Program but on steroids.
* Implements Project 2025 Plan: The Project 2025 blueprint calls on Congress to grant the BLM authority to “humanely dispose” of “excess” wild horses and burros. This budget implements that recommendation.
This country was built on the backs of horses and burros. They are symbols of strength who fight for freedom and family in the rugged beauty of the American West. They should not be slaughtered because the Bureau of Land Management has completely botched their mandate to protect them.