A Colorado rancher sold 1,700 wild horses to be slaughtered for meat after buying them from the federal government and saying he was planning to send them to pasture as pets, according to a newly released report.
Tom Davis was the biggest buyer of horses from the Bureau of Land Management, which is responsible for the thousands of horses that roam government-owned land in the West. When herds grow too large to be supported by the land, the bureau may sell horses or put them up for adoption.
But the horses should not be sold for slaughter, with Congress having pressured the bureau to adopt a policy to make sure the animals go to good homes. "Adopt a living legend," reads one portion of the bureau's website.
In 1999 and the early 2000s, the Davis family adopted 24 horses through the National Wild Horse and Burro program, according to a report released Friday by the federal Office of Inspector General. In the following years, he began to buy horses from the government by the truckload.
Between 2008 and 2012, investigators found that Davis spent $17,940 on horses. The Bureau of Land Management spent $140,000 transporting them to his care.
Davis told the bureau he might resell the horses, but he completed a bill of sale that he would not knowingly turn over the animals for slaughter.
When bureau staff asked him what he was doing with so many horses, he said he was giving them to "wealthy friends" to keep as pets on their pastures.
A complaint against Davis in 2012 first alleged he was actually sending the horses to be slaughtered. When the bureau investigated, however, officials said they couldn't find any evidence of wrongdoing.
An independent investigation by the OIG began around the same time.
In an interview with OIG investigators, Davis ultimately admitted to reselling the horses to a company that transported them to Mexico to be slaughtered for meat, according to the report. He made a profit of about $100 for each horse he sold.
"Davis said that demand for horse meat, which he compared to meat from cows, sheep, and goats, was high, and that he wanted to obtain more horses from [the government wild horses program]," the OIG report said.
Federal and local prosecutors declined to file charges against Davis.
In response to the OIG report, the Bureau of Land Management said they no longer have a "business relationship" with Davis. The bureau also said it had tightened its policies to prevent similar situations: Since December 2012 a higher-level manager must approve sales of more than four horses to a single buyer within six months, deputy director of operations Steven Ellis wrote.
Ellis added that bureau staff had repeatedly asked Davis what his plans were for the horses.
"Unfortunately these practices were not strong enough to prevent Mr.
Davis's deceitful actions," Ellis wrote.