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<\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n FORTUNA,\u00a0 California;\u00a0 POTEAU, Oklahoma & WAUSEON, Ohio\u2013\u2013<\/strong>One might observe that the Miranda\u2019s Rescue saga playing since April 2026 in northern California and the Bureau of Land Management equines-sold-to-slaughter horse opera exposed on August 20,\u00a0 2026 by Dave Philipps of the New York Times<\/em> are really just variants on the same dog-and-pony show,\u00a0 starring different species but the same unrealistic public expectations.<\/p>\n Both cases feature \u201cwe can save them all\u201d animal warehousing strategies colliding with the reality that only intensive,\u00a0 effective birth control strategies aimed at reducing \u201cthem all\u201d to a tiny fraction of the present numbers of dogs and horses in need of rehoming can actually make saving \u201cthem all\u201d a possibility.<\/p>\n <\/a> Tbe Best Friends Animal Society denies that Miranda\u2019s Rescue was ever a Best Friends Network member,\u00a0 despite Miranda\u2019s Rescue using rhetoric and a professed modus operandi closely paralleling that of the Best Friends Network.\u00a0 (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n That will cost money,\u00a0 and that ain\u2019t hay,\u00a0 currently running at $170 to $250 a ton on nationwide average.<\/p>\n Another way to look at that is that fixing a big pit female bull or a mustang filly costs about the same as producing a ton of horseshit,\u00a0 but currently the preference of organized animal advocacy,\u00a0 and of animal advocacy donors,\u00a0 appears to lean toward the latter.<\/p>\n Miranda\u2019s Rescue,\u00a0 readers will recall,\u00a0 purported to be a haven for unadoptable dogs,\u00a0 mostly pit bulls,\u00a0 somehow able to rehome them by the hundreds from a location along the so-called Lost Coast of northern California,\u00a0 just around the corner from the middle of nowhere.<\/p>\n \u201cIn June 2026,\u201d\u00a0 summarized Matthew Gafni for the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>,\u00a0 \u201cHumboldt County sheriff\u2019s investigators served a search warrant on Miranda\u2019s Rescue,\u201d\u00a0 after ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong> published two expos\u00e9s in the preceding week describing neighbor Jennifer Raymond\u2019s years of effort to expose the place,\u00a0 \u201cand found 117 intact dog remains, \u00a029 canine skulls, \u00a091 pet tracking microchips and 661 dog collars while excavating the property.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cShannon Miranda, \u00a0who runs the rescue, \u00a0told investigators he routinely shot to death as many as 10 dogs a month that he deemed \u2018unadoptable,\u2019 \u00a0according to court records, \u201d Gafni wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cMiranda has not been arrested or charged.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile,\u00a0 Gafni continued,\u00a0 \u201cOver the past six years, Oakland shelters sent 827 dogs to Miranda\u2019s Rescue, \u00a0paying the nonprofit $376,000 in transfer fees which were ostensibly to cover the long-term costs to care for each dog. \u00a0Dozens of public facilities across California and beyond transferred dogs to Miranda to avoid euthanasia and give them another chance at adoption.\u201d<\/p>\n (See <\/em><\/strong>How did Miranda\u2019s Rescue manage to disappear so many dogs for so long?<\/em><\/strong><\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n But Miranda\u2019s Rescue was almost small-time compared to what happened to as yet untold thousands of wild horses.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Dave Philipps of the New York Times,\u00a0 <\/em>visiting both Poteau, \u00a0Oklahoma, \u00a0and Wauseon, \u00a0Ohio,\u00a0 to get the whole manure scoop,\u00a0 traced the fate of \u201ca multi-colored band of 68 wild mustangs\u201d who \u201d had never been saddled or corralled,\u201d\u00a0 but \u201chad run free through the desert mountains of the West\u201d until \u201cthe federal government rounded them up with helicopters, \u00a0as it has with tens of thousands of other mustangs, in an attempt to control wild populations on public lands.<\/p>\n \u201cThe horses were held for years in a feed lot in Idaho,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps wrote, \u00a0\u201cwhile the government tried to find them what it called \u2018loving homes.’\u201d<\/p>\n In March 2026,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 \u201cThe horses were packed into echoing metal trailers and trucked 1,800 miles east to the pens of a hard-luck livestock trader in Ohio named Brandon Jones.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones 35, \u00a0of Wauseon, Ohio,\u00a0 bought the horses for $25 each,\u00a0 Philipps reported.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cA day later,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps continued,\u00a0 \u201ctwo double-decker cattle trucks pulled up at midnight, \u00a0loaded the mustangs, \u00a0and quickly drove off into the night.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom there the mustangs disappeared. \u00a0They never appeared at a public auction. \u00a0The trader won\u2019t say where they went. \u00a0Wild horse advocates suspect the horses were shipped to slaughter.\u201d<\/p>\n The bottom line,\u00a0 Philipps found,\u00a0 is that \u201cAll over the country the Bureau of Land Management, the agency in charge of protecting wild horses, \u00a0is quietly selling thousands of horses to buyers like the one in Ohio.<\/p>\n \u201cSlaughtering wild horses is illegal,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps acknowledged, \u00a0\u201cbut the bureau\u2019s actions create a loophole that enables people to get mustangs on the cheap and then quickly resell them to be exported alive, \u00a0processed into cuts of meat and sold abroad.<\/p>\n <\/a> (BLM photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cThe U.S. government\u2019s sales of wild horses were once rare,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps explained,\u00a0 \u201cbut started to rise after President Donald Trump took office. \u00a0In 2025, \u00a0they more than doubled to 3,700 horses, according to bureau records.<\/p>\n Brandon Jones,\u00a0 who has purchased \u201cabout 500 horses,\u201d\u00a0 according to Philipps\u2019 examination of public records,\u00a0 \u201csaid he was able to resell the horses quickly though he didn\u2019t advertise online or even post a FOR SALE sign at his corral. \u00a0He would not say where the horses went and denied selling any to slaughter.\u201d<\/p>\n Currently,\u00a0 Philipps reported,\u00a0 \u201cAbout 73,000 wild horses roam federal public lands in the West, \u00a0where they are protected from hunting or capture. \u00a0For decades, \u00a0in an attempt to keep the population sustainable, \u00a0the bureau has rounded up 9,500 on average each year and offered them for adoption. But it finds adopters for only about half.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cThe rest go into a labyrinth of feedlots and pastures that the bureau calls \u2018the holding system.\u2019 \u00a0The system now stores 58,000 wild horses at an annual cost of $100 million. \u00a0Caring for them eats up most of the bureau\u2019s $142 million wild horse budget.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the years,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps recounted,\u00a0 \u201cbureau leaders have floated various lethal proposals for reducing the herds, \u00a0including using sharp shooters, \u00a0selling horses directly to slaughterhouses and building a gas chamber. \u00a0But Congress \u2014 aware that the public wants mustangs protected \u2014 has barred the bureau from spending any money to kill healthy wild horses.<\/p>\n \u201cThe recent surge in sales,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps continued,\u00a0 \u201cis not the first time the Trump administration has taken actions that indirectly enable horses to be sent to slaughter. \u00a0During Trump\u2019s first term, \u00a0a program that paid people $1,000 to adopt a wild horse had similar results.\u201d<\/p>\n This has been by strategic design.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cProject 2025, \u00a0a policy paper by the Heritage Foundation that in many ways has acted as a blueprint for the second Trump administration,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps narrated,\u00a0 \u201cargued that the bureau needs to be able cut costs by killing horses and said that Congress \u2018must enact laws permitting the B.L.M. to dispose humanely of these animals.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Then Philipps got around to the nub of the problem.<\/p>\n \u201cFor 20 years,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps mentioned, \u00a0the Bureau of Land Management \u201chas had access to inexpensive fertility control drugs delivered by dart gun. \u00a0They have been used effectively to control a few wild herds, \u00a0and the government\u2019s own experts have repeatedly urged the bureau to use them more widely.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut because the bureau is spending so much on storage,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps alleged, \u00a0\u201cit has little left to make the changes that would save it from storing more.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> Background: BLM wild horse roundup; the late Jay Kirkpatrick, who developed the horse contraceptive ZonaStat-H; foreground, Friends of Animals president Priscilla Feral.<\/strong><\/em> Philipps did not mention the adamant opposition of some advocacy groups,\u00a0 notably Friends of Animals and Protect Mustangs,\u00a0 to contracepting wild horses.<\/p>\n Friends of Animals in particular has often stopped or delayed contraceptive projects with lawsuits.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (See BLM to gather 575 Nevada wild horses, thanks to Friends of Animals\u2019 \u201cvictory\u201d<\/a>,\u00a0 and Suspension of PZP test means more people could eat a horse<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Instead of contracepting wild horses,\u00a0 Philipps outlined,\u00a0 the Bureau of Land Management uses \u201ca series of bureaucratic maneuvers and financial transactions to transform them on paper into domestic livestock,\u00a0 stripping their legal protections.<\/p>\n \u201cFirst the bureau has to show a wild horse can\u2019t be adopted. \u00a0It does this by posting hundreds of horses at a time on its online adoption site. \u00a0After a horse has three one-week listings with no takers, \u00a0the law permits the government to designate the horse as unadoptable.\u201d<\/p>\n Then the horse can be put up for sale,\u00a0 \u201can important legal distinction,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps explained,\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cbecause a wild horse who is adopted retains federal protection,\u201d\u00a0 whereas a wild horse who is sold \u201closes protection immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cA sold horse still can\u2019t be legally killed \u2014 at least not yet,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps continued,\u00a0 since buyers have to sign a contract pledging that they will not \u201cknowingly\u201d resell wild horses to slaughter.<\/p>\n \u201cBut if the buyer resells to a middleman without asking questions, \u00a0the buyer is safe from prosecution,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps said.<\/p>\n Selling 3,700 wild horses in 2025 saved the Bureau of Land Management about $56 million,\u00a0 Philipps estimated.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile quietly selling truckloads of horses to private traders,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps noted,\u00a0 the Bureau of Land Management \u201cplasters its website with photos of loving owners hugging and kissing their mustangs.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n That sounds a lot like how Shannon Miranda managed the Miranda\u2019s Rescue website and Facebook page,\u00a0 posting many purported happy endings while more than 700 dogs transferred to Miranda\u2019s Rescue disappeared and are still missing.<\/p>\n \u201cBrandon Jones appeared out of nowhere in the wild horse world last spring,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps wrote, \u00a0\u201cand quickly became the Bureau of Land Management\u2019s biggest buyer, bureau records show.<\/p>\n \u201cHe got his start in mustangs after two of his previous livestock auction businesses folded, leaving a string of debts.\u201d<\/p>\n When Philipps visited Jones\u2019 facility near Wauseon, Ohio,\u00a0 31 miles west of Toledo,\u00a0 Jones claimed,\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m not dealing with traders.\u00a0 I\u2019m dealing with a farmer, \u00a0come up the road, \u00a0who wants to buy a horse.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Responded Philipps,\u00a0 \u201cShown photos and video of the trucks of horses that left his property at midnight \u2014 taken by a local wild horse lover and shared with The Times<\/em> \u2014 he questioned whether it had happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Backtracking Jones\u2019 dealings with the Bureau of Land Management,\u00a0 Philipps learned that his application to buy wild horses for a year \u201csat at the bureau with no action. \u00a0Then, \u00a0in March 2025, \u00a0a federal court ordered an end to one of the bureau\u2019s leading ways of offloading horses \u2014 the program that paid adopters $1,000 per horse.<\/p>\n \u201cA few weeks later, \u00a0Jones\u2019s application was approved.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones,\u00a0 \u201cOver the course of discussing his business,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps observed,\u00a0 \u201che did not mention any training or the challenges of finding owners for wild mustangs, \u00a0but he spoke about five of the region\u2019s slaughter traders, \u00a0whom he knew by name, \u00a0and the current price of horse meat.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u201cOther people all over the country,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps charged, \u00a0\u201care flipping sale horses at a smaller scale,\u201d\u00a0 as ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong> has several times previously exposed.<\/p>\n (See Alleged \u201chorses for ransom\u201d brokers busted in Louisiana<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n In April 2026,\u00a0 Philipps narrated,\u00a0 the Bureau of Land Management held a two-day \u201cadoption event\u201d in Poteau,\u00a0 Oklahoma.<\/p>\n \u201cThe brands of at least 55 of the mustangs sold at the Oklahoma event,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps charged,\u00a0 \u201cshowed up a few days later in Kansas and Texas, \u00a0where the horses had been resold to large livestock auctions frequented by slaughter buyers, \u00a0according to sales records gathered by wild horse protection groups.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pattern has repeated at more than a dozen events,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps alleged.\u00a0 \u201cWild horse organizations say they have documented more than 250 mustangs who were bought from the bureau and quickly dumped in the past 12 months, \u00a0but said they have most likely missed many more.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> Claude Bouvry.<\/strong><\/em> Philipps and the horse protection organizations he used as sources believe most of the missing horses are trucked to slaughter in Canada.<\/p>\n One problem with that theory is that the Bouvry Exports horse slaughterhouse in Fort MacLeod,\u00a0 Alberta,\u00a0 by far the closest to the Bureau of Land Management wild horse storage facilities,\u00a0 closed at the end of April 2026.<\/p>\n (See Risk of horse slaughter resuming in U.S. offsets Bouvry closure in Alberta<\/a>.)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n That leaves only Viande Richelieu, in Massueville, \u00a0Quebec,\u00a0 still slaughtering horses,\u00a0 more than a thousand miles farther east than was Fort Macleod.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil June 2026, \u00a0when exports were stopped amid concerns over a New World screwworm outbreak, \u00a0[horses for slaughter] also went to Mexico,\u201d\u00a0 Philipps mentioned.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n So where are all the former Bureau of Land Management wild horses going?<\/p>\n One possibility might be Japan.\u00a0 About 11,000 horses have been flown from Canada to Japan for slaughter since 2021.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government committed to banning the export of horses for slaughter back in 2021,\u201d\u00a0 says an Animal Justice web page addressing the issue,\u00a0 but \u201clegislation has still not passed to ban this practice.\u201d<\/p>\n None of this is any surprise to ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong>,\u00a0 having headlined on November 9,\u00a0 2016,\u00a0 after Donald Trump was elected for his first term as U.S. president,\u00a0 Trump election puts 45,000 wild horses at risk\u2013\u2013and much, much more<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\u00a0Myth that \u201cWe can save them all\u201d without contracepting problematic populations both dumps dead dogs in ditches & feeds wild horses to the meat trade<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nHay & fixing the problem cost about the same<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nMiranda\u2019s Rescue was small-time compared to the BLM wild horse racket<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cMulti-colored band of 68 wild mustangs\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cThe mustangs disappeared\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cWild horse sales rose after Trump took office\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cThe holding system\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nHeritage Foundation want to kill wild horses<\/h2>\n
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(Merritt Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nOpposition to contraception<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nSelling horses in 2025 saved BLM $56 million<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nPosting \u201chappy endings\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cKnew the current price of horse meat\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nOthers flipping sale horses too<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nWhere in Canada?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nFlown to Japan?<\/h2>\n