Some feral horses and burros rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are now eligible to be sold at public auctions to the highest bidder.

The appropriations bill for 2005 (H.R. 4818) was made public law on Dec. 7. This bill had a rider attached to it on Nov. 20, 2004, by Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana that concerned the wild horse and burro adoption program funding. Sec. 142 of the bill says that all wild horses and burros over the age of 10 years, or those animals that have not been successfully offered for adoption at least three times, will be made for sale without any limitation. This means the animal could go to public auction and sold to the highest bidder, including a slaughter buyer. The number of wild horses and burros an individual can adopt in a one-year period was also made unlimited