Thanks to Willis for passing this on and working with Channel 4 to get the story aired.

http://www.mynews4.com/story.php?id=22231 There is a video on the site.

Advocates: Wild Horses need protection in Fallon auction

Fallon, NV - Nearly 175 horses, that once roamed rural Nevada, are up for auction this weekend in Fallon. Horse advocates are not happy about that.

Advocates from a group called Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue say the Fallon Livestock Exchange, where the horses will be sold, traditionally sells horses to "kill buyers", people who ship the animals to slaughterhouses in Mexico and Canada.

The rescue group plans to bid against the "kill buyers" and rescue all the horse up for auction Saturday.

The group is also questioning why these horses ended up for sale in the first place. The horses were gathered by the Bureau of Land Management from an area near the Utah Border called Pilot Valley.

BLM employees say the horses are not the bureau's responsibility, because they were turned out by their owners and are not members of the herds managed by the BLM.

The BLM turned the horses over the Nevada Department of Agriculture as estrays, which the BLM does not manage.

A state agriculture spokesperson tells News 4, the state has no means of dealing with so many horses, so they were taken to the Fallon Livestock Exchange for sale.

Horse advocates question the legitimacy of the BLM claims, but say their first priority is to save the horses.

"If these turn out to be horses protected under the 1971 Wild Horse and Burro Act," said horse advocate Mike Holmes. "There's going to be quite a concern and probably quite a stink raised about the way these horses were removed and turned over to the Nevada Department of Agriculture."