Utah Wild Horse Case
Moves to U.S. Attorney
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – The case against individuals involved in the transport of Oklahoma based wild horses in the custody of the federal Bureau of Land Management has taken another turn, this time to the office of the United States Attorney in Salt Lake City. The 64 horses were seized from a Utah slaughter kill buyer and impounded August 5 and 6.
“The case documents have been forwarded to the U.S. Attorney’s office for
review,” said an informed source within the agency familiar with the case. “It is our understanding that, given the caseload at the U.S. Attorney’s Office we likely will not see any additional action on this case until mid-September at the earliest.”
All questions regarding 64 wild horses in two separate cases allegedly moved from a holding pasture of theBLM in Oklahoma and seized from a well known slaughter killer buyer were being by the agency spokesmen in Washington to federal law enforcement.
A federal law enforcement source confirmed to Horseback Magazine earlier this mont that the horses were part of the BLM’s program that sells older horses which can’t be trained. The horses did not come from the agency’s adoption program, he said.
The probe centers on the removal and seizure of the horses in Utah by local BLM officials. The FBI has been involved in the case Horseback’s earlier sources said. The questions have been referred to the Salt Lake City office of the Department of Justice.
Multiple individuals are targets of the probe. Department of Transportation registration for a cattle truck shown in video by Salt Lake television station KSL was traced by respected animal welfare investigators Animals Angels to Willard, Utah based DK Ranches owned by alleged longtime killer buyer Dennis Kunz whose transaction records with American slaughterhouses date back to at least 2003.
Horseback Magazine confirmed the horses were sold out of Oklahoma’s long term holding facilities. Further investigation has confirmed to us that the investigation, now in the hand of the Salt Lake U.S. Attorney’s Office is multi-layered and goes beyond the kill buyer. As you might expect from Horseback, our sources are unimpeachable although for security purposes we cannot reveal them..
The Editor
Can anyone confirm that these horses were taken out of long term holding in Oklahoma and sold to this killer because, if so, that opens up a whole new can of worms and really gives us ammunition to demand that these long term holding pastures be opened up for inspection by advocates.
If they were sale authority horses “accidentally” sold to a kill buyer, I can see the BLM weaseling out of this.
In the meantime, where are these horses being held?