The Bureau of Land Management put 362 wild horses up for auction over the weekend in Utah, but only 8 of them found new homes. Total revenues from the auction: $725. That's less than $91 a horse. (Read the full story from The Salt Lake Tribune here.)
So, where was the Humane Society of the United States? Why wasn't that organization there to offer salvation to the majestic mustangs with bloodlines extending back to the Spanish conquistadors?
The HSUS spends a great deal of time, energy and money telling agriculture-based businesses how they should operate and has attracted a fair amount of press in recent years with their undercover investigations. One of their current campaigns is to ask the public to urge Congress to pass the Conyers-Burton Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act, which would restrict transportation of unwanted horses to other countries for possible slaughter to be used as food.
All horse slaughter facilities have already been closed down in this country.
If the Humane Society of the US really wants to care for horses, maybe they should invest in them. According to the organization's 2006 tax exempt filing with the IRS, it had $225 million in assets, including $127.8 million in investments in publicly traded securities and $43.6 million in savings.
The organization could have adopted the whole string of 362 horses with more than enough left over to feed them with just it's cash savings.
Heck, even Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of Humane Society of the US, might have some discretionary income out of his $207,000 salary (not counting nearly $27,000 in additional benefits) to adopt a few of the horses himself — assuming he hasn't had a raise or pay cut since 2006.
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