Interior Dept. Halts Delivery of Mustangs
By JOHN HEILPRIN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 26, 2005; 11:12 AM
WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department abruptly halted delivery of mustangs to buyers while it investigates whether the slaughter of 41 wild horses in the West this month violates a federal contract requiring them to be treated humanely.
By enlisting last-minute financial help Monday from Ford Motor Co. _ makers of the Mustang sports car _ the agency saved the lives of 52 other mustangs.
The latest horses killed came from a broker who obtained them from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. The tribe traded 87 of the 105 aging horses it bought from the government for younger ones. Interior officials said they would review whether a federal contract had been violated. Tribal officials were unavailable for comment.
"I don't think it's fair to say they violated the agreement," Kathleen Clarke, director of Interior's Bureau of Land Management, told The Associated Press. "They were not traded to the animal processing facility. They were trading to a private individual."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042600228.html