Federal Officials Shut Down Texas Investigation Grand Jury Was Ready To Indict Blm Officials For Slaughter Of Wild Horses

A federal grand jury has collected evidence that shows U.S. government officials allowed the slaughter of hundreds of wild horses taken from federal lands, falsified records and tried to prevent investigators from uncovering the truth.

The chief prosecutor and grand jury foreman in the investigation wanted to bring criminal indictments against officials of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, but the case was closed down last summer after federal officials in Washington - including officials outside the investigation - intervened.

“I believe that my investigation was obstructed all along by persons within the BLM because they did not want to be embarrassed,” the prosecutor, Alia Ludlum, wrote in a memo last summer. “I think there is a terrible problem with the program and with government agents placing themselves above the law.”

Ludlum’s memo is among thousands of pages of grand jury documents in the case obtained by The Associated Press. Those documents also show that the grand jury foreman was incensed that federal officials were blocking the investigation, and that his requests to indict them were ignored.

Ludlum, 35, formerly an assistant U.S. attorney, is now a federal magistrate judge at the courthouse in Del Rio, which serves West Texas. She refused to be interviewed for this story, but she acknowledged the authenticity of documents obtained by the AP.

Spokesmen for the Departments of Justice and the Interior denied that their agencies had done anything wrong, but they refused to answer questions. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, who oversees the BLM and by law is responsible for protecting wild horses, refused to be interviewed.

Wild horses and burros, which compete with domestic cattle for forage, have been protected by federal law for 25 years. The BLM decides how many animals can survive on public lands, rounds up the excess animals and lets people adopt them for about $125 apiece. After a year, an adopter can receive a title to an animal, if the BLM finds the animal is receiving proper care.

The law says it is a crime to kill a wild horse or burro taken from public land. It prohibits anyone who adopts one of the animals from selling it for slaughter.

Ludlum wanted to indict BLM officials for allowing horses to be slaughtered.

Recent AP investigations have found that thousands of the horses are eventually sold for slaughter, and that the whereabouts of tens of thousands of adopted but never titled animals are unknown.

The BLM has attacked the AP’s reports, saying its investigations show that slaughter “is occurring to a far, far lesser degree than was alleged.”

Although Babbitt refused to speak, the last person to serve as his chief at BLM said Babbitt has known all about problems in the wild horse program for a long time.

Jim Baca, who quit as BLM director in 1994 after a falling-out with Babbitt, said in an interview that he discovered the program was in turmoil and wanted to take steps to correct it.

He said Babbitt told him to back off.

“The orders were: ‘Don’t make waves, we’ve got enough problems,”’ Baca said, adding that his efforts to shake up the program went nowhere.”