A Texas BLM compliance officer arranged to keep 36 horses for himself and told two undercover investigators he planned to sell them for slaughter. BLM managers pressured employees not to talk to investigators. In one case, a BLM district manager tipped off the subject of a search warrant that law enforcement agents were about to visit his house. BLM officials falsified adoption documents and falsified computer records of brand identification numbers used to track adopted animals. The grand jury investigation focused on a BLM employee, Don Galloway.
Federal law restricts horse adoptions to four per person per year.
Galloway was approving adoptions of more than 100 horses at a time by having one person gather signatures from family, friends and neighbors. Using this technique, Galloway had placed more than 5,000 horses with adopters over about seven years. His work was commended by his superiors. I was doing my job, I was moving horses. People within the program carefully skirted the issue of what would eventually happen to the horses, Galloway said.