Animal rights advocates in Wyoming hope recent turmoil surrounding the slaughter of 41 wild horses sold to private parties will be a long-term benefit to other animals possibly awaiting similar fate.

Patricia Fazio with the Wyoming Animal Network said everyone might "wake up" to the fate of the nation's wild horses.

"Sometimes the worst scenario has to occur before you get things going in the right direction for animals," she said.

The Bureau of Land Management, the agency in charge of managing wild horse herds and overseeing their adoption and sale, halted the sale of horses this week in response to the slaughterings.

"It's incredibly disappointing," BLM Director Kathleen Clarke said. "It is not our intent to have these animals killed. That's why we acted very aggressively."

The first six horses sent to a slaughterhouse were originally caught in the Antelope Hills herd management area south of Lander.

Alan Shepherd, wild horse and burro program leader for the BLM in Wyoming, said the horses were sent to a corral in Colorado because Wyoming's corrals were at capacity.

From Canyon City, Colo., an Oklahoma man bought the horses and sent them to the Cavel International Inc., a commercial packing plant in DeKalb, Ill.

This week, 35 more horses coming from the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota were bought and sent to the same plant.

BLM officials, tipped off by Agriculture Department inspectors, persuaded the plant managers to stop. That saved the lives of 16 mustangs about to be killed, and the plant agreed to give the horses food and water until they were picked up by the agency.

Clarke said this week she ordered an immediate halt to the delivery of about 950 horses that had been sold to private parties.

"We will not be making any more deliveries until we can check on the situation," she said. "We just want to reassess our program."

The sale of wild horses comes after U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., attached a measure in December to the to the 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Bill allowing for wild horses to be sold if they are more than 10 years old or if they have been put up for adoption unsuccessfully three times.

That law provoked an outcry from animal rights groups, which said horses are now exposed to slaughter facilities or other possible inhumane treatment.

Before, animals were adopted to private individuals but legal property was still with the BLM.

In Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, a coalition of celebrities, race track leaders and others lent their voices to lawmakers pushing for legislation to overturn the Burns measure.

Supporters of two bills - one that would stop the commercial sale of wild horses and burros, and one that would ban horse slaughter in the United States - are trying to gain support from as many people as possible to back their cause. So far, they have pulled together stars ranging from country music singers such as Willie Nelson to "Desperate Housewives" star Nicollette Sheridan.

The Ford Motor Co., maker of the Mustang sports car, has given its support to the horses' plight by offering financial support to save 52 wild horses.

But advocates of the wild horse sale program say it gives people ownership free and clear, which is more attractive to people wanting to help wild horses.

Others say horses damage rangelands. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association said there is "simple not enough habitat to support the number of horses out there."

Not all horse groups back the proposed legislation to overturn the Burns measure. The National Quarter Horse Association believes the government has spent too much to keep unadoptable horses at sanctuaries, and repealing the slaughter ban was a "fiscally responsible" move, said Tim Case, the association's senior manager of public policy.

BLM officials say there are about 37,000 wild horses and burros on its lands - about 9,000 more than Western ranges can sustain. Wyoming is home to about 4,100 wild horses in 16 management areas. BLM's objective for the state is between 2,500 and 3,600 animals.

Environmental reporter Whitney Royster can be reached at (307) 734-0260 or at royster@trib.com.