DENVER (AP) — A federal investigation has determined that a Colorado livestock hauler sent about 1,700 wild horses to slaughterhouses after buying them through a Bureau of Land Management program that’s supposed to provide the animals with good homes.

The Department of the Interior’s Office of Inspector General released a report Friday saying that between 2008 and 2012, La Jara rancher and livestock hauler Tom Davis bought 1,794 horses from the BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, which manages tens of thousands of mustangs that roam the West.

The Denver Post reports  that when investigators asked Davis how many of the horses he bought had been re-sold for slaughter, he told them, “Probably close to all of them.”

Wild horses are protected under federal law, and selling them for slaughter is illegal.