Wild Horses Get Help From Billionaires

About 30,000 wild horses and burros that roam the open range in 10 Western states, are causing the federal government a lot of grief.  The Bureau of Land Management announced that it was struggling to manage it's wild horse program and that the horses would either have to be euthanized or sold for slaughter. But thanks to the help of billionaire T. Boone Picken's wife, Madeleine, the horses will get the chance to live out there lives free to roam the range.

Her plan includes buying 1 million acres for the horses, although a site has yet to be announced pending negotiations. The BLM has publicly stated it is on board with the Pickens plan and fully supports her efforts. Mrs. Pickens said she plans to make the refuge accessible to the public and that no horse will be turned down from the program. About 33,000 wild horses and burros roam the open range in 10 Western states; that’s an excess of about 6,000 horses according to the BLM. An additional 33,000 horses that have been gathered from public rangelands are currently awaiting adoption, although the sluggish economy has left these animals lingering in holding pens across the country. The cost of keeping the wild horses in these holding facilities has caused the BLM to consider exporting the animals for slaughter or euthanizing them. “You shouldn’t be coming to this country to see Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck,” Mrs. Pickens continued in her comments to The Dallas Morning News. “We are more than that. We are a country that was formed on horseback and we should enjoy it, not slaughter it.”

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