After spending millions to create a world-class wild mustang eco-sanctuary in Northern Nevada, philanthropist Madeleine Pickens finds herself at odds with the very people she’s trying to help. In all likelihood, some of the best-known wild horse advocates in the country — many of whom are meeting in Las Vegas this week — will end up filing a lawsuit to stop Pickens’ plan from moving forward.
It’s an easy mix; take one part Billionairess, add an equal part of BLM and a dash of collusion then mix it all up vigorously, for years, and what do you end up with…Horse Poop.
When you read Madeleine Pickens letter to friends and supporters yesterday (9/11/2012), did any of you catch the fact that she called her planned Mustang Monument a “Wild Horse Eco-resort?” So when did this plan go from being a wild horse eco-sanctuary to an eco-resort?
Three sanctuaries for our nation’s wild horses in Elko District NE Nevada, known as Herd Management Areas (HMAs), are soon likely to be zeroed out. The Mustangs in the Spruce Pequop, Goshute, and Antelope Valley HMAs, numbering 434 at their upper management level, will be rounded up and removed. Gone will be their legal lands and legal homes. Gone will be their family bands that have supported and protected them. Gone will be the stallions as producers and protectors, the mares as nurturers, leaders and educators, and the foals as learners. Fractured and separated, all will go to different pens, to barren feedlot corrals, and the stallions will be gelded.
A current Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wild horse “eco-sanctuary” proposal by T. Boone Pickens’ wife, Madeleine Pickens (Saving America’s Mustangs) is for a NON-REPRODUCING herd, so HOW, exactly, is this supposed to save America’s mustangs?
The BLM determined that the emergency removal of the Paisley Desert wild horse herd is needed to ensure their survival until fall/winter moisture comes. Congregating on limited water sources and traveling great distances to other water sources will begin to negatively affect the horses’ health.
Approximately 200 wild horses will be gathered using a helicopter and then transported by trailer to the Burns Wild Horse Corrals. The Paisley Desert horses will be separated by sex and retained in separate corrals. Depending on environmental conditions, some of the horses may be returned to the HMA in order to bring the wild horse population to the Animal Management Level (60-150 horses.) The rest of the horses will be placed for adoption.
A news report has circulated recently about a massive population of free-roaming horses currently destroying land in the Navajo Nation and in New Mexico. The report, by Deanna Sauceda, asserts “Tens of thousands of horses are roaming the state and there’s no where to put them.” Based on no pointed sources, it’s ‘estimated’ there are as many as 90,000 horses roaming the Navajo Nation’s lands:
“There are no hard numbers as to how many horses are wild, abandoned or feral in New Mexico, but some estimates are as high as 90,000 on the Navajo reservation alone.” – intimating that there are far more throughout the rest of the state.
The Humane Society of the United States expressed its concerns about the actions of the Bureau of Land Management after an HSUS executive witnessed a BLM contractor appear to hogtie and leave a lost foal in the path of stampeding mustangs at the Desatoya Wild Horse Gather near Austin, Nev. The continued negligence and inhumane treatment of animals in the field is at odds with the agency’s stated vision and goal of improving and reforming its wild horse gather procedures.
HOUSTON, (Horseback) – Little has changed in the federal Bureau of Land Management’s handling of wild horses under its Wild Horse and Burro Program, this in spite of the worst drought affecting Midwestern states since the dust bowl of the 1930s. What’s more, nothing will change, despite a threat from nature that could put thousands of animals in jeopardy.
During his 40-year career with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Ronald Wenker was a top government official who made statewide and national decisions on land issues.
But, on Friday morning, the 64-year-old sat in a room full of accused criminals at Washoe County Jail, where he made his first court appearance during a video arraignment.
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