Adopting 30,000 Horses All At Once?
From today's headlines:
The wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens has announced her intention to adopt and take responsibility for all 30,000+ wild horses that are now confined to Bureau of Land Management holding pens.
May we each do what we feel we can afford to do.
Labels: Pickens
posted by Juli Thorson @ 1:50 PM
16 comments
16 Comments:
At first thought, I'm thrilled a billionaire would take on the plight of the wild horse. But are they better off? Where will they go? How will you care for 30,000 horses and what makes them any more adoptable than they are today? I'm afraid its another bail-out without a good plan. Hope I'm wrong!
Tammy I agree with you...
In the later part of the article it said she was looking for a place to keep the horses, I take that to mean she currently doesn't have a proper place to keep them. Shouldn't you have proper facilities prior to offering to take them all in?
Have they done the math on the amount of money it would cost to care for all these animal properly? What about gelding the studs so there aren't more foals?
I certainly hope these issues have been addressed, if they have good for them! If not, well then I hope things turn out alright!
You know they always say that a fool and his money will soon be parted when he gets into horses.
I think this is just another case of people that don't know a lot about horses and what it takes to care for them. Also, some of those horses should not be adopted by anyone.
I guess what I saw in the article was that they were behind the no slaughter law. We all know what that has done to the horse industry. Maybe everyone that has a horse they can not afford to keep, or is not worth keeping should take them all over to the Picket's front yard.
I think these people think they are doing the right thing and I appreciate that they are doing it. However, I think they have read too many Black Beauty books.
If this works out, I'm going to drink a toast to those folks.
Maybe several.
Makes my own rescue efforts look pretty puny.
There are still problems to be solved, no question. But a stay of execution can't be a bad thing. Things get kind of hopeless once you're dead.
So god bless 'em.
Maybe they're fools who've read too many Black Beauty books. Or maybe other folks haven't read enough.
I'm just hoping for something better for those ponies than a bullet.
sj
In case you don't know, Madeleine Pickens was the wife of the late Allen E. Paulson, who raced the great Cigar. She has been a concerned horsewoman forever, also rescuing racehorses whose careers are over. If anyone can do something like this, she can.
Mrs. Pickens is NO fool. I applaud her efforts, her motivation, and her money. Thank GOD for her. She has the money to buy enough acreage to let the wild horses live the same way they have been. She will purchase an enormous (hundreds of thousands of acres) amount of land. These horses do not want barns and stalls and indoor arenas for gods sake. They want to run free on land. This is the only woman who could do this and do it well. I applaud Mrs. Pickens. She also sent private planes to New Orleans after Katrina and evacuated hundreds of stranded and distressed animals. All these posts are so negative and critical it makes me sick. Do you want the GD cattle ranchers aka BLM to shoot all these horses? would that make you feel better?
This has nothing to do with the "GD cattle ranchers" Amy Jo. These are horses that have already been culled off of the range by the BLM per their horse/per acre standards. These are horses that are have not been adopted and they are breaking the BLM budgets...aka... our tax dollars.
While I applaud Mrs. Picken's conviction to come to the aid of these horses(since the Pickens were behind the closing of the US slaughter plants), I dread the thought that they will be buying around a million acres of private land to put them on. This would be rangeland...ie...privately owned cattle ranches, that will be taken out of production. Of course, no one thinks to bitch because the Pickens can afford to pay way more for the land than any of the local ranchers, but they effectively drive up the tax base on everyone's land and then take it out of production?
So now the ranchers need the BLM leases even more. Thanks billionaire conservationists! Maybe they should put some of these horse on the hundreds of thousands of acres they already own, but have carefully cultivated as Mr. Picken's private hunting preserves?
And why is she asking the BLM to continue to foot the bill for the next YEAR? Maybe they need to start footing the bill right now...how about that? I would like to see my tax dollars freed up so the BLM has the funds to reduced the reproduction of the wild herds, so there won't be as many mustangs that need to be culled. That would help solve the problem of the mass numbers of unadoptable mustangs in the future and protect the ecosystem where they live.
Oh and by the way...cattle and sheep ranchers PAY rent to the BLM for the use of the land. Those funds go toward managing the herds of wild horses and other BLM projects.
"These are horses that are have not been adopted and they are breaking the BLM budgets...aka... our tax dollars."
Good point.
How about a 700 billion dollar bailout for these horses? They deserve it more than those bankers do!
How come we always have plenty of money to TAKE lives but never seem to have enough to SAVE lives?
sj
There are obviously logistical problems the like of which my pea brain can't even fathom. It's certainly going to take the kind of money she has. All I can say is, I hope it works.
There are many questions left unanswered, but I believe the intentions are good. She will surely remain in my prayers for the courage (or the insanity) to have taken such an audacious step.
Here's a follow-up article from the Washington Post: Retirement Ranch Planned for Wild Horses
On The Post article,
There is so much I didn't know about this issue...like they mention the BLM program for the horses doesn't currently include gelding or spaying. Errr....AND why the heck not??
On the issue at hand:
I really hope that she has the resources to care for and healthfully maintain a herd of that size. Either that or I hope she will responsibly and humanely disperse the herd through adoption, training, sales, and other means as quickly as possible.
People are so afraid she will turn into the world's single largest Horse Hoarder - but if anyone has the resources at their disposal to take care of these animals - why not her? She is a billionaire - most of us can't wrap our minds around how much money that is. Maybe it will work?
Sad in a way though - how that money could've helped out thousands of completely adoptable trained horses that go to slaughter...
Wow, how is Ms. Pickens going to keep 30,000 horses from turning into 60,000 horses. Just because someone owns race horses doesn't mean they know how to manage something this huge. Buying up enough land to house this many 'wild' horses, then managing them on the land is entirely different than about any ranch in the world. Rainfall, drought, types of grass being planted, other actual wildlife that will already be using the land. A person can't just turn out a bunch of horses. Cattlemen manage the land, they manage the size of their herds, they manage the grass, they manage where the herds are allowed to graze, they manage the water. It is such a huge daily project to run a cattle ranch or sheep or anything else. On the other hand, she will definitely need lots of help to fence the place, construct wells for water, watch for communicable disease, cut hay for winter, feed during the winter and during the drought times, geld all the colts, watch for other horses that will become 'wild' horses as they are turned onto the place that it may help the economy.
wow, browneyedcowgirl, you are a fool if you dont understand the power of the cattle ranchers and federal land. horses eat grass that the ranchers want for free. cattlemen have been lobbying, organizing, and buying the bullets to get horses off the blm land. the blm is full of pro cattle ranchers. if the cattle were not on the land there would be more room for ALL the wild horses, no round ups needed. Cattle ranchers have been trying and succeeding for decades at removing mustangs from federal land. I would rather MY land be free of cattle.
One thing I hate to see is rich people purchasing all the land. Seems sad that the "cowboy way" of ranching will be turned over to wild horses. I think she has a good plan, and I'll even bet she makes money at it - guest ranch etc. I really respect her for what she did in New Orleans.
The wild horses are something that we have loved to watch for years. However, now because we feed them etc. they are living longer and breeding. There comes a time when you have to realize that some of these horses crippled, non adoptable, poor dispositions etc just can not keep stretching our budgets like they are doing.
I was once told by an old cowboy that the cruelest thing you could do to an old horse is turn them out to pasture to live out their lives. Just think what you all do for your old horses - there will be no hot bran for these guys.
I respect what Mrs. Pickens is doing and I hope it works out but guess with all the starving kids in the US maybe I would think twice about spending all that on horses.
I hope AmyJo stops to think that a 100 acres worth of cows will feed a lot more people than a 100 acres of horses. Can't say I like the name calling either. Everyone on this site is entitled to their opinion - whether or not you agree with it. Personally as much as I love horses, I love good horses and would rather have 10 of those or the cattle on my acres.
Not a bail-out... Simply an extremely large retirement community for these horses hosted by Pickens. The plan in the works is well thought out and includes long-term plans for sterilization and care of the range horses, not as an adoption agency. The big 3 auto Manuf. should present a plan as well thought out as this. We, as taxpayers and horse people, should applaud this action.
I applaud her!! Her plan is to build a sanctuary for the horses. Where people can see them in their natural environment.
She is a god send for the wild horses!
Post a Comment
<< Home