Wednesday, November 19, 2008
WILD HORSES NOT ASKING FOR A BAIL OUT, JUST A JAIL BREAK!
Dear Readers,
Say THANKS to Mrs. Pickens
Nothing's definite yet, but Mrs. Pickens has the heart and the means to save wild horses and it looks as if BLM will cooperate with her!!!
Here's a short version of the story ---
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DALLAS — The wife of Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens said Tuesday she'll create a refuge for wild horses, after the federal agency that manages the animals said it may have to kill some to control the herds and protect the Western range.
About 33,000 wild horses and burros roam the open range in 10 Western states. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management wants that population to be about 27,000, in order to protect the herd, the range and other foraging animals.
Those horses that are too old or are unadoptable by the public are sent to long-term holding facilities. The BLM now has about the same number of the animals in holding facilities as on the range.
The agency has said the costs of keeping animals in the holding facilities has caused officials to consider euthanasia as a last-resort.
Madeleine Pickens told The Associated Press that she has proposed purchasing around 1 million acres to be a refuge for the horses now in holding facilities and that the BLM has agreed to give her the horses once she has the land.
BLM spokesman Tom Gorey said the agency welcomes the offer.
"Right now we couldn't be more pleased with her interest, and we hope that materializes so that we can get many of these horses out of holding," he said.
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Posted by
Terri Farley @ 1:17 AM
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Comments:
1 million acres!? Wow.....how many horses should that hold?
BLM Adoption requirements state that you must provide 400 square feet per animal (wild horse or burro) adopted. There are 43,560 square feet in one acre. So that times 1 million equals a total of 43,560,000,000 square feet. Divide that by 400 and you get 108,900,000. (That's how many horses according to BLM Adoption policy could reside on 1 million acres.) I think that certainly takes care of the approx. 33,000 horses in holding pens. ;-)
Mrs. Pickens is AWESOME!!!! Yeah! how many horses would that hold? That's so great. Will BLM still have to eutanise a lot of horses?
Quick work Miastar :)
cool! now the horses have a place to go. jess
Yeah, thanks Miastar! (:
GO MADELEINE!!!! People like her, and terri, are angels for the horses!!!
Wow, Miastar, you must have an A++++ in math:) thanks for telling us how many horses, I was wondering
That's how many you could own but how many acres of grazing is it going to take to feed all of those horses year round? It would drain your pockets (even very deep ones) pretty fast to feed them hay and grain all the time.
Also, I sure hope she keeps the number of stallions down because we already have too many horses... it won't help anything to let that many horses reproduce.... Think about how fast you could let that get out of hand if you don't watch 33,000 horses! lol (Atleast they aren't rabbits! ;-)...)
Also, her buying land (hopefully alot in Texas where they live) will help drive up land prices? I REALLY hope she buys in Texas because my grandparents do not live that far from her so I could maybe go see real mustangs!
I am very happy that she is able to help and not horde her money like so many do.
Thank you Mrs. Pickens!
Also, this is a solver to the current problem but the underlying issue is still there. The BLM is going to go round up some more horses.... we need a better fix to the issue.