Madeleine Pickens' Plan to Save America's Wild Horses

Madeleine Pickens is known primarily for two things: her marriage to Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens and her advocacy on behalf of horses. Preferably not in that order, because Madeleine Pickens has been a champion for wild horses for a long time, and now she has her eye on saving every wild horse being held in government holding facilities.

Almost 40 years ago, the federal government passed the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which declared the animals "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West." The legislation provided protection for these American icons to maintain their free-roaming behavior on the public land they called home in 1971 (when the legislation was enacted). The Bureau of Land Management was authorized to manage the herds with their welfare and continued freedom in mind.

The BLM has taken liberties with the "free-roaming" concept, particularly in the last several years. They've rounded up thousands of horses in stressful — often deadly — helicopter-driven stampedes and shipped them to holding facilities around the country, with little regard for their family structures or natural habitat. Under these conditions, horses frequently fall ill and die. Some horses are adopted out, but the BLM  has removed so many horses from public lands at this point, that they don't really know what to do with them.

Enter Madeleine Pickens on her proverbial white horse. She recently purchased the 14,000-acre Spruce Ranch in Nevada, which she plans to rename the Mustang Monument preserve. The ranch comes with grazing rights on 540,000 acres of public land. She plans to buy more land ... as much as it takes to free all 34,000 horses from government holding facilities.

Under the plan, the first 1,000 horses would be relocated to the eco-sanctuary, which would also have an education center and lodging so people can come to view the horses and learn about their heritage. It would be run by a non-profit foundation with a government stipend of $500 per horse, per year.

Even if Pickens succeeds in rescuing all 34,000 horses, that $17 million or so would be a fiscally smart move for the government; this year, the BLM's holding costs for their wild horse program have already exceeded $38 million. And next to the cattle, who are given preference on public lands and subsidized by taxpayers to the tune of $122 million a year, the horse sanctuary is a steal.

This isn't the first time Pickens offered to create a wild horse sanctuary. Her first attempt in 2008 was rejected by the BLM for violating the Wild Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, because it included public land where horses did not exist in 1971. Quite the hypocritical argument, considering many of the horses she wants to free are being held by the government at long-term facilities in the Midwest, nowhere near the 1971 home range.

Ironically, what held up the proposal in the past may have been that Pickens didn't own a ranch. The use of public lands by ranchers is one of the factors that put the horses in jeopardy in the first place. The BLM claims that horses are overpopulated and destroying habitat, yet they've never presented evidence to prove it, and cattle, who have far more destructive grazing habits, outnumber horses 200 to 1 on public lands. But ranchers have friends in the BLM, so activists have been spinning their wheels trying to stop the boondoggle of a wild horse program and save the animals who are suffering in long-term holding facilities.

This time around, the BLM seems more amenable to Pickens' sanctuary, though the agency still needs take an official position.

It's unfortunate, but not surprising, that it takes a compassionate tycoon to dig the government out of a debacle that's their own doing. Tell the Bureau of Land Management to accept Madeleine Pickens proposal and free the wild horses.

Photo credit: Bureau of Land Management