Pickens' Rescue Plan in Peril
Madeleine Pickens continues to fight for wild horses despite setbacks

In February wild horse advocate Jill Anderson sent a desperate plea in the form of a mass e-mail to friends and local media concerning the plight of 52 horses that had been removed from state land in Nevada and were in danger of going to slaughter if they were not picked up by a rescue or sanctuary within the week. Five days later, Anderson, who works for Return to Freedom, a wild horse sanctuary in Lompoc, had succeeded in saving all 52 animals.

"I sent the alert out on Monday, and by Friday the horses were safe," said Anderson, who shares the concern that a doomsday clock is ticking for America's wild horses, and these were just a few lucky exceptions.

Last fall the BLM announced it would consider euthanizing the nearly 30,000 wild horses it is holding in facilities in South Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma and throughout the Southwest at a cost of nearly $100,000 a day.

The BLM's decision sent wild horse advocates scrambling for solutions. To date, the most promising plan is that proposed by Madeleine Pickens, wife of Texas oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens. Pickens' plan-an ambitious solution she believes will save taxpayers millions of dollars-includes the private purchase of nearly one million acres near Elko, NV, where she hopes to create a rescue sanctuary with the help of a stipend from the federal government to offset operating costs to her nonprofit foundation.

Initially the BLM appeared to look favorably upon the Pickens' proposal, but in a letter addressed to her from the BLM on February 20, signed by acting director Ron Wenker, the BLM countered with two new options. One was to contract with her foundation to care for the wild horses strictly on private land; the other was for her foundation to own and care for the horses without compensation.

Wenker wrote that the problem with her initial proposal centered on the use of stipends and available grazing areas. He explained that Pickens could not receive stipends from the federal government because the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burro Act of 1971 allows stipends to be paid only to private landowners who care for federally-owned horses on their own land, not the Herd Management Areas (HMA) within the BLM.

Because the land Pickens wants to use for her sanctuary would not be large enough to house all of BLM's wild herds, she hopes to be able to access BLM land as well. The problem is, the land Pickens has identified does not abut BLM grazing areas originally designated by the act as Herd Management Areas. In short, even though Pickens can find suitable land, if it is not adjacent to one of BLM's Herd Management Areas, under the current BLM policy the horses would not be allowed onto adjoining BLM property.

The situation has become a real catch-22, but it has not stopped Pickens, who has continued her crusade. On March 2 the Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board met in Reno, NV, and announced in Pickens' absence that her rescue plan was not practical under federal law. But on March 3, less than 24 hours after the BLM had dashed hopes for her rescue sanctuary, Pickens was in Washington, D.C., testifying on behalf of America's wild Mustangs and their current plight.

Pickens has been coordinating her efforts with those of Congressmembers Nick J. Rahall (D-WVA) and Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), who in February introduced H.R. 1018 Restore Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act to the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee.

The ROAM Act amends the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971 and will, for the first time, allow the BLM to increase acreage available to free-roaming herds and develop wild horse and burro sanctuaries on public land not previously used by wild horses.

Since its inception, the ROAM Act has generated concerns from the BLM. The bill limits the number of wild horses and burros that can be removed from the range to only those that can be adopted, prohibits the use of helicopters for roundups and eliminates the sale of animals, making adoption the only viable means to remove them from the range. It limits euthanasia only to terminally ill animals.

All of this made for some heated exchanges at the hearing. Rahall opened the meeting with strong words, saying H.R.1018 is long overdue, while Pickens testified, "The more I learned of their [wild horses and burros] management by BLM, however, the more despondent and frustrated I became.. It makes no sense, either from a fiscal or humane perspective, to manage a program to the point where more horses are in holding than are on the range, and where the proportion of animals in captivity to those in the wild will only increase as the years go on. It doesn't make sense for the horses, and it doesn't make sense for everyday Americans who are footing the bill."

The strongest language came from Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) who said, "In recent years the Bureau of Land Management-the very agency that is Congressionally charged with protecting and managing these animals-has failed time and again to protect these creatures."

Pacelle said the BLM's problem could have been prevented beginning in 1980s if the BLM had taken a more balanced approach to land use. "They favored ranchers at every turn," he said.

Citing statistics from 2001 to 2007, Pacelle said, "The BLM removed approximately 74,000 [horses] from the range, the agency [BLM] burned through tax dollars in conducting these programs, and it chose not to apply the one option recommended by GAO [Government Accountability Office] that could actually blunt the increasing costs-an aggressive contraceptive program for the horses returned to the range."

Recent studies by the International Society for the Protection of Mustangs & Burros have found that removing older horses, particularly the harem stallion-the dominant male who assumes a supervisory role over the herd-has caused an increase in breeding. President and founder Karen Sussman said, "BLM's management of wild horses as 'livestock,' instead of understanding the true nature of wild horses as wildlife species, has led to creating BLM's dilemma of doubling herds in five years."

Expressing an opposing point of view, Congressman Dean Heller (R-NV) argued that wild Mustangs are not indigenous to North America: "Overpopulation of non-native wild horses and burros has brought destruction to our range, which has led to the disappearance of native habitat and wildlife and as well as starvation and disease for wild horses and burros."

Heller added, "While they [wild horses and burros] serve as an iconic symbol of the American West, wild horses are grass-fed, non-native species, and the range does not have the necessary forage to support them."

Ed Robertson, BLM assistant director for Renewable Resources and Planning, said the BLM had concerns about H.R. 1018, particularly those issues involving helicopter roundups but that the BLM was not ready to take an official position. "The administration is still in transition and has not yet made policy determination on the urgent challenges facing the Wild Horse and Burro program. For this reason, we defer taking a position on H.R. 1018."

Pickens concluded her testimony with an emotional plea for support. "Over the past year I have been inundated with media inquiries about my proposal from the United States and all around the world.. They are captivated by and curious about the thought and imagery of America's natural history. They don't have such a wild and romantic past. While England may have the tales of Henry the VIII and his wives, and France may have had Napoleon and Josephine, we in America were blessed to have had Lewis and Clark, cowboys and Indians, the Pony Express and wild horses..These great individuals and the stories of the West are not mythical; they are real. They are the fabric that made up America. We need to respect our history and respect our God-given heritage."

In December the BLM announced it would shuffle $20 million within its budget to keep the current wild horse and burro program running through the end of this fiscal year (September) as alternatives to euthanasia are considered.

No date has been announced for a final vote on H.R. 1018, which remains in committee.

This is part of a continuing series about America's wild Mustangs and the BLM's decision to consider euthanasia for nearly 30,000 wild horses and burros by the end of this fiscal year. To read previous installments, go to www.theequestriannews.com. To contact the author, e-mail nancy@theequestriannews.com. For more about Madeleine Pickens' efforts, go to www.madeleinepickens.com.