The Bureau of Land Management, (BLM), has rejected Madeline Pickens plan to place 1,000 wid mustang horses on 500,000 acres. One of the reasons for denying her request was they felt it would not sustain 10,000 horses. They seem to not know the number of horses that have been proposed. So if it is only 1,000 horses or one horse per 500 acres and more than 1,000 cattle that have been removed have been grazing the land for years is it enough land to support the wild horses?

Read More on Madeline Pickens Wild Mustangs.

The film has breathtaking scenery and absolutely magnificent wild horses and undeniably heartbreaking facts about the systematic extermination of America’s Wild Horses. Disappointment Valley features horse advocates Viggo Mortenson, Daryl Hannah, Sheryl Crow and Raoul Trujillo. In addition to this list of stars a long list of others speaks out on what is happening to our horses. They include former Director of the Bureau of Land Management Jim Baca, energy consultant, Randy Udall, Horse Advocate Madeline Pickens and Michael Blake who wrote “Dances With Wolves.”

The film chronicles the gross mismanagement by the BLM, the brutal capture methods, the inhumane conditions the horses are held in, plus the wanton waste of taxpayer’s money. The reaction of the audience was outrage, anger, frustration and confusion on why the wild horses have been pulled off of millions of acres of public land. The film detailed the cost to taxpayers to capture them at $2,500 per horse.

According to the BLM web site holding costs for 2008 were $27 million and the overall costs of capture and holding will reach $85 million in 2012. The BLM site goes on to say they have removed over 79,000 wild horses and burros from 2001 to 2008. Estimates of the number of horses remaining in the wild range from the BLM estimate of 37,000 to a private count commissioned by Michael Blake that put the number at less than 15,000.

The BLM site states “by not removing excess horses from the range, the result would be an ecological disaster for Western public rangelands: overpopulation of herds, overgrazing of forage, eventual malnutrition and starvation of horses and burros, damage to native vegetation and riparian areas, damage to wildlife habitat, increased soil erosion, and lower water quality.”

An audience member commented that BLM land contains millions of cattle which are known to eat grass down to the ground. He went on to say horses on the other hand eat the tops of the grass allowing it to grow back.

To learn more about the plight of America’s Wild Horses and Burros visit Madeline Pickens web site www.MadelinePickens.com and The American Wild Horse web site www.theamericanwildhorse.com.

http://www.madeleinepickens.com/%20/2500-wile-horses-to-be-rounded-up-in-dead-of-winter/