Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Madeleine Pickens Steps Up to Rescue 30,000 Mustangs

This story, from Bloomberg, tells more about the plan and about Madeleine Pickens than previous news accounts:

Madeleine Pickens wore a brilliant orange-and-black scarf printed with leaping mustangs for our meeting -- and not just because she’s an ardent supporter of wild horses. “These are my husband’s school colors, so I got this for the football games,” she said...The rescue plan calls for transporting 8,000 to 10,000 mustangs by helicopter to the preserve in the first year. Many of the horses would be neutered, and contraceptive controls would help maintain the herd at about 30,000. Pickens wants to create more than a sanctuary. She envisions a nonprofit eco-destination with RVs, teepees, and environmental education programs supplementing the main event -- the experience of seeing horses in the wild. “Imagine the Americans who have never seen the wild mustang,” says Pickens, who only this year enjoyed that experience herself in a helicopter over Nevada. “I can tell you it is absolutely life-changing.” Pickens is setting up a foundation, which she expects will attract tax-deductible donations and corporate sponsors. The foundation is not yet named, nor is the land purchase a done deal, though she now has the short list down to three parcels. She won’t disclose their location until a deal is struck...

Get ready for Picken's Pintos and Madeleine's Mares to replace Disney as the top tourist destination.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Okay, to pick up a horse with a chopper it has to be knocked down with a general anesthetic, put in a sling, carried from Wyoming or Nevada to where ever and put back down taken out of the sling before it wakes up and released. At one horse at a time this has to take years to happen and many of these horse will of die of old age before they are transported. This women is goofy to say the least but since her knowledge is about a TB horse in a stall what else could we expect.Even hauling 30,000 horse by semi would take more fuel, more time and more of anything else. Why don't she just turn the horses into hamburger and give them to that guy that does feed the children?