There's a battle brewing out West: It's a confrontation between cattle ranchers and the wife of billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens, Madeleine Pickens, over wild horses, wild mustangs to be specific. The ranchers in Northern Nevada say their livelihood is at risk because there are too many wild horses grazing on federal lands, while animal advocates like Madeleine Pickens believe the population, which number in the tens of thousands, is manageable, special correspondent Jeff Glor reported on "CBS This Morning." In the past year, Pickens has spent between $12 and $13 million trying to establish a "Wild Horse Eco-Sanctuary," which she says is needed to save America's mustangs. Money might not be an object for Madeleine Pickens, but it is for the neighbors. That's because Pickens wants to use more than 500,000 acres of federal land for her horse refuge -- land that is currently used to graze cattle. Cattle ranchers say there won't be enough land -- or food -- for both groups. Madeleine Pickens says the ranchers have "grown up hating the horse." She said, "The group that's opposing us -- they don't like the horse." But cattle rancher and Elko County Commission Chairman Demar Dahl told Glor he likes horses and likes having them on his ranch -- just not too many of them. Pickens' idea, he said, is not a solution to the overpopulation of horses. Dahl said Nevada authorities need to have "an adult conversation" about the reality of the situation...more
Here's the CBS video report:
2 comments:
We need to sell the huge federal land holding to private enterprise. That will stop some of this foolishness and stop the hemorrhage of the taxpayer dollars to fund stupid things like this.
The first thing Mrs. Pickens and the rest of the "mustang" advocates need to realize is that the vast majority of these horses are NOT mustangs. They are descendants of ranch horses confiscated from ranchers by the federal government by the way the Wild Horse and Burro act was implemented.
The second thing that needs to be done is to have the lands illegally controlled by the federal government returned to the states. Section 8, Clause 17 of the US Constitution lays out in VERY specific language as to how the federal government may control land within a state as wall as very specific and limited uses. Just google it and see for yourself...
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