Pickens Plans to Overstock Horse Ranch

Pickens named Horsewoman of the Year


Herald-Leader Staff Report

Anti-horse slaughter activist Madeleine Pickens was named "Horsewoman of the Year" by the Humane Society of the United States at the annual Sound Horse Conference in Louisville on Friday.

Pickens, who also raced Thoroughbreds with her late husband, Allen Paulson, was given the honor for her efforts to establish a sanctuary for wild horses.

Pickens, who is married to oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, last month bought a 14,000-acre ranch in Nevada to take in thousands of wild horses that have been removed from public lands by the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM is reviewing the proposal for the Mustang Monument preserve.

Madeleine Pickens "is one of those rare individuals who puts her passion, time and money where her heart is," Wayne Pacelle, Humane Society president and CEO, said in announcing the honor   Link

If Pickens is truly planning on putting thousands of horses on her newly acquired ranch then she and Wayne Pacelle both have a few things to learn about range management.  Doing that would put a quick end to her ranch and it’s ability to be grazed.  This ranch could probably support a few hundred horses but certainly not “thousands”.  These are generally the types of things that people who are unfamiliar with livestock overlook.  It will be interesting to see how many she does put out there and if she’s really willing to buy never-ending supplies of hay to feed that many.  Hopefully the ignorance of Pickens and the HSUS won't result in the destruction of this rangeland. 

El Paso Corp Helping End Public Grazing

El Paso cuts deal with Western Watersheds

ADELLA HARDING Free Press Staff Writer
Posted: Friday, July 16, 2010 11:11 pm

ELKO — El Paso Corp. has reached a precedent-setting, $20 million arrangement for habitat protection with two environmental organizations that protested the company’s planned Ruby Pipeline that will extend from Wyoming to Oregon.

The company will set up conservation funds with the Western Watersheds Project and the Oregon Natural Desert Association, and the organizations in turn are dropping objections to the natural gas pipeline.

“It’s something we didn’t have to do. We chose to do it,” El Paso spokesman Richard Wheatley said Friday. “The bottom line is we think it’s a preferable approach than being involved in litigation.”

Establishment of the funds also is in line with the company’s outreach efforts to be good stewards of the land, he said.

“There is the potential to do really good work,” Wheatley said.

“We agreed not to try to delay or litigate Ruby Pipeline,” confirmed Western Watersheds Project Executive Director Jon Marvel.

He said El Paso will set up a $15 million conservation fund for Idaho-based Western Watersheds and a $5 million fund with the Oregon organization.

“The money also can be used to purchase private property or conservation easements, but our priority is grazing permits,” he said. “It’s time to end public lands grazing.”    Read More

After learning more about this deal yesterday it becomes a very scary thing. Basically El Paso bribed their opposition to the pipeline with $20 million dollars so they could go after ranchers rather than the energy company. Also keep in mind that most of the pipeline in question is going through ranchland with the permission of the very ranchers who could now be put out of business. This just goes to show that neither El Paso or Western Watersheds have anyone with principals involved in their groups. Ending public grazing will negatively affect the rangeland that has been meticulously cared for by generations of ranching families. Stay tuned to this story because I’m not convinced it’s over yet.

NV Feral Horse Roundup Lawsuit Dismissed

Federal judge dismisses Nevada horse roundup suit
Associated Press
Monday, May 24, 2010 4:53 p.m.

A federal judge Monday officially dismissed a lawsuit brought by animal rights activists over a big wild horse roundup in northern Nevada, saying the case was moot and plaintiffs lacked standing.

U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman in Washington, D.C., who in December denied an injunction to prevent the roundup, said the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has already gathered 1,922 horses from the Calico Mountains Complex north of Reno, therefore challenging the use of helicopters was moot.

The group In Defense of Animals, wildlife ecologist Craig Downer and children's author Terri Farley also claimed in their suit that shipping horses removed from the range to long-term holding corrals in the Midwest is not permitted under the Wild Horse and Burro Act.

But Friedman said the plaintiffs failed to show how sending the horses to other facilities would cause harm to themselves. Read More

Here’s an update on the lawsuit that was attempting to stop BLM from being able to manage the feral horse population in Nevada. Feral horse numbers are greatly exceeding the capacity of the rangeland to accommodate them. Nobody wants to completely eliminate them, however, like all animal species their population needs to be managed. If we don’t do it then disease or starvation will do it for us. ~Troy

Feral Horses Damaging Rangelands

December 26, 2009
Ranchers, activists at odds over mustang roundup
By Frank X. Mullen Jr.
fmullen@rgj.com
RGJ.com


Bob Depauli, whose family has been ranching in Nevada for four generations, remembers a wild horse he saw in the Nevada desert one drought-parched year in the late 1970s.

“The herds were really poor that year, starved,” he said. “I saw (a mustang carcass) whose two hind legs had quit working and it had use of only its forelegs. It had walked in circles and dug a hole in the ground with its hindquarters.”

It dug its own grave.

Depauli runs cattle on federal allotments, including one about 30 miles north of Gerlach in the area where the federal government plans to start Monday rounding up 2,500 wild horses of the more than 3,000 in the area.

The government says the roundup is necessary to check overpopulation. Opponents say the land mangers exaggerate the number of mustangs and the damage they do to the range and that gathering horses using helicopters traumatizes, injures or kills the animals.

About 32,000 wild horses are in government holding pens waiting for adoptions that, for most, will never come. Range managers plan to remove another 10,000 from ranges in Nevada and elsewhere in the West next year.

The government, Depauli and others see the wild horse gathers as necessary to ensure the health of the rangeland, water supplies and native species. Opponents say the horses are a symbol of America and are being swept aside for the benefit of cattlemen like Depauli.

“I’m basing my position on years of experience,” said Depauli, who runs about 300 head a year.

“I’m in business to stay in business, not to overgraze. I move my cattle around. Horses stay in the same areas 24, seven, 365 days a year. Right now, we’ve got four to five times the number of wild horses that the land can support. Cattle are manageable. We need to manage the horses, too.

“Overpopulation of horses impacts everything: cows, wildlife, the horses themselves, everything. If this continues, we’ll all be in a mess.” Read More

The destruction being caused by the overpopulation of feral horses is significant to say the least. It’s interesting that they debate turns basically turns into those who are stewards of the rangeland versus those who want an unchecked population of horses. When activists do simple comparisons of the numbers of cattle versus horses and use that as their reasoning to stop the roundups, they show their ignorance of the issue. There is so much more to the issue. Ranchers spend a lifetime caring for the land, it’s unfortunate that more people don’t care as much.

Barbi Twins Talk About Feral Horse Issue

The Barbi Twins speak out against BLM wild horse roundup
December 5, 11:53 PM Animal Welfare Examiner Reedu Taha

The Barbi Twins are joining others such as Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson, in calling on the federal government to halt roundups of wild horses in the West, insisting they are cruel and unnecessary.

The identical twin models turned animal rights activists have asked President Barack Obama and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to permanently stop the roundup of over 2,500 wild horses in northwestern Nevada.

“We grew up on a ranch with thoroughbred horses that we raised, and before we rose to fame in the 90’s, we used to train horses and teach riding at Malibu Riding Club,” said Shane and Sia Barbi, talking about their infinite love for the animal. “Horses have been native to the wild west for 10,000 years. It is so important that people be proactive and call the Interior State Department and tell them we want the land back for what it was intended for, the wild horses.”

According to In Defense of Animals, a non-profit animal rights organization founded by a veterinarian, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the government agency within the Department of the Interior responsible for administering and enforcing the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act of 1971. Read More

It seems as though the Barbi twins are a little confused about the story they are trying to tell here. The horses we are dealing with are not wild horses, they are feral horses. Horses did not exist here until humans brought them. Anytime you hear the term “wild horses” that is an incorrect description. The idea that we can just leave these feral horses alone and everything will be fine is naïve at best. Their populations are way too high for their environment. Either we will be seeing thousands of starving horses very soon, or a massive disease will knock the population way down. That is how Mother Nature will manage them if we don’t.