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The Mustang Page | |
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FRESH START HOME
AMERICA'S MUSTANGS
MUSTANG LINKS RELEVANT
ARTICLES
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America's Mustangs in Danger Recently the Bureau of Land Management announced that the mustang budget is overrun. They are spending far more to keep the "unadoptable" mustangs in long-term and short-term holding facilities than they are to maintain the free-roaming wild horse herds. Citing rising costs of fuel and feed as the reason, they plan to take drastic action. They have presented you, the taxpayer, with their idea of the options. 1. Sell the excess horses without limitation to whoever will buy them 2. Euthanize the excess horses Not only is the idea of destroying these symbols of our American heritage unbelievably sad, but it will cost the BLM lots more money to euthanize the unadopted horses, and it won't be pretty, no matter what method they use. No "chicken soup" stories are going to come out of this epic disaster. Sale without limitation, on the other hand, will cost the BLM far less. They might even recoup some dough. And since "without limitation" means exactly that, there will be room for the wildest hearts, the most beautiful tempers, and the most indomitable spirits in the slaughter caravan. Before the U.S. slaughter facilities closed, the BLM did make some attempt (or lip service thereto, at least) to restrict the possibility that America's mustangs would end up in them. However, there is no law to protect the mustangs from slaughter and hasn't been since 2004. The BLM needs your help to come up with creative, non-Armageddon-style solutions to the problem. They've worked hard for many years to preserve America's heritage in the mustangs, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. Even though some disagree with the way BLM has/is handling things, be assured they aren't keen on killing these horses. How could they be? They have a feedback form for your ideas, so please use it. Write to your Congressional representatives too. Help is springing up everywhere. The BLM has asked ranchers and landowners to donate new pasture facilities for long-term support of the excess mustangs. Now let's all think about it. Anyone who has the facility to do so should seriously consider adopting a mustang, but please, do it considering it to be the lifetime commitment that it is. On the BLM web site you can find out how to donate to the mustangs. Be sure to check out the petition at American Wild Horse Preservation. Look out for grassroots programs sprouting up in support of the mustangs. Ideas we have heard of so far: It has been suggested that there should be a place on the tax return to give a portion of your refund to the mustangs. It has also been suggested that the livestock grazers, who use public lands and are a large, vocal part of the reason the mustangs are in this trouble, be taxed on their use of YOUR PUBLIC LANDS, a new, special tax or use fee specifically for funding the mustangs, whose resources their livestock consume. It has also been suggested that funding and running the wild horse and burro program be moved out of the purview of the BLM and into the hands of the private sector and regional nonprofits located where the animals are. Pick one of these ideas or make up your own, and HELP SAVE THE MUSTANGS! The Mustangs of Fresh Start Horse Rescue Fresh Start Horse Rescue has been saving mustangs since its inception in 2005. Fresh Start is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located near the Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area in Colorado. Currently, six mustangs reside at Fresh Start - three from Spring Creek Basin, one from Utah, and one from California. All are adoptable, but none are in danger of slaughter or euthanasia. They are safe here and they know it, too. Our primary challenge with them is that we don't have time to do everything, and to be trained to be useful they require more consistent quality time than we have to give them as individuals. We are looking for an individual or two who use natural horsemanship methods to train wild horses and would be willing to share some of their time with these mustangs, who are hungry to learn.
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Shadowfire,
called 'Cookies 'n' Cream Oreo Angel Food Cake' when her feet are
being worked on, is a 2005 black and white pinto from
Spring Creek Basin. She has
a flashy striped mane and is halter broke. Her biggest problem when she came to us was
that her feet were so long they looked like ski jumps, and she was
obese. She's not obese now, but definitely what you'd call an easy
keeper! It took her less than three seconds to figure out the
significance of a human holding a red Folger's coffee can. Her owners
said they'd never handled her, but we had her haltered in fifteen
minutes and her feet trimmed the day we got her. So, they must have
been kind to her. She's one of the most curious horses I've ever met,
and has a very gentle, quiet temperament. She was "dropped on our doorstep" too, in
a manner of speaking. We received a phone call one day, that this
horse had gotten brand inspected and signed over to the horse rescue
and when can you come pick her up. [!] Well, we don't encourage this
sort of thing, but . . . what'a ya gonna do. She is in ground
training.
