Ideas and Anger Regarding America's Icons

Ideas and Anger Regarding America's Icons

Susan Allen
Susan Allen

 

In nearly every scenario the private sector is more successful than the government. Why would it be any different when it comes to managing the wild horse population? Welcome to Open Range, I’m Susan Allen back after the break. Like wolves, wild horses raise the hackles of many ranchers who regard them as competition for range land resources. Love them or hate them, the  Bureau of Land Management is in a no- win situation when it comes to the thirty four thousand mustangs running free or the forty thousand that live out a miserable existence in holding pens costing the fed $5.75 a day per horse.  If you could save $4.50 an animal simply by contracting out their care, plus  provide a happier home why not?  That’s’ Madeline Pickens viewpoint , a billionaire whose plan is to create a Mustang sanctuary on her newly acquired 14,000 acres ranch in Nevada. Ranchers in Nevada rightly oppose her proposal, fearing her buying clout will force them off land they’ve held for generations as she continues to acquire ranches to house wild horses (including more grazing rights)  that eventually could fence cattle off thousands of federal acres. Pickens is paying good money in a bad economy,  certainly  ranchers don’t have to sell, and hindering landowners right to profit would seem anti-American. Ted Turner met with the same objections while  building his buffalo dynasty on Montana ranch buying sprees. There’s no simple answer for the wild horse dilemma, but a wise man once reminded me that  "nothing’s  expensive if you’ve got the  money,"  Ms. Pickens does at that. 
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