lands is not the only place you will find American mustangs.  Back in the 1800's there were 2 million of our sturdy little steeds roaming freely across the western states.   Today, there are less than 30,000 that remain in the wild. 

There are wild mustangs that live on lands not managed by the BLM, such as private property owned by individuals or corporations, but yet undeveloped.  The horses merely graze where they can and do not know where the boundaries lie.  Many of our wild mustangs also live on Native American reservations owned by various tribes.  The horses, in many cases, were there before the reservation was assigned to the tribes.   This is the case of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, originally a nomadic tribe that became cattle ranchers and farmers when their new lifestyle was handed to them along with their property lines in 1936.

One of the biggest reasons that wild horses are being removed from our public and/or private lands is because cattle ranchers consider them competition for the forage that their cattle consume, even though cattle out number horses exponentially across the U.S., something like 1000 to 1.  It is an age old feud, and like the Hatfields vs the McCoys, it will never be resolved.

 On a recent census the Paiute Tribe counted 1800 horses on their 475,000 acre reservation (115,000 being a lake).  As you might expect, being cattle ranchers they wanted to remove a large number of those horses giving way for more cattle to graze on their land.  So a grant was found to pay for the current aerial round up.  The goal -  to remove half of the wild horses on the reservation. 

The typical market for these reservation mustangs is the meat market.  The horses are gathered and trucked to the local livestock auction in Fallon, Nevada.  Three hundred horses were sold on December 4th, 2010 and another 300 on December 18th.   Most of these horses were purchased by the slaughterhouse buyers, except for 96 mares and foals on the 4th that were purchased by Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue in order to spare them from the gruesome fate.  And, another lucky bunch of 235 stallions and pregnant mares were saved in the 11th hour by "Saving America's Mustangs", a nonprofit organization founded and directed by Madeleine Pickens.  

The story is not over.  The tribe continues their round up plan in order to meet the quota of 900 horses removed in total.   56 foals that were being held and pending sale to the killers have been rescued by Lifesavers, these are all foals weaned from their mares. 

Our challenge now is how to feed and care for all of these rescued mustangs being held at a temporary stockyard in Fallon Nevada pending homes and sanctuaries where they can live the rest of their lives.   At a rate of $250 per every ton of hay we will need to raise more than $36,000 each month just to feed all of our rescued horses.  I don't even know if this is possible.  But we have no choice.  It was either bring them to the stock yard for safe keeping or watch them be driven down the highway to hell and be brutally tortured and bled out hanging from one back leg before being processed into meat at the slaughter house eventually landing on some plate in France or Belgium or Japan as a grilled delicacy.

I know you would not want that for any horse, especially these 56 babies that we just brought in. 

I'll be honest with you.  I had not intended on bringing them to the Fallon yard without having the funds to feed them first.  I've been trying to find major donors to foot the bill for these little horses but time ran out.  We had to act on the situation or let them go to their death.  My decision was to act and now I must pray for enough to cover the expenses.  I trust you will help us!

Lifesavers has taken a huge leap of faith.  We have put all our faith in our supporters.  We believe…I believe that you will not let us fail.  You will not let our horses go hungry.  These are the lives that you helped us save, and these are the lives that will depend on your continued support.

Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue now has 600 horses under our care.  This is not something we planned for, therefore the extra mouths to feed don’t fall neatly into our budget.   But, with your compassionate giving the lives you have saved so far will remain in good hands and in good health.

Thank you, Jill Starr, President,  Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue

 

 

Dec. , 2010

www.wildhorserescue.org/56foals.htm