"Pickens says.... she wants the federal government to pay her about $15 million a year to care for the horses she would take off its hands"
Where is YOUR BAILOUT, American?
Btw, I'm all for taking care of the horses because that is MILLIONS being spent. I think we can find that if we END the TRILLION DOLLAR LOOTINGS of WARS and BANK BAILOUTS!!!!
"Recession reins in equine sanctuary; Pickens's plan to care for horses faces obstacles" by Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post | March 8, 2009
WASHINGTON - The gauzy dream of Madeleine Pickens, the wife of billionaire T. Boone Pickens, to save thousands of wild horses from government slaughter and turn them free in an "ecosanctuary" is crashing against the reality of bureaucracy and recession.
When Pickens offered in November to rescue more than 30,000 wild mustangs and burros in federal holding pens and move them to a permanent retirement ranch open to the public, she spoke of saving tax dollars by setting up a private foundation to care for the animals.
Related: Bush Hates Horses
Now, as the economy worsens by the week, Pickens says philanthropic donations are as dry as tumbleweed, and she wants the federal government to pay her about $15 million a year to care for the horses she would take off its hands.
Not really taking them off our (taxpayer = government in this case) hands, are you?
"Let me tell you this, seriously, you know, we're having a horrible financial crisis and it has hurt everybody," Pickens testified before a House Natural Resources subcommittee last week. "There isn't one person I can go to now to ask them to contribute to the foundation. I mean, before, I had so many friends I could go to."
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Officials with the Bureau of Land Management initially embraced Pickens as a savior. They have been struggling with the growing financial and political headache of caring for the wild horses and burros that roam federal lands in 10 Western states. The horses, which date back to the time of the Spanish conquistadors, compete for food with cattle owned by ranchers who lease grazing rights on the land from the government.
Officials say the range can handle about 27,000 horses. The excess animals are rounded up and put into holding facilities to await adoption. In recent years, the government has shrunk the open space available to the horses by about 19 million acres, resulting in more roundups. But adoptions have slowed in the past five years and the cost of caring for the horses has grown sharply, decimating the bureau's budget and creating what the Government Accountability Office calls a crisis.
The government is caring for about as many horses in holding facilities as the 33,000 that roam wild. This year, the bureau expects to spend about $10.3 million on horses in long-term holding facilities and $22.6 million on horses in short-term corrals. The problem has grown so extreme, bureau officials have reluctantly begun to consider a legal but controversial solution: euthanasia.
That is OUR ANSWER to EVERYTHING, isn't it? KILL IT!!!
Pickens says she wants to adopt all wild horses and burros being held in federal pens, sterilize them, and turn them loose on her retirement ranch. Initially, Pickens said she would need federal tax credits to attract donors. Ron Wenker, the Nevada state director for the Bureau of Land Management, said the money Pickens is seeking - $500 per horse per year - is about the same amount the government pays private ranchers who host wild horses long term on their pastures under federal contracts.
She says her plan is stalling because the bureaucracy cannot respond to an innovative solution.
"They say, 'Oh, she wants taxpayers' money,' " Pickens said. "No, I'm trying to save taxpayer money. They have more horses in holding than they do on the range. That's not good for the horses, and that's not good for the taxpayers." --more--"By having us give you some?
