I think we should all go back to riding horses and save a bunch a gas......

Horeses and dogs, two of Gods greatest gifts to mankind!

I have 45 acre's in Pershing County Northern Nevada, the Wild horses are on my vacant clear property and i love them!!!!!!!!

I would like to owe one or two i have a nice place for them.

Have they even tried gelding the studs? Wouldnt that at least slow down the over population?

T. Boone Pickens does a lot for Oklahoma and gives a lot of money to the colleges, etc and his wife has already bought land and spend 12 to 13 million in the past year trying to save the horses. They are super rich but also have a giving heart.

well stop building, the horses as well as other animals have the right to run free

how can someone say they need to start killing wild horses because their are to many....well what about humans? i think we have to many humans on this planet...

There is 100,000 more just waiting for your kindness. If the adoption process worked there would not be a problem...

The comment about it being "federal land" and how much the horses cost taxpayers caught my attention yet again. How much do the ranchers, in any state not just Nevada, pay for leasing this federal land. The land is owned by the federal taxpayers and yet I continue to hear ranchers talk about "their land". How much money could be raised for the horses if the ranchers paid a fair price for leasing federal land? This fight involves the horses now in Nevada but historically, the ranching industry appears to repeatedly have problems with the wild populations utilizing "their" federal land. It's the buffalo, elk, horses, wolves, prairie dogs and I'm sure the list is much longer and will continue to grow and change. The largest issue appears to be a select group of people wanting to keep their federally subsidized property to themselves.

I've been following this issue for a long time. She is right about the ranchers "hating" the horses. It's a stigma that's existed for a long time and it's ridiculous. The BLM is in the back pocket of the ranchers and therefore they do what the ranchers want. BLM is run by a bunch of crooks and they torture these horses. They have helicopter round-ups in the middle of July and run these horses to the point most of them die from exhaustion and heat stroke. The fact is that cows are more detrimental to the grazing land than the horses. Horses migrate around and graze the land equally. Cows will stay in one place and completely eat everything in sight before they move on. If you have followed Ginger Kathrens of The Cloud Foundation and her videos, you will see the cruelty that the BLM puts on these horses. It's so very sad. Many times Ginger got kicked out when videoing the round-ups (after the BLM said she could film) b/c they don't want anyone to see what they are doing. The truth is that the BLM and the ranchers just want ALL the horses gone, period. They will not stop until they have reached that goal.

I've lived in Northern Nevada my entire life. I'm a 4th generation farmer and rancher. I don't normally get involved in these types of discussions, but feel that I should. We have lived on the same piece of dirt for 45 years, and we own it fair and legal. Yes we own cattle ( a laughable herd ) and 4 horses. They're in my back yard on my property. All of the comments posted here are done well within the rights of those that posted them, but a few are misinformed. I was told once that if you want someone to understand agriculture, you should leave out the all specifics and explain it without agriculture-related words. Which, makes it impossible to do. Ranching is not a way to make a living, it is a way of life. Here goes..
I must point out that Nevada is an open range state, meaning livestock can go anywhere on their grazing allotment that is not fenced. Ranchers must pay the government "rent" to run their stock on BLM lands. AUM's (animal unit/ month, look it up ) are the rates used to configure the dollar amount owed. In order to do this, the AUM's must be tied to private land in the grazing allotment that meets specific requirements ( access to water, etc,). My family has no eligible private land, and so we must lease pasture. Anyone who is paying attention knows that land ain't cheap !! Most ranchers pay to have cattle out from the last part of May, until about the end of September, and then gather and move their stock onto their lands. We have an irrigated alfalfa pivot ( think big green circle ). We cut and harvest the alfalfa to feed our cattle and horses for the rest of the winter until turnout. Now, there are some things that a horse can eat but a cow cannot. Cattle have no upper front teeth, and therefore cannot eat as close to the ground as a horse. A horse has front teeth that extend out slightly, allowing them to crop closer to the base of a plant. With management, cattle and horses can eat in the same area without problems.
If there is some "kick back money" going to all those "good ole boys", I haven't seen a nickle.Next, I hade ever attended a BLM horse gather, nor do care to. My first horse as a child was a wild. Many years ago, it was still legal to gather horses for your own purposes. That's how most of the ranchers around here acquired their saddle horses. From what I've been told, only one horse ever died from a ranch round up: an aged stud that was ill. I am softhearted,and catch a lot of heat from my peers for it, and I believe that animals are our responsibility. I don't like the idea of mindless slaughter or confinement with no rotation plan or appropriate means to sustain. I have the utmost respect for Ms. Pickens, but she could have come up with a better way. I live within driving distance from her sanctuary, and it isn't pretty. We are in the middle of a very dry winter, and that only makes what I see more disturbing. This has gone a bit long, so I'll go ahead and shut up now. Some of you really need to do some more research.

Dr. Jay F. Kirkpatrick, a world-renowned scientist has studied wild horses for over thirty years and is the leading authority. For those of you who are interested in learning the facts, I suggest reading his book "Into the Wind: Wild Horses of North America." The problem is not overpopulation, it is reproduction. Culling wild horses, through either lethal or nonlethal means, actually increases their rate of reproduction through a process known as compensatory reproduction in which remaining horses breed at younger ages. Worse, years of culling Mustangs have severely weakened the gene pool. In fact, there are more wild horses now in confinement than in the wild. Thirty years ago he helped developed a vaccine known as PZP that makes mammals immune to their own eggs that was 95% effective and completely reversible. It is inexpensive, does not pass through the food chain (since it is a protein), and does not affect complex social behavior. PZP has a long safety record in a vast number of mammals and is used to control urban deer population. The dose cost about $23 and the dart cost $2. A March 2004 USGS study found that $7.7 million could be saved annually through the use of contraceptive measures. Dr. Kirkpatrick and colleagues successfully used PZP to treat the wild horses of Assateague 20 years ago. The result was a much healthier herd with a longer life expectancy.

Slaughter is NOT the answer!! If your going to run a sanctuary, then it is fair to geld the stallions to limit the population, so that you don't over populate. And if you wish, if your herd is to big, wouldn't it be fair to have your own personal auction to the public to allow others a chance at owning a wild one too. I love the wild horses and my husband and i thought about making our own sanctuary, but we don't have enough property. I own horses myself and i'm totally against re-opening the slaughter houses for european meat processing. Just the thought of that is gut wrenching.

Npthing more exciting then seeing horses in the wild. Something that shows the west as sit once was with free animals. Really majestic to see!

How about birth control for the mares, they do this with the assateague ponies to contol over population..It's given as a shot and it prevents the mares from reproducing..Question?, Do the ranchers pay to have their cattle graze on the federal land? If they do that's one thing, but if it's common ground, then the horses have every right to live there too.. The cattle farmers are generating an income from the sale of their cattle and I'm sure some of these ranchers are govt. subsidised. Reopening the slaughter houses is not an entirely bad idea, but it should be limited to horses that are hurt, and or sickly or diseased, and all this should be done in the most humane way possible not by cramming them in trailers and corrals where they may be further injured on there way to their maker.. As a horse owner myself and the economy in shambles, the closing of these slaughter houses has caused a great increase of neglect by other horse owners. Lack of income and nowhere to take horses that unfortunately have no future has resulted in an uncreased amount of malnurishment, and owners just setting their horses free bbecause thay have no outlet that the slaughterhouses gave them..For instance, if you have a hurt or sickly horse and you have noway to care for them either because you have no $$ or perhaps the animal needs to be put down, the slaughter houses were an outlet. It's illegal to bury on your own land and it's very expensive to pay for removal, so you end up with an epidemic of neglect..I'm all for saving the wild wild west, let's keep trying to adopt them out and limit births, we can all live happilly ever after!

Is there another way to control the population? Sure! But the cattle ranchers won't like it either: bring back the predator populations.
I noticed they didn't ask the ranchers how many cattle the have. The question is how to sustain wild horses on public lands. But no one has asked the ranchers to: #1. Get their cows off public land and #2. Exactly how many cows do they have grazing on that land. The ranchers seem very knowledgeable on the wild life population but they won't voullenteer how many cows they have. I used to raise cows and when the herd exceeded the limits of my property I didn't move them to public land I just sold enough to keep the herd balanced. Why can't they do that with their cows?

Americans are too greedy!!!.......Leave the wild Horses alone......Don't use frderal land for grazing cattle......Let the ranchers buy their own land.......

I support the horses!!! Nevada needs to do what is right for these fantastic animals!

We should all (well, most of us on this comments board) contact Mrs. Pickens and thank her and offer her any petitions or help she needs.