Madeleine Pickens at Mesa Vista, her Texas ranch, with three of her horses.
MUSTANG MADELEINE
SHE’S BRED THE BEST. She’s raced the best. Now Madeleine Pickens is becoming the voice for the animals that have played such a major part in her life: horses.
Over the past five years, wild mustangs roaming free on federal land in Nevada and other Western states have become a financial burden for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. Ranchers complain that the mustangs, protected by an act of Congress in 1971, compete with cattle for grazing space; every year the BLM rounds up and cares for thousands of them until they are adopted, which could cost the government more than $30 million this year alone. The agency’s proposed solution – to euthanize thousands of horses – was something that Pickens, wife of Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens and a passionate animal lover, couldn’t fathom.
“Here we have the sexiest heritage – the Old West, cowboys and Indians, wild horses,” Pickens says. “They are a national treasure. How do we just abandon them?”
So Pickens decided to put forth a solution of her own: a million-plus-acre sanctuary in the West, comprising both the current federal land and additional adjacent parcels to be bought, which would hold more than 30,000 mustangs in captivity. Not only would the horses be safeguarded, but the land could also serve as an eco-friendly park for visitors from around the world.
The tireless Pickens – who with her late first husband, Gulfstream founder Allen Paulson, owned and bred Thoroughbred champions, most notably Cigar – is now working with the BLM and has testified before Congress in an attempt to acquire the necessary land. (In March the bureau said her plan was not viable as proposed; Pickens is revisiting it.) She hopes to establish a non-profit foundation to manage the sanctuary, which she estimates could save taxpayers up to $700 million by 2020.
Pickens became aware of the mustangs’ plight soon after receiving an award for her animal-rescue work in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. T. Boone Pickens donated $7 million to the relief efforts; Madeleine chartered several commercial jets to Baton Rouge and with the help of volunteers, saved almost 800 cats and dogs. Every animal was vaccinated, and nearly all were eventually adopted.
“Someone approached me and asked if I knew what was happening to our wild mustangs,” Pickens says. “I was shocked. I couldn’t sleep at night. I knew I had to do something.” To learn more about how you can help, visit www.madeleinepickens.com .
- JACKIE BOLIN
