The Pickens Horse Plan

Madeleine Pickens is a national treasure. Married to billionaire T. Boone, she just could sit back, help her husband disperse his capacious earnings, and live life as another indistinguishable wealthy socialite. Instead, she has taken up a cause not embraced by most philanthropists yet definitely in need of a financial angel.

Her most recent venture is to save some 30,000 wild mustangs and burros now living on federal land, with no promise from Uncle Sam that they may continue to do so. The Bureau of Land Management was on the verge of slaughtering 2,000 of the mustangs because they'd not been bought at auction and were too expensive to continue to feed.

Instead, Mrs. Pickens swooped in and is scouring the West for land to permanently house not only the at-risk mustangs, but some 30,000 horses and burros now living life (if you can call it that) on small mud patches otherwise known as federal holding pens.

Mrs. Pickens is already well known in the animal support world for her rescue of thoroughbreds, disposed as yesterday's garbage by the racing industry. She and her husband also moved mountains to rescue animals left behind by reluctant owners after Hurricane Katrina swept through and destroyed the Gulf Coast.

The Post also reports, "Lifelong animal lovers, the Pickenses just a few years ago led the fight to close the last horse slaughterhouse in the United States."

Bravo for Madeleine and T. Boone!

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