Ford to help wild horses

Jeff Donaldson

Wednesday, June 1, 2005 | 9:40 a.m.

More than 2,000 wild horses from Nevada's open ranges will be relocated to sanctuaries and Indian reservations in a new public-private partnership between Ford Motor Company and the Bureau of Land Management.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., unveiled the partnership Tuesday at a press conference at Oliver Ranch in Red Rock Canyon. Ford will spend "in the six figures" to transport horses to locations such as Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary outside Hot Springs, S.D.

The effort comes even as Reid came under fire in early May for supporting an amendment to wild horse laws advocated by Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., that allows the BLM to sell horses that are 10 years old or had not been taken in three rounds of adoption.

Reid has denied supporting the amendment, but he openly acknowledged Tuesday that current efforts to save the horses have fallen short.

"We've had tremendous problems with these horses. Some have starved to death, we've had too many on the ranges and some of the adoption programs haven't worked," Reid told reporters, along with BLM and Ford officials.

Ford Group Vice President Ziad Ojakli said his company already has paid to move nearly 50 horses to South Dakota after the BLM bought them from a slaughterhouse.

He said the company also has established a Save the Mustangs fund, which currently is comprised of donations from Ford's 300,000 employees. Their website, www.savethemustangs.org, already had 300,000 visitors between early May and the Memorial Day holiday, Ojakli said.

"The Mustang (car) has been our most successful automobile over the years so this is a way that we can pay something back, and maybe pay something forward, for saving these horses," Ojakli said.

Porter said the biggest challenge to saving the horses has been funding for the BLM, something he said would be aided by Ford's commitment. But he said he hoped other private businesses and agencies would get on the bandwagon.

"We have to find more incentives to encourage the adoption of wild horses in concert with what the BLM is doing," Porter said.

Reid has supported several bills and resolutions aimed at saving wild horses, but he said the biggest problem is money. Nevada has more than 50 percent of the country's wild horses, but Reid said the state gets very little of wild horse funding.

"We acknowledge that some things we tried have not borne fruit, but I'm glad we tried," Reid said.

House members in Washington voted last week to block a law that would have allowed the BLM to sell wild horses as part of an Interior Department spending bill.

Horses sold through the program had ended up at slaughterhouses, where the meat is sold abroad.

Porter and Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., did not vote last month to overturn the horse sale law. Both have said the horse sale law gives the BLM the increased ability to unload its inventory of aging, unwanted horses. But both say they oppose slaughter.

Since the Burns legislation went into effect late last year, the BLM had sold and delivered 992 horses and burros, with an additional 950 sold but not delivered.

But sales were halted between April 27 and May 19 as the BLM re-evaluated its sale rules after it was discovered that 41 BLM horses had been resold or traded -- and then slaughtered in an Illinois meat-packing plant.

The BLM resumed sales May 19 with new requirements in place. The agency's new bill of sale requires buyers to agree to not knowingly sell or trade horses to anyone who intends to resell, trade or give away horses for sale for slaughter.

BLM spokesman Tom Gorey on Tuesday said he did not know if any sales had been made since May 19 under the new rules.