Yet somehow, in spite of all the information available to the government (including Congress) about BLM's record of mismanagement and history of playing fast and loose with facts and information, the agency's budget was increased by 50% in 2001 and then another third in 2005 to pay for an aggressive program to remove wild horses from public lands. So if the people charged with protecting the horse population in the wild are being funded to remove the horses from the wild, it really makes you question the validity of the law that supposedly guarantees their safety.

Back in Blackjack Mountain, Oklahoma, concerned people have come together to form the Gilbert Jones Choctaw-Cherokee Conservancy and Historical Land Trust. The Trust's mmediate goal is to raise $450,000 to purchase the first 524 of the 2,500 acres they need to secure a permanent home for these last-of-their-kind horses. The goal is to preserve the original tribal strains of Choctaw and Cherokee horses, along with America's Spanish Colonial Mustangs, in viable and healthy wild herds for generations.

Return To Freedom, a 501c3 charitable organization, has joined forces with script writer John Fusco (Hidalgo, Spirit, Stallion Of The Cimarron, and the upcoming Forbidden Kingdom), the Rickman Family, and others in forming the trust. You can find out more about their efforts and what you can do to help by following the link above to the Return To Freedom web site.

In 1971, the single biggest letter campaign outside of protests against war forced Congress and Richard Nixon to enact the Wild Free-Roaming Horse and Burro Act to ensure the survival of America's wild horse population and preserve the strains that are unique to our continent. 36 years of mismanagement and conflict of interest have done nothing but reduce the population of horses in the wild by nearly 50%. That's not wildlife preservation in my book.

Unless otherwise stated, information in this article was provided by the The American Wild Horse Preservation Campaign web site.