Madeline Pickens

News Report - Madeleine Pickens - T. Boone Pickens

Madeleine Pickens, the wife of oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens, has proposed to acquire 1 million western acres to establish a refuge for wild horses after the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said it needs to euthanize several thousand wild horses that it can no longer afford to keep on the open range or in pens.[Feedstuffs]

About 33,000 wild horses and burros roam the open range in 10 Western states, half of those in Nevada. The BLM wants the population to be about 27,000, to protect the herd, the range and other foraging animals.[Los Angeles Times]

Paralleling her husband T. Boone Pickens’ alternative-energy plan of last summer, Madeleine Pickens’ intervention initially has met with wide praise from animal activists and environmentalists. The Pickens’ adoption plan would avoid euthanizing thousands of the horses, which some say have come to represent the wild spirit of the American West.[The Colorado Independent]

Above all, Madeleine Pickens, wife of oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, is an animal lover. As a horse breeder and a philanthropist, she has always considered that people must be responsible for the care of animals.[ABC News]