Update on the Cumberland Island Wild Horses
It's been nearly ten months since the lawsuit against the National Park Service (NPS) began, which subsequently began my campaign to save Cumberland Island's Wild Horses. I launched a petition in April, which now has 1,800+ signatures. I began visiting the island regularly and recently released a document on my observations and research there. Visiting Cumberland Island gave me a fun opportunity to film episodes which I've posted on Mustang Mission's Patreon! I continue to learn so much about the horses and the beautiful island they inhabit. Over the past several months, I have communicated with the NPS. Currently, they cannot discuss the horses due to the litigation, but have been open to hearing about my research. I have also sent my research to the person over the lawsuit and asked if we could discuss the horses again (we had a long conversation in spring). I was told that there was no interest in speaking to me. One of the projects I've been worki...
Erin, congrats on your new mustang and your website! I have a question, why can't the horses just be released again? Why wouldn't someone like you just let them go in the wild again?
ReplyDeleteHi Libby! Thank you for your kind words.
ReplyDeleteMustangs can't be released back into the wild for a few reasons:
-It is illegal.
-The Bureau of Land Management has branded them so they could be identified as a captured mustang. If someone was to release their mustang back into the wild the BLM would see it and recapture it.
-When a stallion is removed from the wild, he is gelded immediately, which removes a lot of his natural behaviors that make a wild horse wild. The BLM has actually experimented (unfortunately) with capturing stallions, gelding them, and releasing them back into the wild and they often become "outcasts" in a way.
There are several mustang rescues that have a lot of private property and have started a sanctuary where captured mustangs can be released into large open spaces and live free. For example, Skydog Sanctuary in Oregon owns 9,000+ acres and has about 200 mustangs. Many mustangs are given the opportunity to live "wild" again on these private sanctuaries, but they cannot be released back onto their native rangelands.