Gov't Is Mucking Up Mustang's Fate

The cash-strapped Bureau of Land Management is considering culling the wild horse population in the West, and at least one equine advocate is not pleased, Newsweek reports. In an interview, expert and author Deanne Stillman calls the plan to reduce the population of 30,000 wild and 33,000 corralled mustangs by more than half “shocking.”

“We're a country that was born in the hoof sparks of Paul Revere's famous ride on a horse,” Stillman says. “The horse is our great icon of freedom and the open road, and that's why our greatest road-trip car is the Mustang, with the galloping pony on the grille, and that's why we drape horses with flags on July 4th and ride them down Main Street.” The solution? "Ask Americans to donate," because "the wild horse is us." (More horse stories.)