New Wild Horse Sanctuary

Madeleine Pickins is my new hero. By now, I'm sure you've heard that Madeleine Pickins has come to the rescue of the 33,000 wild mustangs who were threatened with euthanasia. She is planning on creating a horse sanctuary on a million acres, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island.

A horse breeder and philanthropist, she is also a true steward of the animals she loves. "Animals don't have a voice," she said. "As long as man is their protectorate, we have a responsibility to take care of them. We cannot abandon them."

Her track record speaks for itself. After Hurricane Katrina, Pickens chartered a cargo plane and rescued about 800 dogs and cats, most of which she helped get adopted. The plight of the wild mustangs spoke to her the same way.

"Our wild mustang must be our national treasure. We must not be slaughtering it," she said on ABC News. "The horses have no natural predator. The only predator is mankind, when we do the wrong thing."

Pickens plan to buy a million acres of land owned by the Bureau of Land Management for her horses to roam. This is the same land that the horses already share with cattle, but which the cattlemen claim is being grazed clean by the horses. "They can have their land and we'll have ours for our horses. . . That way, I can create a sanctuary and we can take in all the horses that are homeless so that no one will ever be turned away."

Pickens plans to open this sanctuary up to anyone who wants to see horses in the wild. She hopes to have it open within the next year and then let in RVs and eventually build log cabins and little hotels.

"I can't wait for the day that the first horse is turned loose and you'll just see him kick his heels up and gallop away with this herd together. It's going to be so beautiful."

Well said and well done, Ms. Pickens. If the horses had a voice, I know they would say, "Thank you."