Frank Lewis | Daily Times
Prospective adopters look over the wild horses being adopted out Saturday morning at the Ohio Horse Park in Franklin Furnace. The Bureau of Land Management brings horses from rangeland out west to have them adopted into a good home.
FRANK LEWIS
PDT Staff Writer
The Bureau of Land Management of the U.S. Department of the Interior brought wild horses and burros to the Ohio Horse Park in Franklin Furnace Saturday morning to help get them adopted by area residents.
“Today we have some wild horses that we had to take off the range, because the numbers have to be controlled so they don’t overgraze,” Gabrielle Thompson of the BLM said. “And those are available for adoption to good homes. Adopters can come and fill out an application. They have to have proper facilities to hold animals. Since they are wild, they need some stout corrals and good shelter.
Thompson said if those wishing to adopt a wild horse or burro are approved, they can adopt an animal on a first-come-first-served basis.
“Wild horses range in 11 western states on public lands,” Thompson said. “The Bureau of Land Management is in charge of managing the herds in the wild.”
Steve Meyer, the Supervisory Wild Horse Advisory Specialist for BLM, said the agency’s goal is to ensure that the horses are taken care of in a proper manner.
“It’s wild horses that we gather out of the ranges out west,” Meyer said. “We try to do the best we can for the animals. Basically, the only thing that we can do with them is to house them indefinitely, or find adopters to adopt them and take them home and give them good homes, train them and use them as a domestic horse.”
The adoption fee is $125 for animals younger than three, and $25 for animals three years and older. Adopters can take home a buddy animal for $25 when adopting any animal at the full fee of $125.
Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com
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