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Finding Homes for Wild Horses in Wisconsin

ashva, Fotolia

There are a number of organizations and agencies in the Greater Milwaukee area that hope you might consider adopting a pet – a rescued dog, a stray cat maybe even a bunny that didn’t work out in a family home after Easter.  But there is a much larger ask that the federal Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, is making this weekend. 

The Bureau is responsible for thousands of wild horses that still exist in this country.  And every so often the BLM actively looks for homes for these animals in places like Mequon, where an adoption event is happening Friday and Saturday.

Martha Malik is public affairs specialist for the Northeastern States District of the federal Bureau of Land Management in Milwaukee. Malik explains that because wild horses have no predators and can double their size in four years, their population has increased. This increase in population has led to the the efforts of the federal Bureau of Land Management to find people in Wisconsin to adopt the horses.

The horses aren't wild like a moose or a mountain lion may be described as, they are descendants of once domesticated horses.

"They are still considered wild," Malik says. "They are descended from generations from horses that date back to the Civil War or horses that people let go on the ranges way back."