Over 100 Wild Horses from Devil’s Garden Have Been Placed into Permanent Homes

It was a controversial move to begin rounding up the beautiful wild horses of Devil’s Garden in Modoc County. While the exploding population of the horses had a negative effect on the area’s ecosystem, many believed the horses could eventually end up in the glue factory.

Now, following a second round up of wild horses in September of 2019, over 100 of the horses have been adopted to permanent homes. The Double Devil Wild Horse Corral took to social media to celebrate the achievement:

The adoptions are seen as a major accomplishment for the round up initiative, which was deemed controversial since the fate of the round-up horses was up in the air.

Prior to the initial roundup, nearly 4,000 wild horses roamed the land of 250,000 acres at the northeast corner of the state, a number much too large for the area with limited food and water.

“Our territory is supposed to have 206 to 402 animals, we have almost 4,000 horses,” Modoc National Forest Supervisor Amanda McAdams said in a statement. â€œIt sounds like a lot of acres for 4,000 horses, but there’s not a lot of vegetation and not a lot of water.”

There’s controversy surrounding the horse gather as animal rights activists wonder what they’ll do with the horses once they’re captured. The American Wild Horse Campaign is concerned that although the horses will be put up for adoption, a legal loophole will allow slaughterhouses to get their hands on the animals.

There is no scientific basis for the claim that 500 square-mile habitat can only support 400 wild horses. It’s simply false,” said Kuhn. “The only reason the USFS is claiming that is because they’re forcing federally-protected wild horses to compete with 8,000 privately-owned cattle and sheep. They are treating our public lands like a private feedlot for subsided ranchers.”

In 1998, Proposition 6 was passed in California, making it a felony to sell horses to a slaughterhouse.