What's Next for the Wild Horses?

So here's another subject that gets me riled up. I'll try to keep this post less rant-ish than the thoughts running through my head right now.

Story

Wild horses are an icon of America. They're wild and free. Those of you that argue that being trapped in a pen is better than starving to death, please give me evidence that these horses really are starving to death and then I might listen to you.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated the cost of the House action at up to $500 million. The agency said the cost of enacting all of the programs in the bill would be about $200 million over the next five years, if the Senate goes along with the plan.

$700 million is nothing compared to the billion and trillion dollar plans I've been hearing about lately. Anyone wanna tell me how those are working out?

Some ranchers, American Indian groups and Western lawmakers -- including Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. -- want to reverse a decades-old ban on selling horses for slaughter. Such killing would be done humanely under federal guidelines, but Salazar -- who has heard plenty about wild horses in his few months on the job -- said the idea is a "nonstarter."

Uh, NO. Ya'll know already how I feel about slaughter in general. Learn to share the land. The horses have been there longer than the ranchers and from my knowledge, American Indians have managed to live beside mustangs for generations.

But adoption numbers have dwindled dramatically in the past few years, and now there are nearly 37,000 wild horses and burros roaming the West.

I wonder why. The adoption guidelines are...difficult for most people to achieve. How many people can afford another horse right now and want to have one? How many of those people can provide the care and training a mustang requires? How many of them have property of their own? Now how many have a six-foot fence on said property and everything else that's required? I understand why there have to be requirements, but...

The BLM estimates the current rangeland can support about only 26,600 of the animals.

Anyone know how they come up with these numbers? Can I get a second independent opinion?

I'll accept most of Salazar's plan. It seems to be ambitious, but how are they going to get the horses from the rangeland to a preserve in the East?