For years, Madeleine Pickens has been working tirelessly for wild horses. After the Bureau of Land Management announced in 2008 that the United States government was considering euthanasia and/or selling more than 30,000 wild mustangs to slaughterhouses overseas, Madeleine Pickens announced plans to develop a one million acre sanctuary for the horses.

Madeleine Pickens has purchased a 14,000-acre ranch about 70 miles east of Elko, Nevada. She is currently working with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management on a pilot program that would allow 1,000 mustangs now in short-term government-funded facilities to be sent to her Mustang Monument preserve.