Ford Motor Co. Vows Aid for Wild Mustangs - Yahoo! News
Big company does good. Even if it is for advertising purposes.

LAS VEGAS - Citing the mustang as a "great symbol for our company," the Ford Motor Co. pledged money Tuesday to help find new homes for wild horses rounded up on federal rangeland in the West.

"It just seemed like the natural thing to do," Ziad Ojakli, a Ford vice president, said at a ranch outside Las Vegas where he and federal officials trumpeted the Bureau of Land Management's "Save the Mustangs" campaign.

Ford introduced the Mustang line in 1964, selling some 8.5 million of the cars since then.

Its mustang relocation plan was spurred by the April slaughter of 41 horses at an Illinois meatpacking plant after the horses were rounded up and sold by the BLM under sale authority Congress approved in December.

Ford stepped in and spent about $20,000 to buy 52 additional horses. Ojakli said the company will now underwrite transportation of the horses to new homes.

The auto company is promising to pay the cost of shipping to nonprofit groups and Indian tribes for up to 2,000 of the 8,000 wild horses awaiting sale under newly adopted safeguards.

Buyers now must sign a statement saying they have no intention of reselling the horses for slaughter.

I'm still angry that Congress removed the protections in the first place, but glad to see Ford step up and help out.