Photo: Mustang Family, by Cindy Bennett

...are in danger. I've signed petitions recently, sent letters to Cali U.S. senators protesting Bureau of Land Management plans to kill wild mustangs that have been penned (around 30,000) because the U.S. doesn't want to pay for their feed. I have received form-emails assuring me that Boxer and Feinstein do not want the horses killed either. Meanwhile, the penned population is in flux, and herds of mustangs who run free are in danger of being rounded up.

The author Deanne Stillman, who writes for LAObserved, recently published Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West.

And my friend Cindy Bennett, a Wyoming native, is doing her part. She has been photographing wild mustangs for years. Cindy will show some of her mustang series images at North Hill Exhibitions, opening reception Saturday in Chinatown. Ten percent of the proceeds will benefit a mustangs-welfare organization.

From Cindy's exhibition statement:

The Shoshone, the Crow, the Sioux, and early pioneers all rode them. Now periodic round-ups collect and sell the mustangs to individuals, rodeos, prisons and even foreign food markets.

Ten percent of the artist’s proceeds from the sale of this series will be donated to Friends of a Legacy, www.friendsofalegacy.org to help preserve the McCullough Peaks Mustangs. FOAL specifically works to preserve healthy mustangs and a healthy McCullough Peaks habitat. For additional information about the McCullough Peaks Wildlife Area and other endangered wildlife and habitats in Wyoming visit www.voiceforthewild.org and www.wildwyo.org.

More pretty horses, and event info, after the jump.