Nevada industrial park developer says horses should stay

RENO, NEV.» The head of the largest industrial park in the world emphasized economic over emotional arguments Monday in urging Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval to reverse plans to transfer state ownership of nearly 3,000 free-roaming horses to private owners who critics say would sell them for slaughter.

“They don’t understand we have an asset in Nevada that the rest of the world doesn’t have,” said Lance Gilman who manages the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center 10 miles east of the Sparks area along U.S. Interstate 80 that serves as home to Tesla Motor Co.’s giant battery factory, Switch, Google and others.

The 167-square-mile park is also home to about 2,000 of the horses likely headed to slaughter if Sandoval doesn’t intercede, he said during a news conference with leaders of the American Wild Horse Campaign who announced plans Monday to file a federal lawsuit in Reno later this week aimed at blocking the effort.

Gilman wrote the group a $10,000 check to help in their effort but he said they may be “missing the mark” by neglecting the economic benefit of the animals

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who promotes the horses on his web site, is just one of the business titans who’ve fallen in love with the mustangs, Gilman said.

Switch, which has one of the nation’s largest data storage centers at the park, “is enchanted with the wild horses” and Wal-Mart, which has a huge warehouse and distribution center there, has painted a mustang mural on its water tower, he said.

Last month, the Nevada Department of Agriculture published a request for proposals for people willing to take ownership of the Virginia Range herd that roams about a 500-square mile are south and east of Reno.