An auction of about 65 wild horses and a few burros from the rangelands in the Western United States is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at the Mobile Agri-Ed Pavilion, 1070 Schillinger Road North, a spokesman said.

Interested buyers may come to the pavilion starting at 8 a.m. Saturday to fill out paperwork and get a bid number.

The bidding begins at 10 a.m., said James Hood, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Eastern States Division, in an interview from his office in Jackson, Miss.

“It’s an awesome deal,” said Hood, who added that the animals will be available for viewing by the public between 1 and 5 p.m. Friday. “They are guaranteed health-certified,” he said.

Bureau representatives will later visit animals sold at the auction in their new homes to make sure they’re being properly cared for.

Although the horses and burros have grown up wild on Western rangelands, they are usually not difficult to tame, Hood said.

Since starting the program in 1973, some 214,000 wild horses and burros have been auctioned off nationwide by the Bureau of Land Management, Hood said. More than 4,000 of them have found homes in Alabama, he stated.

For information on the auction and the program, call 1-888-274-2133.

Posted: 01|14|08 at 11:41 am. Filed under: US News.