By Marissa Lang
The Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has 30 days to move more than 1,100 wild horses out of state after the Utah Department of Corrections terminated its Wild Horse & Burro Program, ending a seven-year partnership with the federal agency.
Corrections officials said the program was burning a hole in their budget, that what was meant to be self-sustaining had become a financially unfeasible enterprise.
But BLM insisted Friday that not only had it done its part to support the program at the Gunnison prison in central Utah, but an audit last year revealed the federal government had overpaid Utah by about $2 million since the program’s introduction in April 2007.
Hanging in the balance of this disagreement are 1,126 horses and 11 to 17 inmates who care for the wild mustangs kept on a 40-acre parcel of prison land.
BLM has until Oct. 6 to remove the horses. The agency hasn’t yet determined where they’ll go — areas in Arizona, California and Nevada are being considered to house a majority of the mustangs.
Full story: Prison ends wild horse program; BLM must remove 1,100 animals