By Amy Joi O’Donoghue, Deseret News
“We are not able to sustain the program without losing money…”
In this 2007 file photo, an inmate works with “Norton” in the round pen with part of the herd in the background as part of the wild horse program at the Gunnison State Prison in Gunnison.
Tom Smart, Deseret News
GUNNISON — Disagreement over the costs associated with a wild horse gentling program at the Gunnison prison has led to its suspension, and efforts are underway to find a place for 1,500 horses.
The program’s cessation means the Bureau of Land Management will move about 90 percent of the animals to out-of-state facilities, with a prison-imposed deadline to have that accomplished by Oct. 6.
“The BLM’s Utah State Office has valued our relationship with the Utah Department of Corrections and regret that it has decided to terminate the Wild Horse Inmate Program at Gunnison,” said Tom Gorey, acting spokesman for the BLM in Utah. “This program has aided in the rehabilitation of inmates and has, through the gentling of horses, helped place animals into good, private care.”
Gorey added that the state agency decision to end the program will complicate national efforts to make sure there is enough off-range holding capacity for wild horses and burros that are removed off public ranges.
Mike Haddon, deputy director of the Utah Department of Corrections, said the program was losing money and had very little inmate participation. The BLM was informed of the agency’s decision on Friday.
“We are not able to sustain the program without losing money,” he said. “The program was not cost-effective, and we do not know if it was effective in reducing recidivism. We do know it was not serving a lot of inmates.”
Since its inception in 2007, the program had 175 inmates who gentled horses for the public to adopt through BLM-managed programs. Of those 175 graduates, Haddon said only 82 of them had been released from prison — too small a number to effectively judge if the program had any viable, lasting impacts.
Haddon said the differences over money arose in 2012 when the initial five-year contract was renegotiated from a per-head, per day rate to another model of reimbursement.
“There was a discrepancy and dispute between what the BLM believes the department should be reimbursed and what the department believes it should be reimbursed,” he said.
An audit by the Office of Inspector General released last year shows a more than million-dollar discrepancy between the two entities that raised questions over the costs.
The Utah Correctional Industries under which the program operated reported costs of a little more than $5.3 million for the five-year contract period, of which auditors said $1 million was “questioned” —or not allowable under the terms of the agreement.
Of that million dollars, $928,000 was deemed “unsupported,” meaning documentation related to the costs was insufficient, the report said…(CONTINUED)
Categories: Horse News, Wild Horses/Mustangs
Straight from the Horse's Heart 
Once again, the innocent become pawns in the human game of power and dominance.
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So true RT
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There goes another 1500 horses…two sheister organizations against each other.. who will win this one? The only ones whowill lose are the horses and we all know that.
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I have an idea…send the horses back home on “their” given land
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had very little inmate participation.
Why am I not surprised? Just feel-good, do-gooder spin I think was all this was anyway, trying to save a buck and to put humans first, to the detriment of the horses’ welfare.
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Reblogged this on "OUR WORLD".
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Loss of this valuable program due to “accounting differences”!?
It sounds like privatization has struck again… Profit above all else.
i.e. If it can’t pay for itself it has no right to exist, regardless of the good it might do…
I saw a program about prisoners working with the horses. It is not a bad Idea. The men just loved the job and grew emotionally while doing it. These horses became tame enough for people who were not capable of handling wild horses to be able to adopt a mustang.
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Does anyone else see the irony here, in that the documentation required by the BLM wasn’t available or adequate to explain the situation and “questionable” expenses?
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The ignorant or corrupt courts have decided that “for some reason” DOI/USDA have “carte blanche” when it comes to wild equines…and a few other issues.
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WE need programs to be well documented. I am not sure if the BLM is playing cat and mouse here. We all know money is the root of all evil but necessary to survive. We must find a way to protect our horses from being used as pawns by the BLM and the public institutions.
They deserve protection and to be will cared for. Our wild horses deserve so much more and it will be up to us to see they are being treated with the proper care and maintenance. I don’t see the government doing anything to help them only destroy the last viable bands left in the wild. We have to come down hard on them and play hard ball here. I am so ready. Legal is the way to go. Give the BLM something to think about. We have to have new laws in place to protect our wild horses.
Looks like someone is reading my blogs. I mentioned ECO parks, well somebody is trying to put the ideas together. I will take my ideas and make parks into working ranches that sustain our wild horses. It will take qualified horse people with knowledge to work as teams to do this.
We have many qualified horse women and men ready to take on the biggest challenge ever. We can do this. Let us do it and have money to back up what we are going to do as well.
Tired of the BLM making excuses and saying I don’t know where the documentation is. We know, we understand, we play hard ball. Let us get ready to save the wild horses we can and we will.
I really think stupid people need to follow a great leader. Come on BLM get with the real program. Stop the round ups, stop hurting and killing our wild horses, stop separating Mares and foals, fillies that need their Moms. Stop separating wild horse families. They are incredible families. You have to watch our wild horses. They are amazing animals so lets protect them and save them.
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R.T. , you said it . I guess these 1,500 wild horses are all geldings that were needed for the already low gene pool too. So where will they go? Watch the borders.
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OMG.
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Reblogged this on cindymendoza47 and commented:
when will people learn mother nature does not like to be messed with!!!
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if this idiot had a ounce of a brain , the horse program is to help give the prisoners a new start in life and the horses that the BLM took off our land , Maybe he should learn not to steal maybe he should be on the other side of the bars
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The prison program was a helpful tool toward taking the edge off these wild horses so that the average person could adopt them. I am saddened that profit above doing the right thing seems to be the continuing theme running through the decision making process of the BLM and the prison system. We do not have an over population of wild horses or burros on our public land and they should not have been rounded up in the first place. Now, that this has been done, the responsible thing is to make sure these horses have the skills needed to find good homes. Is that too much to ask? I do know that working with animals is a superior tool to aid in building character and confidence of these prisoners. They learn patience, and coping skills through success, failure. Their actions will directly affect the outcome of their training sessions and these lessons will go forth with them when they mainstream back into the world. This is very troubling on so many levels. Does this affect the burros held by Despain at Axtell? He is in charge of the program at Gunnison.
Marjorie
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Bottom line now, who can take these horses – all 1500 horses need to go somewhere? Anyone out there with a huge chunk of land? Or will they all quietly slip away in small herds (truck loads)….
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This is just sickening- I would donate right now &’so would many others….everyone loses if this program is stopped…..
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As per other posts (threads) re: the “checker boarding” of the lands, I ask myself, from a legal perspective with regard to a migratory animal like the wild equines:
(1) why is any governmental agency allowed to checkerboard in such an absurd level; and
(2) why any court refuses to acknowledge the infeasibility of managing any wildlife under such man-made and manipulated extremes.
Has any pro wild equine advocacy sued on that basis? I’m sick of the NEPA sh*t that the courts approve ad nauseum.
Sue them about the land and water!!!!!!!
Like Western Watersheds Project!!!!!
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BTW..the Gunnison program suspension is about wiping the already cooked books and dead horses off the record.
Done.
Over. Can’t save them.
STOP THE PROCESS!!!!!!
After wild equines are in the system they are dead.
p.s. DOI is seriously over budget to the tune of about 5 billion. that they are allowed to continue anything round up is in violation of the budget…sue THEM FOR THAT!!!!!!!!!! Get real and tangible re DOI USDA suits. Sue them AHEAD OF TIME….SHUT DOWN THE “PROGRAM” for insustainability, budget over runs and.ridiculous checkerboarding….ain’t NO attorney going to figure that out. Find an attorney that will LISTEN to their client.
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I do support advocates and their legal actions.
I have a problem with perusing the same strategies with out any…and I repeat ANY results.
Time to find better attorneys….sorry RT, et al. IT AIN’T workin’ and I know you all have invested a ton of money; it is time to change strategies.
p.s. another point of attack would be the unquestionable emergency authority DOI and USDA have for round up excuses….not to mention THE CHECKERBOARD KA-RAP!!!!!
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Personally…the behavior of the Feds (Prez and Congress), courts and entities like the Public Lands Council reeks of suppression, lies and collusion.
Now…how to find a way to sue for the above violations since 1971…..PLC beats the WWP last I checked by virtue of SCOTUS denial of hearing petition.
Yikes…we are screwed.
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