Utah State University professor Lyle McNeal's 450 churro sheep have left campus for pastures near Bear Lake where they will be used in a federal coyote study.
"This is extremely difficult," said McNeal, who has operated the Navajo Sheep Project in Logan since 1979. "But we needed to buy time."Exposing the sheep to coyotes is the last thing McNeal wanted, but he said the animals desperately need a temporary home because they are no longer welcome at USU.
McNeal claims the university wants to drop the breeding pro-ject. University officials contend McNeal's private funding is drying up, and there is not enough money in the school's budget to cover it.
McNeal filed a lawsuit in April charging that the university breached his contract and denied him due process. The case could go to trial next month.
USU Dean of Agriculture Rodney Brown said the school intends to sell the 22-acre Logan parcel used as breeding headquarters.
McNeal recently loaded his flock into two tractor trailers bound for the Deseret Ranch near Bear Lake. There, federal biologists will use the animals as part of a coyote-predation study.
The study's purpose is to determine how effective sterilization is in reducing coyote sheep kills. The theory is that pup populations drive coyotes' appetite for sheep.
At the worst, biologists say, one-fifth of the animals could fall prey to the coyotes.
McNeal has attempted to restore the churro sheep to the Navajo Reservation. The animals thrive in the harsh environment, and they provide food as well as the unique wool used in Navajo weaving.
McNeal started the program in 1977 with about a dozen sheep. Since then, hundreds have been delivered to the Navajos, including 120 rams shipped earlier this month.
Churros once flourished on the reservation but were hunted to near extinction in the early part of the century in what some said were federal efforts to humble Indians and also over concerns about over-grazing.
McNeal's sheep could not be taken to the reservation because there is not room to keep the flock together, which is essential to continuing the breeding program, he said.
Milton Bluehouse, a delegate to the Navajo Tribal Council in Window Rock, Ariz., said he intends to write Utah's congressional delegation and ask members to help keep the program running.
Nobody knows where the sheep will go this fall.