The government will pay you $1,000 to adopt a mustang

The government is taking a unique approach to control the record-breaking population of wild horses: paying you $1,000 to adopt one. Approximately 50,000 mustangs are currently in holding pens awaiting adoption, but the number of people taking one home has hit an all-time low in recent years. That's part of the reason why the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is now offering the financial incentive. "We're estimating there's 88,000 wild horses in America right now," Gus Warr, who works at the Bureau of Land Management in Utah, told CBS News correspondent Nikki Battiste. Warr added that the land can only sustain about 27,000. Galloping at up to 40 mph in the mountains and plains of Utah, the mustangs are a symbol of freedom. But "freedom has its consequences if they're not managed," Warr said. Those consequences can include overgrazed land and starving horses. That's why BLM rounds up thousands of wild horses each year. Warr says BLM spends $50 million of its $80 million budget on off-range holding costs for the mustangs they gather, and that holding a horse costs almost $2,000 a year. So BLM did some simple math: Rather than pay $2,000 to care for a mustang for one year, they'll pay $1,000 to someone willing to adopt and care for a mustang over its lifetime...MORE