Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park's bison are currently being removed from the prairie, but their new owner says they will not be slaughtered.
The Florida Park Service signed a contract Tuesday with Gateway Farms LLC to be the organization that will remove the 70 bison. The farm started the process of removing the bison Wednesday.
It will take about six months to remove the bison, wrote David Hajos, president of Gateway Farms, in an email. It will cost $365 per bison to remove the whole herd, he said.
Once corralled, the bison will be vaccinated by the Department of Environmental Protection for various diseases and Tuberculosis.
The six-and-a-half foot bison must be kept for for 30 days after Tuberculosis testing and retested, said Chuck Littlewood, wildlife photographer and park volunteer.
While corralled, bison eat 50 pounds of Alafia hay and 10 pounds of Buffalo chow.
Littlewood said it costs $30 a day to feed one bison, which totals to $63,000 in between testing.
Once tested and removed, the bison will live in about five sanctuaries, said Hajos in an earlier interview.
There has been backlash of the bison removal since it was announced in 2010. Animal activist groups have peacefully protested several times with sign-waving.
Most of the protests were about the possibility of slaughtering the bison once they were sold.
The contract states none of the bison will be slaughtered while in the sanctuaries, Hajos said.
Even with the contract signed, some still don't believe the bison are safe.
"I still think they are going to be slaughtered," Littlewood said. "Probably the only sanctuary these bison are going to see is a freezer at 40 degrees."
