Stray range cattle and little range wars

Oatman

It's Oatman that has the burros. They're a tourist attraction, and not really wild -- they'll take food out of your hands.

From a safety standpoint, where I live, there are as many elk in the road as cattle. Animals in the road are just a fact of life. You need to be watching and driving carefully all the time, period. The big difference is that if you hit a cow, you owe the rancher the value of the cow. If you hit an elk and kill it, Fish and Game lets you keep the meat. Hitting either animal isn't good for your health, and you're probably going to need to buy a new vehicle.

I've never, knock on wood, come close to hitting a cow. (I've had an elk hit my truck, but the truck was parked at the time.)

Open range, open range, open range, etc.

Are people really just not getting that the situation does NOT concern open range?

Everybody keeps on coming back to that even though the OP has clarified that the owner is responsible for the containment of his cattle.

I have no suggestions that are printable other than calling the authorities each and every time a cow gets out. The cattle owner won't deal with it so don't deal with them.

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Avondale, AZ

Cathygo
its not the cows getting out..its the cows owners ''putting them'' on private property and claiming they have the right to be there. Fence them out is the standard,but when the owner drives them through the fence or opens a gate and puts them in,,that's where the problems start..
and no one wants to deal with it either. as far as the law is concerned.

Where has Cygnet said that the rancher or his people are deliberately putting his cattle inside a completely fenced private area?

That would be Oatman on the far western side of the state.

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Mess with me? I may let karma take care of it. Mess with my family? I become Karma.

If you read posts,,1-5-8-37-40-43-64. you will read reference to driving them through fences and opening gates to put them where they wanted them.

doomas, the foreman did threaten to put cattle on the land but it remains nothing more than a threat. All other conversation relating to cattle placed on private land relates to another poster and his thoughts on how to deal with the situation.

You're referencing Joebill's posts about his situation. As far as I can tell, that hasn't happened with Cygnet. The cattle are pushing the rancher's inadequate fences down and getting into the community because the community hasn't entirely fenced their place. This is not illegal activity of the rancher. His fences don't have to meet any specifications legally.
If you want to keep cattle out in open range you have to build fences a certain way. Then if the cattle get in, you have a legal beef. If your fences don't meet the specifications and they get in, you're out of luck.
The rancher has no obligations to have his fence meet specifications in open range. Not fair, but that's how it is.
I've been on the receiving end of it myself. Several hundred dollar vet bill when a neighbors cows got out and came here and scared a filly over a gate. I had no recourse because my land wasn't properly fenced to keep the cattle out and I live in open range. My sympathies are with Cygnet but it's just the way it is unless they repeal open range laws or her community can get itself designated No Fence.

I was wondering how many people on both sides of the fence have ever had first hand experience with what is being discussed here ?
Wonder how many just give a opinion of how they think it would be and how they would feel about it.?

What do they call that,,walk a mile in the other guys shoes before you speak ? Lot of points and lots of ways to deal with it. Guess you just got to be there to know.

Several of us here speak from experience. We live with this situation on a daily basis.

I've already given examples of my experience with open range and wandering cattle on my property in northern Arizona and here in Idaho. What is your experience with open range? I thought you were from back east.

Lisa, actually, the rancher is required to build a fence to keep his cattle inside his allotment. Our land is part of the allotment to the west of his, so by not repairing and improving his fence, he's letting his cattle stray into an allotment that he doesn't have rights to (and is currently closed to grazing.) That's why he needs to keep his fence in good repair.

The forest service has confirmed that his fence is HIS responsibility, because our community (including the private land) is not part of the allotment he's leased. We've fenced the part of our community that adjoins the western allotment, which he doesn't have rights to.

It's open range here where we live.

By the way, is pyracantha toxic to cattle? I never knew that.

It's not a poisonous plant -- it's in the apple family -- and my goats love it. The berries make a very good jelly, too.

I see that the only legal recourse you have is to document and sue for costs. he is doing a good job of not reacting to your concerns. Now you have to force him in a legal way.

I understand that but in real life, the ranchers fences don't have to stand up to anything. You can see how this is working out for you so far. Practically speaking, the only real solution is to fence in your entire community (or each landowner does their own) with sturdy fence that meets the open range requirements and if they break through that, file a lawsuit. I sympathize with you but as I've said, I've been there too. The ranchers pretty much rule.

I do hope you get it resolved though. Open range has seen it's time and it's not really relevant in most places now and is too often used as an excuse for lazy management. There is a road near here that is rarely used because everyone knows that a family who lives there just lets their cattle loose with no fences. For some reason, the cattle love to stand in the road...blocking it.

It USED to be thought of as a toxic plant but it isn't.

Cygnet, I can certainly sympathize with your situation and I think if I were in your shoes, I would contact the department in charge of his lease and ask for an assessment on the overgrazing (well fed cattle generally don't wander), I would stop contacting the foreman and start with the actual owner and I'd start by sending him a registered letter stating that the cattle have been found on the property multiple times, the foreman has been contacted and there has been no resolution so any further incidents will be handled in a legal manner, the cattle will be impounded and he will be sued for property damage.

Well fed cattle do wander. They wander past my property on a daily basis right past the tall grass on the forest right beside me. They are always wandering. We push them back up into the forest where they are supposed to be right onto the ground my horses are drooling to get to. Next day they are back again, touring the neighborhood, looking for the bulls maybe. I don't understand why they keep moving when they have more than enough feed but they seem to like visiting us more than they like being up in the hills.