Rancher Says He'll Ignore His Grazing Contract

[phantom power]

A rancher from New Mexico signed a letter Saturday telling the federal government he will no longer honor his grazing contract.

Armed occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge had hoped more ranchers would step forward. But Adrian Sewell, who owns 160 acres in New Mexico, was the only one.

He bought his ranch four years ago for about $1 million. It included grazing rights to 33,000 acres of public land.

Sewell said his grazing contract allows for 140 head of cattle, but the US.. Fish and Wildlife Service is restricting him to 85.

...

This coming year, Sewell said he may put up to 200 cattle on the land.

http://www.opb.org/news/series/burns-oregon-standoff-bundy-militia-news-updates/one-rancher-says-hell-ignore-his-grazing-contract/

[Vinca]

1. I'm getting kind of tired of millionaire victimhood.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. Entitled Entitlement.

Doesn't matter what others are entitled to, regarding public lands

[DirkGently]

3. Without federal land management, these ranchers

would have been out of business long ago. They'd have grazed and burned and stripped every acre into wasteland. And most of them simply don't own enough land to compete with the giant ranches. They couldn't afford to buy the land they need, even if it was for sale.

But the bad old federal government, at taxpayer expense, has carefully managed and subsidized them for decades.

And the response is to imagine conspiracies and false readings of the Constitution, that somehow land on the idea that they can simply pick up a gun and appropriate public property for themselves?

[ebayfool]

4. It is legal to kill cattle "unlawfully grazing" on public land #CowSnipers #FreeSteaks

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027557830

courtesy of L.Coyote ^^^

[Initech]

5. Ranchers gone wild!

[Quixote1818]

6. This was a huge failure. Bundy was hoping for thousands of Ranchers to do this an they only got this

boob. Bundy is probably freaking out that his "revolution" has just one guy.

[phantom power]

7. I know what you mean, although I think failure or success depends...

on what happens, or doesn't happen, to this one guy.

Bundy might have been envisioning some mass uprising, but if instead a trickle of people starts doing it, and then gets the same kidd-glove treatment that Cliven Bundy got for giving the BLM the big middle finger at gunpoint, then I think we can expect the trickle to start growing.

[phantom power]

9. update, it's now up to 9 ranchers:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027560424

[spanone]

8. we have jails just for criminals like him.

[Johonny]

10. When you don't enforce the law... people will break it.

[CrispyQ]

11. Stupid asshole.

Read the chapter Bovine Planet in the book "Mad Cowboy" & learn what grazing does to the land. It's an excellent book that details how animal husbandry changed when big agra got involved, to the detriment of both human & animal health & well-being, all without ethical preaching. Our food system is a huge part of our national health crisis. The everything-for-profit model is killing us & our planet.