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Cow killing sparks legal battle
Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic
May. 29, 2003 12:00 AM
SNOWFLAKE - When Kent Knudson accidentally left a gate open on his 40 acres to rush his mother to a hospital, he had no idea he was about to become a symbol for Arizona cattle haters.
While he was gone for those two days in January, 20 opportunistic cows owned by an area rancher had their way with Knudson's plants and trees, and they stomped his sewage disposal system.
Upon his return, Knudson, fearing for his mother's safety, fired a few rounds from his .22-caliber rifle to scare off the livestock.
But one cow was fatally wounded. And now Knudson, 53, charged with the felony unlawful killing of cattle, is at the center of the first serious challenge to one of the state's most stubborn relics from frontier days: open-range laws. He is getting the advice and financial backing of many like-minded transplants from the city.
"I was worried about a stampede. I have the right to defend myself on my private property," Knudson said.
Unless a cow is involved.
Under state law, the onus is on the tens of thousands of former urban dwellers who have retired and moved to the state's outback in recent years to fence themselves in against cattle. And, if any of their dogs even chase cows on property owned or leased by ranchers, the dogs may be legally killed.
In recent months, there has been a series of dog shootings in the Ash Fork area of northern Yavapai County. The shootings, allegedly by ranchers, are legal if the dogs are "bothering their animals," sheriff's Lt. Jimmy Jarrell said.
Clashes intensify
Clashes between ranchers and former city dwellers have intensified in recent years as more private land bordering the State Land Department's 8.4 million acres has been subdivided into ever-smaller properties and more dwellings have been built.
Almost all of the state land is leased to ranchers. And despite setbacks like the current drought, a large forced reduction of cattle numbers on federal land and a state Supreme Court ruling in the late 1990s that gave ranchers no more right to lease state land than conservationists, the ranching industry continues to thrive on state land.
"Efforts to allow bidding on state lands by conservationists in order to get cattle off of sensitive areas are rebuffed at every turn," said Don Steuter, a cattle specialist for the Sierra Club in Phoenix. "Now, ranchers want 100-year grazing leases, so we will almost never have a chance to bid."
That's how it should be, said Charles "Doc" Lane, a lobbyist for the Arizona Cattle Growers Association. Conservation groups won't manage the land if they are given the lease to it, Lane said.
"Everyone that moves out in the country says they want their open space, but they don't want their open space touched," Lane said. "But the livestock industry needs more land, too, and we also have to deal with more people being out in the country now."
Cattle laws fair?
Lane also said that laws are fair in relation to killing livestock if they are on other people's property, and "it's against the law to shoot an elk, too, if it's in your yard."
Gene Bull of the Snowflake area, a member of the group formed to support Knudson with advice and money for his legal defense, disagrees. He said he has been fighting cattle interests since he moved here 20 years ago.
Bull said that 32 square miles of the 36 square miles within the township where he lives is in private hands. But, he said, the other four sections are leased to cattle owners and, with the way state law is written, "that gives them the right to eat up the entire township, and I have to put up a $6,000 fence just for protection."
"The cattle have done more damage to this land than you could with a bulldozer," Bull said. "We've still got these archaic laws on the books. But I still have hope the laws can be changed with all the new people in the state and the influx of people out to places like this."
To that end, Bull said he has been researching state law about how to dissolve so-called grazing districts around Arizona.
Another of Knudson's supporters, Norman Elner of the Luna Lake area near Alpine, said it's a "travesty" that Knudson faces a possible felony conviction for protecting his property.
No common sense
"I don't understand why common sense doesn't prevail here," Elner said. "If you have cattle and you own or lease land, why should you not be required to put up a perimeter so the cattle don't interfere with other people's lives?"
Lane said the reasoning behind open-range laws is that the cost would be prohibitive to fence hundreds of miles of land in the vast expanse of rural Arizona.
Fencing also poses other problems, such as restricting the movements of wildlife, said Dennis Wells, former state land commissioner.
Elner said he has had problems for years with neighboring livestock, which ripped apart a three-strand, barbed-wire fence he built and ate expensive plants and trees he had planted.
"I got into it once with a livestock inspector," Elner said. "I told him that I was going to dig this deep hole on my property and that hopefully the cows would fall into it. His reaction was, 'Well, you're going to be in big trouble if that happens.' This whole issue is just ridiculous."
Meanwhile, Knudson said he has spent $2,500 on an attorney and is awaiting his day in court. A date has not been set.
"I'm not stopping until we get these cattle laws changed," Knudson said.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0529cattlewars29.html
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Mark Shaffer
The Arizona Republic
May. 29, 2003 12:00 AM
SNOWFLAKE - When Kent Knudson accidentally left a gate open on his 40 acres to rush his mother to a hospital, he had no idea he was about to become a symbol for Arizona cattle haters.
While he was gone for those two days in January, 20 opportunistic cows owned by an area rancher had their way with Knudson's plants and trees, and they stomped his sewage disposal system.
Upon his return, Knudson, fearing for his mother's safety, fired a few rounds from his .22-caliber rifle to scare off the livestock.
But one cow was fatally wounded. And now Knudson, 53, charged with the felony unlawful killing of cattle, is at the center of the first serious challenge to one of the state's most stubborn relics from frontier days: open-range laws. He is getting the advice and financial backing of many like-minded transplants from the city.
"I was worried about a stampede. I have the right to defend myself on my private property," Knudson said.
Unless a cow is involved.
Under state law, the onus is on the tens of thousands of former urban dwellers who have retired and moved to the state's outback in recent years to fence themselves in against cattle. And, if any of their dogs even chase cows on property owned or leased by ranchers, the dogs may be legally killed.
In recent months, there has been a series of dog shootings in the Ash Fork area of northern Yavapai County. The shootings, allegedly by ranchers, are legal if the dogs are "bothering their animals," sheriff's Lt. Jimmy Jarrell said.
Clashes intensify
Clashes between ranchers and former city dwellers have intensified in recent years as more private land bordering the State Land Department's 8.4 million acres has been subdivided into ever-smaller properties and more dwellings have been built.
Almost all of the state land is leased to ranchers. And despite setbacks like the current drought, a large forced reduction of cattle numbers on federal land and a state Supreme Court ruling in the late 1990s that gave ranchers no more right to lease state land than conservationists, the ranching industry continues to thrive on state land.
"Efforts to allow bidding on state lands by conservationists in order to get cattle off of sensitive areas are rebuffed at every turn," said Don Steuter, a cattle specialist for the Sierra Club in Phoenix. "Now, ranchers want 100-year grazing leases, so we will almost never have a chance to bid."
That's how it should be, said Charles "Doc" Lane, a lobbyist for the Arizona Cattle Growers Association. Conservation groups won't manage the land if they are given the lease to it, Lane said.
"Everyone that moves out in the country says they want their open space, but they don't want their open space touched," Lane said. "But the livestock industry needs more land, too, and we also have to deal with more people being out in the country now."
Cattle laws fair?
Lane also said that laws are fair in relation to killing livestock if they are on other people's property, and "it's against the law to shoot an elk, too, if it's in your yard."
Gene Bull of the Snowflake area, a member of the group formed to support Knudson with advice and money for his legal defense, disagrees. He said he has been fighting cattle interests since he moved here 20 years ago.
Bull said that 32 square miles of the 36 square miles within the township where he lives is in private hands. But, he said, the other four sections are leased to cattle owners and, with the way state law is written, "that gives them the right to eat up the entire township, and I have to put up a $6,000 fence just for protection."
"The cattle have done more damage to this land than you could with a bulldozer," Bull said. "We've still got these archaic laws on the books. But I still have hope the laws can be changed with all the new people in the state and the influx of people out to places like this."
To that end, Bull said he has been researching state law about how to dissolve so-called grazing districts around Arizona.
Another of Knudson's supporters, Norman Elner of the Luna Lake area near Alpine, said it's a "travesty" that Knudson faces a possible felony conviction for protecting his property.
No common sense
"I don't understand why common sense doesn't prevail here," Elner said. "If you have cattle and you own or lease land, why should you not be required to put up a perimeter so the cattle don't interfere with other people's lives?"
Lane said the reasoning behind open-range laws is that the cost would be prohibitive to fence hundreds of miles of land in the vast expanse of rural Arizona.
Fencing also poses other problems, such as restricting the movements of wildlife, said Dennis Wells, former state land commissioner.
Elner said he has had problems for years with neighboring livestock, which ripped apart a three-strand, barbed-wire fence he built and ate expensive plants and trees he had planted.
"I got into it once with a livestock inspector," Elner said. "I told him that I was going to dig this deep hole on my property and that hopefully the cows would fall into it. His reaction was, 'Well, you're going to be in big trouble if that happens.' This whole issue is just ridiculous."
Meanwhile, Knudson said he has spent $2,500 on an attorney and is awaiting his day in court. A date has not been set.
"I'm not stopping until we get these cattle laws changed," Knudson said.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0529cattlewars29.html
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