BLM seizes animals grazing on public lands
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1/27/2008 -
RENO, Nev. — Federal agents who seized more than 120 head of cattle from Nevada ranchers accused of trespassing on public rangeland have confiscated an additional 200 horses from an American Indian and his son who they say were illegally grazing the animals without a permit near the Nevada-Oregon line.The Bureau of Land Management's roundup Thursday of the privately owned horses near a reservation at McDermitt followed Monday's impoundment of 123 cattle near Winnemucca, 160 miles northeast of Reno. Some of the cattle were being returned to their owners on Friday but the conflict continued, and the agency tentatively set a date next Friday to auction off some of the animals.
"It is wrong that they would just come in and do that," said Larry Crutcher, one of the horse owners who was cited by the BLM along with his father, Leonard. Agency officials say the Crutchers ignored warnings for years that they must remove their horses from federal land because they were trespassing.
Last week's court-ordered actions marked the first time in five years the federal agency has flexed its enforcement muscle against livestock ranchers who refuse to obtain grazing permits and pay fees for use of federal rangeland.
Of the 123 cattle impounded, 58 belong to Inger Casey, a 66-year-old woman who spent a night in jail in Reno after she was accused of assaulting a BLM ranger rounding up her cows.
BLM officials initially believed another 51 head belonged to Dudley Hiibel, who took an unrelated case to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2004 before losing his argument that he didn't have to give his name to a law-enforcement officer when stopped on a road near his ranch.
On Friday, however, BLM officials said the state brand inspector had determined that Hiibel transferred ownership and the brand for those cattle to his daughter, Mary Hiibel.
BLM spokeswoman JoLynn Worley said because Mary Hiibel had not received the repeated warnings to remove the cattle or be cited for trespassing — as her father did — those animals would be returned to her if she signed an acknowledgment that she now has been served a written warning and a trespass notice.
Mary Hiibel initially balked at that deal because she did not believe she had done anything wrong, Dudley Hiibel said. "These aren't trustworthy people to deal with," he said in a telephone call Friday to the Associated Press. "They're thugs and breaking all kinds of laws."
But Mary Hiibel later accepted a written warning and trespass notice along with a clearance certificate from the brand inspector allowing her to claim her cattle, Worley said. "She also was notified she will be receiving a demand-for-payment letter in the near future for her portion of impoundment costs," Worley added.
She said the 14 other head of cattle that were impounded for trespassing Monday were owned by four different people who had been previously cited but were not named in court orders, and thus were entitled to get them back under the same conditions as Mary Hiibel.
The BLM tentatively scheduled an auction in Winnemuccca for next Friday if Casey fails to pay past fines, fees and impoundment costs by then, Worley said. She said agency officials still were calculating those costs.
Casey "is in a different situation because she was served trespass notices. She did go to court, and she did have a court order to remove her livestock or we would impound them," Worley said.
The ranchers whose cattle were impounded are aligned with advocates of state and private property rights who don't recognize the U.S. government's jurisdiction over public rangeland in Nevada.
