{"id":35616,"date":"2023-02-23T11:42:06","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T18:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-u-s-gets-ok-for-cattle-shooting-operation-in-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2023-02-23T18:42:06","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T18:42:06","slug":"update-u-s-gets-ok-for-cattle-shooting-operation-in-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/update-u-s-gets-ok-for-cattle-shooting-operation-in-new-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Update: U.S. gets OK for cattle-shooting operation in New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A
A feral bull is seen along the Gila River in the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico, on July 25, 2020. U.S. forest managers in New Mexico are moving ahead with plans to kill feral cattle that they say have become a threat to public safety and natural resources. (Robin Silver\/Center for Biological Diversity)<\/span>Robin Silver<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

ALBUQUERQUE \u2013 A U.S. district judge on Wednesday cleared the way for federal officials to move ahead with plans to take to the air and shoot dozens of wild cattle in a rugged area of southwestern New Mexico.<\/p>\n

Ranchers had sought a delay, arguing that the potential mass slaughter of as many as 150 \u201cunauthorized\u201d cows on public land was a violation of federal regulations and amounted to animal cruelty.<\/p>\n

After listening to arguments that stretched throughout the day, Judge James Browning denied the request, saying the ranchers failed to make their case. He also said the U.S. Forest Service is charged with managing the wilderness for the benefit of the public, and the operation would further that aim.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one disputes that the Gila cattle need to be removed and are doing significant damage to the Gila Wilderness,\u201d Browning wrote. \u201cThe court does not see a legal prohibition on the operation. It would be contrary to the public interest to stop the operation from proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plans by the Forest Service call for shooting the cattle<\/a> with a high-powered rifle from a helicopter and leaving the carcasses in the Gila Wilderness. It was estimated by attorneys for the ranchers that 65 tons of dead animals would be left in the forest for months until they decompose or are eaten by scavengers.<\/p>\n

Officials closed a large swath of the forest Monday and were scheduled to begin the shooting operation Thursday.<\/p>\n

The New Mexico Cattle Growers\u2019 Association, individual ranchers and the Humane Farming Association filed a complaint in federal court Tuesday, alleging that agency officials were violating their own regulations and overstepping their authority.<\/p>\n

The complaint stated that court intervention was necessary to put an immediate stop to \u201cthis unlawful, cruel, and environmentally harmful action, both now and in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In
In this photo provided by Robin Silver, a feral bull is seen along the Gila River in the Gila Wilderness in southwestern New Mexico, on July 25, 2020. (Robin Silver\/Center for Biological Diversity via AP)<\/span>Robin Silver<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The ranchers had argued that the case could set a precedent for how federal officials handle unbranded livestock on vacant allotments or deal with other land management conflicts across the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a severe danger here, not just in this particular case and the horrific results that it will actually bare if this is allowed to go forward. But it also has long-term ramifications for the power of federal agencies to disregard their regulations that they themselves passed,\u201d Daniel McGuire, an attorney for the ranchers, told the judge.<\/p>\n

The Gila National Forest issued its final decision to gun down the wayward cattle last week amid pressure from environmental groups that have raised concerns that cattle are compromising water quality and habitat for other species as they trample stream banks in sensitive areas.<\/p>\n

Much of the debate during Wednesday\u2019s hearing centered on whether the animals were unauthorized livestock or feral cows, as the Forest Service has been referring to them.<\/p>\n

Ranchers said the cattle in question were the descendants of cows that legally grazed the area in the 1970s before the owner went out of business. They pointed to DNA and genetic markers, saying the temperament of the animals doesn\u2019t mean they cease to be domesticated livestock.<\/p>\n

As defined in Forest Service regulations, unauthorized livestock refers to any cattle, sheep, goats or hogs that are not authorized by permit to be grazing on national forest land. The regulations calls for an impoundment order to be issued and the livestock rounded up, with lethal action being a final step for those that aren\u2019t captured.<\/p>\n

Despite issuing such an order earlier this month, the agency argued it wasn\u2019t required to follow the removal procedures outlined by the regulations because the cattle don\u2019t fit the definition of livestock since they aren\u2019t domesticated or being kept or raised by any individual.<\/p>\n

Government attorney Andrew Smith said the cows have no pedigree.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it does make a difference what these cows are. They\u2019re multigenerations of wildness going on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The judge agreed.<\/p>\n

Smith also argued that Congress has charged the Forest Service with protecting national forest land and that eradicating the cattle would put an end to decades of damage. He said previous gathering efforts over the decades only put a dent in the population but that an aerial shooting operation in 2022 was able to take out 65 cows in two days.<\/p>\n

Had the project been delayed, Smith suggested that the population would rebound and last year\u2019s effort would be wasted.<\/p>\n

McGuire countered that Congress conferred authority on the Forest Service to make rules and regulations to protect and preserve the forest, not a license for the agency to do anything it wants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

cattle targeted in Gila Wilderness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[815,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-35616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-associated-press-new-mexico","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35616"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=35616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}