{"id":69807,"date":"2017-07-31T15:39:49","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T21:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tape-reveals-cows-had-access-to-water\/"},"modified":"2017-07-31T21:39:49","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T21:39:49","slug":"tape-reveals-cows-had-access-to-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tape-reveals-cows-had-access-to-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Tape reveals cows had access to water"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Rose
Rose Chilcoat, former associate director of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, and her husband, Mark Franklin, are charged for allegedly endangering livestock in Utah.<\/span>Courtesy of Andrew Gulliford<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The livestock that local environmentalist Rose Chilcoat and her husband, Mark Franklin, supposedly put at risk by closing a gate had full access to water and were not in danger, according to the Utah rancher who reported the incident to police.<\/p>\n

According to an audio recording of the police dispatch call, obtained by The Durango Herald in an open records request, Zane Odell tells the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office (Utah) that someone intentionally closed a gate on his corral to keep his cows from water.<\/p>\n

However, Odell says that \u201cwhat they don\u2019t know or maybe figured out too late\u201d was that there was another opening in the fence where the cattle were able to access water.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had the fence cut where we were drilling a well so no harm was done,\u201d Odell said. \u201cThe cows did go around the corner and get in to get a drink of water. So I don\u2019t have any dead cows. But their intent is still there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chilcoat, on a website she set up to raise money for her legal defense, maintains there was no intent to hurt livestock.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt no time did either of us do anything to harass or endanger livestock and livestock had full access to water at all times,\u201d Chilcoat wrote. \u201cWe are nature lovers who would never hurt a living creature.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of the parties involved in the case declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n

According to a news release from the San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Odell on April 1 discovered a gate to his corral had been closed, \u201cdenying his cattle from access to water.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sheriff\u2019s Office in its announcement made no mention of the fact that the cattle did have full access to water.<\/p>\n

The incident was reportedly captured by a trail camera Odell set up at the watering site, on state trust lands near Lime Ridge Road between Bluff and Mexican Hat. Odell declined to release the photos to the Herald.<\/p>\n

On April 4, Odell, working at the site, noticed the same vehicle that was captured on the camera the day the gate was closed and notified the Sheriff\u2019s Office. Deputies were able to locate and stop Chilcoat and Franklin, who admitted to closing the gate.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until April 12 that the couple were officially charged.<\/p>\n

Franklin was charged with attempted wanton destruction of livestock, a second-degree felony, and trespassing on trust land, a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

Chilcoat was initially cited with two misdemeanors: one for trespassing on trust lands and another for providing false information when she identified herself using her married name to a deputy.<\/p>\n

However, on April 18, the San Juan County attorney hit Chilcoat with two new felony charges: attempted wanton destruction of livestock and retaliation against a witness, victim or informant.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear why the additional charges were filed. The San Juan County Sheriff\u2019s Office denied the Herald\u2019s request for a case report as well as the police body camera video, which may provide more information.<\/p>\n

Chilcoat, 58, is a former associate director of Great Old Broads for Wilderness and founding member of Friends of Cedar Mesa, conservation groups that advocate heavily for wildlands protections around San Juan County.<\/p>\n

In recent years, tensions between environmentalists and some locals opposed to land restrictions have come to a head, especially over ATV use in the archaeologically rich Recapture Canyon and the national monument designation for the Bears Ears area.<\/p>\n

Chilcoat wrote on her fundraising campaign website that the charges \u201csmack of retaliation for my years of successful conservation work in Utah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never participated in actions of civil disobedience,\u201d Chilcoat wrote. \u201cThe San Juan County attorney has filed these unfounded, politically motivated, criminal charges against me and my husband, and now we are forced to defend ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, Chilcoat and Franklin pleaded not guilty to the charges. The couple has a preliminary hearing scheduled for 9 a.m. Aug. 22.<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

environmentalist accused of endangering livestock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":69808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,13,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-69807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69807","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=69807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69807"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=69807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}