Feral Cattle in AZ and NM...removal

Just for clarification.

They are in an actual wilderness area? As in roadless?

Why not just allow them to be shot, like coyotes.

Not a fan of waste, but if a dude shoots one, and only takes a backpack of meat out, isn't that better than chopper shooting?

I don't buy the wolf part. I find it hard to believe wolves haven't scavenged livestock dead in the forest.
Yes this is in a road-less area. Rugged.
 
There was a news spot on the subject again last night and now they have been finding dead cattle left to rot.
There was footage of dead cattle in the Gila. Or someplace on a river in the SW.
NM cattlemen up in arms...this is wrong.....the environmental concern for the habitat...no one knows who's cattle they are, they are unbranded, there are no active permits there.

No comment from USDA-FS since the report 1st aired outside of the helo blasting idea had been put on hold. The whole culling idea had been put on hold.

So the Cattlemens ass. claims it is the FS, on the air. Claim they have no idea of who's cattle they are. Wring hands over the loss of life and waste. The wolves are eating cattle and that's what is happening.

My take.
The NMCGA is using it for political purposes and the free bad air of the idea. Those folks know where the cattle came from, most likely. They know who's leases are nearby. Now the local congresswoman is up in arms...our own SW Sarah. "The outrage!" The greenie wolf lovers.....jeez. Bandwagon Betty.

The cattle were most likely shot,if they were, by poacher types. Or ?. The same folks who shoot cattle, elk & deer from the road.
The footage was all along a river area with fences and feed bins and tagged, untagged cattle in the shots too. Could be along the south river or the Mimbres. In a canyon area from above and along a river. Some shots looked like Tejas to me, flat as a pancake stock footage of wild untagged cattle. Not a hill in the distance.

No one got a official comment from USDA-FS in the clip last night. No comment since the chopper shooting idea came up, and never really clear IF it was a USDA-FS idea. It was a statement denouncing the idea, in print.

Not a peep from NMG&F.
They should be handing out the depredation tags or at least making a comment.

The damn cows should not be in any part of the Gila Wilderness.

I think it may have been asked earlier, but I wonder what the regulations are regarding feral cattle in NM. Is there a regulation protecting them from being shot? If nobody is claiming them and nobody knows who they belong to then why are folks worried about it?
 
I think it may have been asked earlier, but I wonder what the regulations are regarding feral cattle in NM. Is there a regulation protecting them from being shot? If nobody is claiming them and nobody knows who they belong to then why are folks worried about it?
As weird as it seems there is no law about feral cattle in NM ,that I know. I do know what happens when cattle get shot or hit by vehicles. Ranchers all over you.
It is open range still and they have branding twice a year around here. Lots of unbranded culls go to the feed lots, that I see. Lot's of ranchers wind up with free livestock.

Know the new local brand inspector and I will ask him what his take on it is. I'm sure I will get an earfull from the elk and antelope hater...but it is not his jurisdiction.
 
When I was out in new mexico a lot of riparian areas along the rio grande and the FS land farther north was really over grazed. Found lots of dead cattle and unbranded as well. I've got no issue with some grazing when its controlled but it seemed to me there wasn't much being done about it.
 
The ranchers are supposed to have their cattle rounded up by the end of Oct. I have always felt that by Nov. 15 they should be considered abandoned and free for the taking.
I was on a moose hunt in ID a few years back and cattle were scattered on the BLM portion long after the "mandatory" date for clearing them off. I cussed more than a few times as glassed up another distant black cow. I swore that if I became ruler of the world that black cattle would be removed from the gene pool.
 
So I watched the "news" clip again this morning. Found it on the fox news side of the fox/cbs tv stations here in NM. KRQE 13, they ran it on channel 2, the more fox leaning of the two stations. 13 & 2. Same stations, crews,broadcasters. One shows CBS shows at night ,13 and one shows Fox, 2 Idol,Judge J,etc.
YT has some of the feed. Watch it. Tell me what you see & hear.

The shots of dead cattle are NOT in the Gila Wilderness and I doubt on surrounding FS lands.
Looks like a dead cow in a water hole. No hills,ridges,mountains on the horizon. The range cattle shot could be Tejas,but not the Gila, & those cattle are tagged. There is a oil pipeline marker post showing in one on flat ground. Mesquite & cat's claw country, flat range lands without a hill in the distance.
Not the Gila country, could be NM.

NM is still open range. "Where my cattle are graising, my grass" attitude.
Now I am not a cattleman. I have raised cattle, here in NM & elsewhere. Most of the ranch beef I have eaten in NM has been good for burger, that's it.

I also am a former USDA-FS permit holder and know there are rules, regulations. Same rules apply on all permits. Must comply or you loose your cabin, ski resort, pack station, filming permits or graizing lease.

Now I have never been a member of a political party. Decline to state.
None of your business who I vote for. Fought for your right to do as you wish.

This looks to me like a total hit piece by NMCGA and the Republican Party of NM. Same faces . NMCGA runs the RPNM. IMHO. The evil dems are behind this crap.

They are spinning this towards the green FS, wolf people, USFW, greenies are shooting cattle, indiscriminately.
What's next? Hunters? Hikers? Campers are shooting the cattle?

I need to do a dive into some facts. Ask the county Sheriff, Gila FS, some good cattlemen and range users I know. Folks with crap on their boots and filthy crushed hats.

I wish the leases cost 4 times what they do for livestock. Or not at all.
No cattleman worth squat does not know where his or her cattle are, daily if not at all times.
No one just walks away from cattle in NM.
Some one there has the permits around the Wilderness. The USDA-FS leases. A cattleman/woman. They know who's cows those are.

The old west, no laws attitude and I know nothing look the other way gomer mentality does not cut in in 2022.

Airing the story without the full "story" was ,well what we get these days for news.

I'm going over to my neighbors place this week to help drive a ranchers bulls off their place. Been there a year. 5 miles from the ranch. They are trying to fence them out.
 
10 years ago I worked for AZDEQ with this older gentleman named Don who grew up near Silver City. Don told me they used to collect cattle off the leases after some time out there (presuming cows with slicks, maybe longer though) and they were mean wild things. What they did was blindfold these beasts and tie the blindfolded cow to a burro. Sometimes coming off the mountains a cow would get bovine rage and leap taking the burro down with it.
 
I have been on a couple round ups locally. Nuts. And that was just in the Criswell. These things will kill you. LOL

Talked to my logger buddy who is hauling logs out of Collins Park now.
He agrees with the take I have it's political. Pic's sure look like the southern Gila to him too. The cattle pics could be a dead cow in any stock tank and not likely the Gila since there is not a hill to be seen.
They control herds and watch them in the prime leases better. It is also not AS rough to do so.

He said he worked for a rancher down there when he was a kid, branding & moving cattle out. They would see stock up on the cliffs and the rancher would say don't even try. They would be over the ridge into another canyon as soon as you looked at them. Saddle Mtn and the southern Gila Wilderness areas, desert country.
He said it has been an issue for a long time. But not up the nice piney woods elk country that most folks envision. He also said they monitor the watershed areas & stream beds more, both ranchers & FS.

But they are there. Wild cattle. Not hundreds, but small groups. And they did come from ranchers permit leases.
 
I have been on a couple round ups locally. Nuts. And that was just in the Criswell. These things will kill you. LOL

Talked to my logger buddy who is hauling logs out of Collins Park now.
He agrees with the take I have it's political. Pic's sure look like the southern Gila to him too. The cattle pics could be a dead cow in any stock tank and not likely the Gila since there is not a hill to be seen.
They control herds and watch them in the prime leases better. It is also not AS rough to do so.

He said he worked for a rancher down there when he was a kid, branding & moving cattle out. They would see stock up on the cliffs and the rancher would say don't even try. They would be over the ridge into another canyon as soon as you looked at them. Saddle Mtn and the southern Gila Wilderness areas, desert country.
He said it has been an issue for a long time. But not up the nice piney woods elk country that most folks envision. He also said they monitor the watershed areas & stream beds more, both ranchers & FS.

But they are there. Wild cattle. Not hundreds, but small groups. And they did come from ranchers permit leases.
That's where I saw those hank close to the wilderness area in the gila.
 
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