Category Archives: Lisvestock Ranching

Breeding cows that can defend themselves against jaguars

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http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21717415-if-big-cats-dont-kill-livestock-farmers-wont-shoot-them-breeding-cows-can-defend

If big cats don’t kill livestock, farmers won’t shoot them

Feb 23rd 2017 | SAN MARTÍN, META DEPARTMENT

RANCHERS in Colombia’s Meta department can be vengeful folk. From time to time jaguars emerge from a clump of forest, streak across the savannah and attack one of a panic-stricken herd of cows. When that happens, ranchers hunt the offender down and shoot it. That practice is endangering the cats’ survival. Panthera, a charity that manages “corridors” for jaguars that stretch from Argentina to Mexico, guesses that just 5,000 of the cats are left in los llanos, Colombia’s scorching savannah. It has come up with a less violent way of protecting both the jaguars and the cattle.

The idea is to teach cattle self-defence, or rather to breed the instinct into them. The cows that graze in los llanos are mostly Zebu, which are popular with ranchers for their fast growth, large size and white hides. But they have an unfortunate habit of fleeing in all directions when danger approaches. Panthera’s idea is to replace panicky Zebu with cattle that stand their ground, or to interbreed the two. Esteban Payán, who directs Panthera’s operations in northern South America, chose San Martineros, a little-known subspecies of Criollo cattle descended from Spanish fighting bulls. Few jaguars dare to challenge a massed group of 500kg (1,100-pound) San Martineros, their horns levelled. Docile with humans, they are fierce defenders of territory and their young. Mr Payán recounts that San Martineros chased away a puma before it could eat a capybara it had killed in their paddock.

Full Story: http://www.economist.com/news/americas/21717415-if-big-cats-dont-kill-livestock-farmers-wont-shoot-them-breeding-cows-can-defend

Grazing Fee Drops in 2017, Further Undervaluing Public Lands

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LARAMIE, Wyo. – The public lands management agencies announced the grazing fee for federal allotments today, which the federal government has decreased to a mere $1.87 per cow and her calf (or 5 sheep) per month, known as an Animal Unit Month, or AUM.  

 

“This has got to be the cheapest all-you-can-eat buffet deal in the country,” said Erik Molvar, Executive Director of Western Watersheds Project. “Our public lands are a national treasure that should be protected for future generations with responsible stewardship. It makes no sense to rent them to ranchers for below-market prices to prop up a dying industry that degrades soil productivity, water, wildlife habitat, and the health of the land.”

 

Two hundred and twenty million acres of public lands in the West are used for private livestock industry profits through the management of approximately 22,000 grazing permits. The low fee leaves the federal program at an overwhelming deficit. This year’s fee is a a decrease of 11 percent from last year’s fee of $2.11 per AUM far less than the average cost for private lands grazing leases.  The fee is calculated using a decades-old formula that takes into account the price of fuel and the price of beef, and this year’s fee falls far below the level of $2.31 per AUM that was charged in 1980. Additionally, the fee doesn’t cover the cost to taxpayers of range infrastructure, erosion control, vegetation manipulation, and government predator killing – all indirect subsidies that expand the program’s total deficit.   

 

“The subsidy to public lands livestock grazers just got bigger,” Molvar said. “It’s a totally unjustified handout that persists for purely political reasons, with little or no benefit to Americans.” 

Corporate Cowboys Hold Most Federal Grazing Permits ! STOP THE GENOCIDE OF OUR WILD HORSES and BURROS !

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ANNIE MOND·SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2016

photo is of a cow that died from poor grazing management on public lands © Katie Fite (this new note is a redo of a note originally published on February 23, 2011, therefore some statistics & names may be slightly different but the big picture HAS NOT CHANGED https://www.facebook.com/notes/annie-mond/corporate-cowboys-hold-most-federal-grazing-permits-stop-the-genocide-of-our-wil/10150099278658149) Please think about this …..let it sink in deeply: The cattle grazing on public land only contribute to approximately 3% of the American food supply. So essentially, we the taxpayers are subsidizing their presence in order to preserve the “way of life” for these cattle ranchers. This has little to do with providing food for the American diet. Two percent — or about 500 permittees — run their cattle on about half of all BLM grazing lands. “This includes four billionaires, several oil companies and other wealthy interests. Further, less than 3 percent of the nation’s beef … is produced by public lands ranching,” according to research gathered by the Natural Resources Defense Council and endorsed by a total of 34 groups and individuals. These corporate cowboys, as well as those ranchers who are private individuals, receive an estimated $500 million annually in government subsidies.” and…”while there very well may be public lands ranchers named Buck or Gus or Red, those who own the most land are called, Hewlett-Packard, JR Simplot Co., Union Oil, Texaco, and Anheuser-Busch”…. and the Koch Brothers. (see first comment below this Note) http://www.times.org/archives/1999/cows5.htm

) ******************************************************* These ventures for them are for the purpose of TAX WRITE-OFFS, because they aren’t making money at this. When you realize that the past Secretary of the Interior was Ken Salazar, cattle rancher and oil man, and the present Secretary of the Interior is Sally Jewel, who worked for Mobil oil company on oil fields in Oklahoma from 1978 through 1981, a very unpretty picture becomes all too clear. and here is an even deeper look at this from the brilliant Christine A. Jubic (R.I.P. beloved Christine), who provided a link (at end of her summary): “The REAL truth is that they NEED to hold onto the PERMITS – the cows are only of secondary importance…the VALUE is in holding the permit as it gives them a VESTED interest in the land. Most of these cows aren’t even OWNED by the Welfare ranchers because they RENT their allotments out to OTHERS and do so at a PROFIT! The permits are as good as gold these days and are being traded like commodies on the stock markets…bankers are even holding them as colladeral on loans,…sooooooo, in this way ~~ THE BANKERS now have a VESTED interest in the lands through their “ownership” of the permits!” To get into this more deeply, read this: Ranchers Using Grazing Permits As Collateral http://www.wildearthguardians.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5406

THINK ABOUT IT. Please get involved in the efforts to stop the genocide of our wild horses and burros, which is happening primarily to serve the purposes of corporations…also including corporations drilling for natural gas, drilling for oil, transportiing natural gas, and various sorts of mining for minerals all over the western states. These corporations are being allowed to RAPE OUR LAND for their own purposes, and they DON’T CARE ABOUT HUMANS EITHER. The corporations and the people who run them are NOT altruists, they are not doing it on behalf of the national welfare except in terms of how it might increase their own profits, and allow them to maintain their lavish and selfish lifestyles. They care only about themselves and their rich friends, and we let them do this, and we ENABLE THEM to do this. ******************************************************** “Livestock grazing is the most destructive and widespread practice on public lands and is responsible for the extinction and imperilment of numerous species across the west.”

http://wolves.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/feds-fight-to-keep-names-of-ranchers-with-grazing-permits-secret/

More on the “Rolex” Welfare Ranchers http://www.manesandtailsorganization.org/living_legends.htm

Here is some more info on ranchers mortgaging our public lands ~ in podcast form by Mike Hudak, author of Western Turf Wars http://mikehudak.com/Articles/MikeHudak_Podcast090115.html

Be sure to also check out some of the video links on the left in the above link. **************************************************

SEE EXCERPTS HERE http://www.publiclandsranching.org/book.htm

from the crucially important book: WELFARE RANCHING: THE SUBSIDIZED DESTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN WEST The majority of the American public does not know that livestock grazing in the arid West has caused more damage than the chainsaw and bulldozer combined. Welfare Ranching: The Subsidized Destruction of the American West is a seven-pound book featuring 346 pages of articles and photographs by expert authors and photographers on the severe negative impacts of livestock grazing on western public lands. Selected articles and photographs are available online below. You can also buy the book WELFARE RANCHING at a discount HERE: http://www.publiclandsranching.org/htmlres/wr_order.htm

: ************************************************************************************* BLM and USFS Fail to Identify, Track, Penalize or Deter Unauthorized Welfare Livestock Grazing on Public Lands [This article also provides the text of Western Watershed Project’s response to the new GAO report] #publiclands #deadbeatranchers#GAOreport http://www.csindy.com/IndyBlog/archives/2016/07/14/stop-the-damage-and-free-ride-from-grazing-of-public-lands

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on Jul 7, 2016, detailing the extent to which the United States Forest Service (USFS) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have failed to follow agency regulations in documenting and penalizing unauthorized or trespass livestock grazing on federal public lands. The report, entitled Unauthorized Grazing: Actions Needed to Improve Tracking and Deterrence Efforts, was requested by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Ranking Member of the House Natural Resources Committee. The request came in response to several high profile cases of trespass grazing and a recognition of the devastating ecological impacts it can have on wildlife habitat. BE OUTRAGED: The report came to several important conclusions: Trespass grazing is pervasive and causes widespread degradation of public lands, can have devastating ecological impacts on wildlife habitat, agencies do not document it adequately, and the Forest Service trespass fees are too low to be a deterrent. BE OUTRAGED: Average private grazing land lease rates in western states ranged from $9 to $39, so what this means is that public lands livestock grazing is heavily subsidized by American taxpayers. In 2016, BLM and the Forest Service charged ranchers $2.11 per animal unit month for horses and cattle, and $0.42 for sheep and goats. ************* Here is a blog by R.T. Fitch which further discusses this report and situation Here is the GAO report released on Jul 7, 2016 Surprise, Surprise: BLM and USFS Fail to Identify, Track, Penalize or Deter Unauthorized Welfare Livestock Grazing on Public Lands https://rtfitchauthor.com/2016/07/19/surprise-surprise-blm-and-usfs-fail-to-identify-track-penalize-or-deter-unauthorized-welfare-livestock-grazing-on-public-lands/

*********************** In a separate press release about the GAO report released on July 7, 2016, Grijalva stated, “We know we’re leasing public land at well below market value. What we don’t know nearly enough about is the extent or impact of unauthorized grazing on public lands. The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management need to bring grazing fees in line with the modern economy and take illegal use of public lands more seriously going forward.” http://democrats-naturalresources.house.gov/media/press-releases/gao-taxpayers-heavily-subsidizing-ranching-on-public-lands-environmental-damage-unclear-due-to-poor-recordkeeping

********************************************************************************* Here are a few facts about how the BLM came to be: “The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), created in 1946 through a merger of the General Land Office (GLO) and the U.S. Grazing Service, has roots going back to the creation of the GLO in 1812. ” http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/history.html

In 1812, a young American nation faced the challenge of transforming wilderness to agricultural use and acquiring the revenue to pay its war debts. The GLO was established to handle the business associated with the sale of public lands for private ownership, transforming wilderness to agricultural use, and generating income for the Federal government. The GLO, in fact, became the “Gateway to Land Ownership” for millions of Americans. As the successor agency to the original GLO, the BLM, a bureau of the Department of the Interior, was established in 1946 with the merger of the Grazing Service and the GLO. http://www.blm.gov/es/st/en/prog/glo.html

****************************************************************** CATTLE GENETICS AND INTERNATIONAL CATTLE BUSINESS IS INSISTING THAT OUR WILD HORSES BE REMOVED IN FAVOR OF GMO CATTLE & BEEF FOR EXPORT Ranchers vs Wild Horses: Pure BS

https://rtfitchauthor.com/2014/07/17/ranchers-vs-wild-horses-pure-bs/

************************************************************* The movie everyone needs to see: Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret http://www.cowspiracy.com/

The new Malheur occupants: Grazing cattle

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http://www.hcn.org/articles/grazing-cattle-the-new-malheur-occupants?utm_source=wcn1&utm_medium=email

The Bundy clan may be in jail, but ranchers continue to take advantage of the refuge.

Steve Herman OPINIONAug. 31, 2016Web Exclusive

Now that the focus has shifted to the upcoming trials of the outlaws who took over Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge offices last January, we might recall that the actual, physical occupation lasted for a total of 41 days. In many ways, however, it never ended, and there is every reason to conclude that the occupiers won.

The refuge’s headquarters are still closed, federal cops guard the area, and no one answers the phone. At least six staff members have left, including the fisheries expert and the ecologist. They have not been replaced.

The refuge is drier now than I have ever seen it; the usually flooded ditches along Center Patrol Road are without waterfowl.  Only two ponds hold water and the birds that depend on it.

The Malheur Refuge website cautions prospective visitors: “Buildings and grounds are active work sites and are closed for safety reasons.”  When I found a refuge employee in a pickup on the side of the road, I asked him what “active work site” meant.  He smiled wryly and answered, “That answer would have to come from a higher pay grade.”

Cattle graze in Southeastern Oregon.
Angela Sitz/USFWS

I first visited the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in 1966, and I started teaching in the vicinity in 1973.  Virtually every Memorial Day weekend since then, I have gone birding on the headquarters grounds, along with other bird watchers from the Northwest birding community and beyond.  I teach a summer ornithology class now on nearby Steens Mountain, and every August I tour the refuge with my students.

But this year, we were not allowed in; in fact, a federal truck stood by the blockaded entrance to keep us out. Yet nearly a hundred days had gone by since the last occupier left, and the site had been safely visited by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Daniel M. Ashe and even Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.  Both hosted the press on the “active work sites,” and no problems were reported. Ashe said that the occupiers had done damage estimated at $6 million, and now the rumor is that this venerable and beautiful oasis — once a showplace visited regularly by Supreme Justice William O. Douglas — will undergo a fancy facelift.

That makes me fear that the old buildings, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps out of pink Dufurrena sandstone in the 1930s, might be sacrificed to some Washington, D.C. architect’s vision of modernity. I doubt that the occupiers, slovenly though they reportedly were, could have done that much damage.

Meanwhile, all is not quiet on this Western front. Some or all of the 13 ranchers with grazing privileges on the refuge were going full-bore when my students and I drove north along the refuge on Aug. 12.

Thousands of acres of the Blitzen Valley part of the refuge had been mowed. Three huge double-flatbed trailered semis passed us going south, ready to welcome on board the valuable hay bales. Ranchers apparently pay with “in kind services,” which in this case means that the hay is paid for by mowing, baling and hauling it off. Because the mowing is considered beneficial to wildlife, it is considered a “service’ to the refuge and to wildlife, so little or no cash changes hands.

So ubiquitous was the haying activity I saw that it is hard to believe that it had only been going on for two days. Aug. 10 is the first day any haying efforts are allowed, in part because that is the date that most, but not all, young sandhill cranes are believed to be out of danger of being baled, along with the hay.  A young crane, faced with an advancing piece of machinery, will crouch down instead of fleeing, and thus get macerated by a combine.

The first of the thousands of cattle that will graze there for the better part of nine months were visible, but I was concerned with some trespass livestock I had seen on Aug. 5, about a mile south of headquarters.  I find trespassing cattle almost every year — there were cowpies last year right in front of refuge headquarters — but this year I was unable to report them, because nobody seems to be at work.

And so the occupation continues, even though most of the occupiers are safely tucked away in jail cells.  The headquarters compound may be off-limits to human visitors, but the refuge is wide open for the grazing “treatments” that are allowed in order to “meet management objectives.” Sadly, the wildlife meant to find refuge in this place no longer seem to count for much.

Cows, Culture and the Search for Wildness in the American West

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http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=afe7d7387151def1a9ab883cf&id=8d6ec885eb&e=

by Stephen Capra

If one desires today to hike as far as they can away from civilization in the American West, they may find magical vistas and great streams that carry glacial water from our highest peaks. With luck they may see the tracks of a grizzly or hear the howl of a wolf. They may lose any sense of a path or trail, but what they will never lose, short of the boundaries of a National Park, is the constant piles of cow manure or the intersection of bovine that remind the hiker, the explorer, that there is no wildness in the West in 2016, but rather one large continuous stock yard of greed and stupidity, one that is in reality the graveyard of biodiversity.

Summer in the West is beginning to slowly yield to an approaching fall. The cows of the high country are beginning their slow migration across clear streams that come from receding glaciers. Wildlife Services remains busy poisoning, shooting and destroying the wild heart of our of our predator species that were designed to manage and keep in balance that which we call wildlife. Yet, the clowns of the West, those that remain the least evolved- the rancher, continue their occupation of the lands that once sang wildness and conveyed harmony and balance.

Wildness is not simply a word; it is not a place or a construct of the imagination. It is a heartbeat, a realm, a place of perfection that is the collusion of space, wildlife, quiet, sky, earth and water. It is a dimension known to few and treasured by many. Perhaps because it is so special, it is feared. To walk in the land of the grizzly, with a storm raging and cross a river swollen with a recent rain, is to sweat hard and risk, it is to allow yourself the sense of being one with a primordial force, it is the chance to breath and smell and cleanse yourself of the burden of life in a modern world.

Over time the ranching culture has stained our lives in the West. We began with a Native American culture, one that reflected the harmony and freedom that we search for today. In the base fear that defined the Americans of Manifest Destiny, we promoted control, control of a people, control of wildlife, control of wildness. In such an environment, the ranching culture was conceived and flourished. Today the DNA of that misguided venture lives on in our State Game Commissions, in our National Forest and Bureau of Land Management decisions. It is part of the demented culture of trapping and it resonates with so many Western lawmakers in their desire to kill the wildness that is the birthright of all species.

Nowhere is that more obvious, than in our western relationship to the cow. No species has ever defined genocide more clearly; no species has cost us more in blood or treasure.

If we are to ever rekindle the magic that is wildness, it must begin with ending the occupation of our Western lands at the hands of our bovine invaders. We must work to make our lands wild once again and remove the stockyard taint that we find even in our wildest realms. We must stop the slaughter of wolves, bears, coyotes and those species that define wildness at the hands of a people and culture that fears freedom.

We must put large swaths of land off-limits to cattle and clear our waterways of their giant footprint. As the earth cries out for our help, we can with a determined heart transition into a new West. One perhaps closer to the vision of John Wesley Powell, who viewed lands through the prism of watersheds: one that sees our public lands as a shared domain, not a trough for a fear-based group to exploit.
It’s ironic; we began in the West with Eden. Now we must work like never before as the curtain begins to close on our chance, to fix, cajole, fight for and remix that which we have tried so hard to destroy.

The blood that has so saturated our western soil must be the fertilizer that can create a stronger and better future. The culture we have grown up with must be changed, the killing stopped. From what we eat, to how we manage our lands, the shadow cast by the setting sun makes clear, our search for wildness is in jeopardy, but its fate is clearly in our hands.

The time is now to follow the mighty bear to the high ridge and soak in the wildness that is the energy that allows us to fight for a new West.

http://us7.campaign-archive2.com/?u=afe7d7387151def1a9ab883cf&id=8d6ec885eb&e=

Last occupiers of Oregon wildlife refuge surrender to FBI

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The Associated Press

BURNS, Ore. (AP) — Surrounded by FBI agents in armored vehicles, the last four occupiers of a national nature preserve surrendered Thursday, and a leader in their movement who organized a 2014 standoff with authorities was criminally charged in federal court.

The holdouts were the last remnants of a larger group that seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge nearly six weeks ago, demanding that the government turn over the land to locals and release two ranchers imprisoned for setting fires. For the first time since Jan. 2, the federal land was fully under the control of the U.S. government.

Meanwhile, Cliven Bundy, who was at the center of the 2014 standoff at his ranch in Nevada, was arrested late Wednesday in Portland after encouraging the Oregon occupiers not to give up. Bundy is the father of Ammon Bundy, the jailed leader of the Oregon occupation.

 On Thursday, the elder Bundy was charged in the standoff from two years ago. Federal authorities may have feared Bundy’s presence would draw sympathizers to defend the holdouts.

More: http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/occupiers-at-oregon-refuge-say-theyll-turn-themselves-in/

 

Cliven Bundy arrested in Portland

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http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cliven-bundy-arrested-in-portland-as-oregon-occupiers-say-they-will-surrender-thursday/ar-BBpnaMG?ocid=spartandhp

Occupiers say they will surrender Thursday

Cliven Bundy, the controversial Nevada rancher at the center of an armed standoff with federal officials in 2014, was arrested in Portland Wednesday, according to jail records and news reports.

He was reportedly on his way to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in isolated southeastern Oregon, where an armed occupation in its 41st day seemed to be coming to an end. The occupation had been organized by Bundy’s sons Ammon and Ryan, who are now in jail facing a felony charge of conspiracy to impede a federal officer.

The last remaining members of the occupation had said they will turn themselves over on Thursday morning, after the FBI appeared to close in on their encampment.

The FBI in Portland would not confirm the circumstances of elder Bundy’s arrest. But the Oregonian reported that he was apprehended at Portland International Airport after disembarking from his flight from Las Vegas late Wednesday night. The newspaper said that Bundy, 74, faces the same charge as his son in relation to his standoff with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in 2014. He also faces weapons charges, it said.

 

Bundy’s arrest came after federal authorities moved to surround the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Wednesday afternoon, prompting the lingering occupiers to have a panicked phone conversation with a few of their supporters, including Nevada state assemblywoman, Michele Fiore, that was broadcast over a livestream on YouTube

Initially the occupiers said they feared an armed assault by agents was imminent. But late Wednesday night local time, after a phone conversation that lasted more than four hours, one of occupiers said they planned to emerge from the refuge in the morning so long as Fiore was there to act as a witness and ensure that the occupation ended peacefully.

Mike Arnold, an attorney for Ammon Bundy who took part in Fiore’s phone negotiations and was en route to the wildlife refuge with her early Thursday, told The Washington Post that he was “extremely disappointed” by the news of Cliven Bundy’s arrest.

“It was a horrible strategic move to arrest Cliven while negotiations were literally happening over the phone,” he said. “That is not a symbol of good faith.”

But he believed that the agreement reached Wednesday night would still hold.

“We can take comfort in the incompetent strategic move by the federal government,” he said, because it showed that “if Cliven Bundy can be arrested peacefully — the lightning rod of much of the discourse on these issues — then the folks at the refuge should rest assured that the FBI will honor their promise to peacefully end this.”

Cliven Bundy’s arrest came just hours after the FBI moved to surround the spot where the lingering occupiers were camped Wednesday evening.

According to a statement issued by the FBI in Oregon, authorities made their move after one of the occupiers rode an ATV at 4:30 p.m. local time outside the enclosure where the handful of occupiers have been barricaded.

“FBI Agents attempted to approach the driver and he returned to the encampment at a high rate of speed,” the statement said.

The FBI moved to “contain” the remaining four occupiers by posting agents at the barricades in front of and behind the spot where the occupiers are camping, the statement continued.

“Negotiations between the occupiers and the FBI continue,” it said. “No shots have been fired.”

A neighbor who lives near the Malheur Refuge, 30 miles south of Burns, Ore., told The Washington Post that residents have been told to stay in their homes until the police give clearance.

Greg Bretzing, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI in Oregon, gave a statement in support of the move to surround those still at the refuge.

“It has never been the FBI’s desire to engage these armed occupiers in any way other than through dialogue, and to that end, the FBI has negotiated with patience and restraint in an effort to resolve the situation peacefully,” he said. “However, we reached a point where it became necessary to take action in a way that best ensured the safety of those on the refuge, the law enforcement officers who are on scene, and the people of Harney County who live and work in this area.”

Meanwhile, occupiers could be heard yelling at what they said was an FBI negotiator, according to the Associated Press.

“You’re going to hell. Kill me. Get it over with,” yelled David Fry, sounding overwrought. “We’re innocent people camping at a public facility, and you’re going to murder us.”

Wednesday marks day 40 of the occupation. Two weeks ago, leader Ammon Bundy and several others were arrested after a confrontation with police that left one man dead. In the days and weeks since, more than a dozen people involved the in the occupation have been arrested and several others voluntarily left the remote spot in southeastern Oregon after the FBI set up a blockade.

All of those arrested have been charged with conspiracy to impede a federal officer, the same felony charge facing the four holdouts who remain.

Those occupiers are 27-year-old Fry, who has been running a YouTube live stream, married couple Sean and Sandy Anderson, and a man named Jeff Banta, according to the Oregonian.

They’ve been alone at the refuge since Jan. 26, when the rest of the occupiers voluntarily left and surrendered to law enforcement. Defying calls to stand down from Oregon officials, law enforcement, Harney County locals and even Bundy, they’ve remained holed up inside the FBI blockade. In videos streamed by Fry, the occupiers were by turns desperate and defiant and increasingly inclined toward pranky stunts. One from early this week showed Fry doing doughnuts in a U.S. government vehicle.

“I think I want to take it on a little joy ride. You know?” Fry said. “Let’s start this baby up. Now you’ve got another charge on me, FBI. I am driving your vehicle.”

But in the phone conversation broadcast over YouTube, Fiore — speaking to the occupiers from Portland International Airport — repeatedly had to call for calm, as Fry yelled incoherently and other occupiers broke into shouts or tears.

“People are watching,” she assured them, asking them to recite prayers.

But the occupiers insisted that they could not trust the FBI’s promise of a peaceful resolution, and seemed certain that the standoff would end in violence.

“They killed LaVoy,” one man yelled. LaVoy Finicum, a spokesperson for the occupation, was fatally shot by Oregon state troopers during a highway confrontation in January when Bundy and four others were arrested.

“We’re not giving them any reason [to fire],” another person said. “But my weapon is within reach.”

The phone call was orchestrated by Gavin Seim, a failed Washington congressional candidate and self-proclaimed “liberty speaker.”

At the refuge, 187,700 acres of isolated grassland about 150 miles southwest of Bend, yelled conversations between the occupiers and law enforcement broke through the nighttime quiet of the high desert.

“Come out with your hands up,” a voice could be heard saying, according to the Oregonian. “There’s nowhere for you to go.”

“We’re leaving tomorrow,” Fry shouted back.

Over the phone, Fiore told the occupiers she would negotiate with law enforcement on behalf of those who remain.

“A grand jury has issued an indictment outside the Constitution, and we can fight that,” she said. “But we can’t fight if you die. … You guys have to come out. You need to stand down.”

Fiore said she wanted to come to the refuge and accompany the occupiers out on Thursday morning, telling the occupiers that she and Mike Arnold, an attorney for Ammon Bundy, were driving to Burns as they spoke. But the FBI has not allowed anyone onto the refuge since late January, when it set up its blockade.

Fiore, a Republican member of the Nevada state assembly who has been an outspoken gun rights advocate, traveled to Oregon Wednesday to advocate for Bundy and other occupiers. She is demanding that authorities release body cam anddash cam footage of the traffic stop in which Finicum was killed; the FBI has released aerial footage of the highway encounter but the video is fuzzy and taken from a distance.

“We have questions,” Fiore told the Las Vegas Sun.

The people still at the refuge have said they will not leave as long as they face charges and a possible prison term.

“I can’t even describe to you how wrong it is i feel to be giving myself into the hands of the enemy,” Sandy Anderson said. “ We’re going to lose our rights.”

On Wednesday night, Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy — father of Ammon Bundy — who was involved in a standoff with the Bureau of Land Management over grazing rights in 2014, announced on his Facebook page that he was heading to Burns to support the occupiers. He urged patriots and militia groups to join him.

“Wake up America!” his all-caps message read. “It’s time!”

Since it began on Jan. 2, the occupation has been at the center of a heated debate on the power of the federal government and land use in the West. In Oregon more than half of all land is federally controlled, and disputes over land use and environmental regulations are a familiar source of conflict.

The occupiers said that they would not leave until the Malheur Refuge was “returned” to the county and private landowners and two ranchers who had been imprisoned for setting fires on public lands were released from jail.

But after his arrest last month, Ammon Bundy called for the remaining occupiers to stand down.

“Go home and hug your families,” he said. “This fight is ours for now —  in the courts.”

Ranchers and hunters intent on wiping out wild horses wolves bison

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Wild horse and bison roundup area

Wild horse and bison roundup area
Image: Public Domain
http://www.examiner.com/article/ranchers-and-hunters-intent-on-wiping-out-wild-horses-wolves-bison

 

Authorities closing in on Oregon’s Malheur occupation

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http://www.hcn.org/articles/malheur-occupiers-1-dead-7-arrested-finicum

FBI calls for removal of occupiers following eight arrests and the death of one man late Tuesday.

Tay Wiles and Jonathan Thompson

Jan. 29 update: As of Thursday night, the Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that four occupiers remained at the refuge and that the agency is working to get them to come out peacefully.

Officials for the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Wednesday they will begin controlling access to Oregon’s Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, following the arrest of eight suspects and the death of one man late Tuesday.

The FBI and Harney County Sheriff set up checkpoints to control access into and out of the refuge, the FBI said in a statement Wednesday morning. The only people allowed to pass will be Harney County ranchers who own property in specific areas. Others will be asked to leave. Those who do not comply will be arrested. Those leaving the refuge must show identification and will have their vehicles searched, the FBI said.

The announcement comes following the shooting death of Robert “LaVoy” Finicum, a core member of the group of armed occupiers at the Malheur refuge. Federal Bureau of Investigation officers moved to arrest several of the illegal occupiers at about 4:25 p.m., Pacific Standard Time, on Highway 395 north of the refuge.

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Sgt. Tom Hutchison stands in front of an Oregon State Police roadblock on Highway 395 Jan. 26 between John Day and Burns, Oregon. The roadblock was set up by the FBI and the Oregon State Police to attempt to take into custody participants in the armed takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
Dave Killen/The Oregonian via AP

The suspects arrested Tuesday include Ammon Edward Bundy, 40, the leader of the Malheur occupation. Also arrested were Ryan Bundy, 43, of Bunkerville, Nevada; Brian Cavalier, 44, also of Bunkerville; Shawna Cox, 59, of Kanab, Utah; Ryan Payne, 32, of Anaconda, Montana; Joseph O’Shaughnessy, 45, of Cottonwood, Arizona; and Peter Santilli, 50, of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Arizona man Jon Ritzheimer, a member of the Three Percent militia, who had spent time at the refuge in support of the occupation, turned himself in to the Peoria, Arizona, police late Tuesday. Prior to coming to Oregon, Ritzheimer gained national attention for making incendiary comments about Muslims and organizing anti-Islam rallies.

One of the arrestees was treated for a gunshot wound at a local hospital and released last night. Officials have not released the name of the injured suspect, but the Oregonian reported it was Ryan Bundy. All arrestees face a federal felony charge of conspiracy to impede officers of the United States from discharging their official duties through the use of force, intimidation, or threats, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 372.

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The criminal complaint filed Jan. 27 against the occupiers. Click to view.

 

Tuesday’s arrests come amid 25 days of occupation at the Malheur refuge, following a protest in nearby Burns, Oregon, in support of ranchers Steven and Dwight Hammond, who were being sent to jail over charges of arson on public land.

Bundy and a small group of supporters, many of whom were armed militia from across the region, took over the refuge Jan. 2. They claimed they were taking a stand against federal overreach in matters of natural resource management and touting the far-fetched idea that all federal lands, including the refuge, should be turned over to local ownership.

It was unclear early Wednesday what will happen to the occupation, or the broader movement it represents.

“I would expect that the evidence against them will be presented to a grand jury in the weeks ahead, however, and that even more serious charges will be filed based on their unlawful occupation of the Malheur Refuge,” says David Uhlmann, former head of the Department of Justice’s environmental crimes section. “There is no question that the Justice Department would pursue the most serious possible charges — to include domestic terrorism — if a militant group took over federal property on behalf of ISIS or as part of an effort to overthrow the US government. The threat from this group was far less dangerous but no less illegal, and I expect that the Justice Department will insist on felony charges and jail time for anyone who does not cooperate in the case.”

Finicum was one of the most visible of the occupiers, often speaking at length at press conferences about the occupiers’ aims and beliefs.
Robert “LaVoy” Finicum at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Jan. 3, 2016.
Brooke Warren/High Country News

Finicum owned a ranch in northwestern Arizona, and has also long been a foster parent. He told reporters at the refuge that foster care, not ranching, was his main source of income. Tax documents from the Catholic Charities Community Services Inc. show that in 2009, Finicum was compensated about $115,000 for foster care, and in 2005, he received $99,000. The children in his care were taken out of his home by child services after the occupation began, thus depriving him and his wife of that income. He and his wife, Dorthea Jeanette, also owned a business called Southwest Horse and Trails, but they and the business declared bankruptcy in 2002.

The public record on Finicum is thin prior to 2014. But he appears to have gone through a major transformation after the standoff at the Bundy Ranch, just over the Nevada border from Finicum’s, in April of that year. Finicum joined the Bundys during the standoff, and helped them successfully wrest their cattle from the BLM.

Shortly thereafter, Finicum developed an online persona, with a website and Facebook page titled, “One Cowboy’s Stand for Freedom,” and laid out his creed in a series of YouTube videos. As is the case with Ammon Bundy and other members of their ad hoc movement, Finicum’s ideology was less old-school Sagebrush Rebellion than it was a broader brand of extreme libertarianism. He accused the BLM of stealing water from a huge tank on his land and other transgressions, but also spoke out against Obamacare and gun control, and encouraged his followers to stockpile enough food and supplies to survive for at least a year, in case of some sort of apocalyptic event. He even sold “Defend the Constitution” t-shirts and wrote a novel, “Only By Blood And Suffering: Regaining Lost Freedom.”

In his videos, Finicum appears to get deeper and deeper into his cause as time goes on, transitioning from merely proselytizing to inflaming actual revolt. In November of 2015 he rallied southern Utah ranchers to take part in a “Cowboy Uprising” by refusing to pay grazing fees, a la Cliven Bundy, and asked for militia support. His speech to them repeatedly invoked the American Lands Council and its seizure of federal land philosophy.

Referring to the Bundy standoff, Finicum wrote in 2014: “When I rode around that corner to face those federal guns, I knew I might never see my family again and I did it because I knew that the federal government was using the law to unjustly steal a man’s property…. I’m willing to die standing on this line.” He used similar rhetoric during the occupation, hinting that he’d rather go down shooting in the name of an ideological crusade than to spend his life in a “concrete box.”

Officials have not yet given any details regarding the exact events that led up to Finicum’s death. But as news got out that Finicum was dead, supporters of the Bundys and the occupation unleashed a flurry of propaganda on social media, accusing the feds of murdering him and raising the specter of retaliatory action against the government and law enforcement.

“My heart and prayers go out to LaVoy Finicum’s family he was just murdered with his hands up in Burns, OR,” tweeted Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore. Fiore is well-known for her extreme right wing views, her support of the Bundy family and for the Second Amendment calendars she produces and models in, posing with high-powered firearms. On its own Facebook page, the Bundy Ranch posted photos of Finicum, noting, “… our government murdered him while he was unarmed with his hands in the air… Who stands with liberty?”

But in a video posted on YouTube this morning, Ammon Bundy’s bodyguard Mark McConnell, who says he was detained and released, had a different account. “He (Finicum) was not on his knees,” McConnell says, basing his take on what he saw and heard during the altercation. “He went after (the enforcement officers). He charged them. LaVoy was very passionate about what he was doing up here.”

Still, McConnell’s account might have come too late to defuse the situation. Extremist Internet forums lit up last night with the language of revenge. “These are the first shots of a new revolution,” wrote commenter “Nextrush” on freerepublic.com. “His death will be avenged.”

DC correspondent Elizabeth Shogren contributed reporting to this story. Jonathan Thompson is a senior editor of HCN and Tay Wiles is the online editor.

 

Will the History Books Record How Neo-Nazis Made Eyes at the Bundy Militia?

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http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34575-will-the-history-books-record-how-neo-nazis-made-eyes-at-the-bundy-militia

Wednesday, 27 January 2016 00:00
Written by
Spencer Sunshine By Spencer Sunshine, Truthout | News Analysis

With fellow protesters on either side of him, Ammon Bundy, back to camera in center, speaks to reporters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Princeton, Ore., Jan. 4, 2016. (Jarod Opperman / The New York Times)With fellow protesters on either side of him, Ammon Bundy, back to camera in center, speaks to reporters at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Princeton, Oregon, January 4, 2016. (Photo: Jarod Opperman / The New York Times)

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The FBI and the Oregon State Police have arrested most of the leaders of the three-and-a-half-week armed occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. At least two militia members were shot during a highway traffic stop that turned into a shoot-out Tuesday night, and one militia leader – Robert “LaVoy” Finicum – was killed.

From its start, the Malheur occupation highlighted the social and political fault lines within the United States, drawing sharply conflicting reactions ranging from mockery to hero worship to criticisms of the capitalist and colonial underpinnings of the militia’s tactics and aims. Reactions to the shoot-out have also revealed even more fault lines, including divisions within the left, as some celebrate the downfall of the far-right-wing occupiers and others question how any progressive could ever celebrate the shooting of a civilian by the police.

As the Malheur occupation fades into history, there are many insights on the US social and political landscape to be distilled both from this episode and from the national conversations it has sparked. One underreported aspect of the affair is what it revealed about the nature of the partial but significant overlaps between neo-Nazis and anti-federal-government activists like the Bundys.

The occupiers had been demanding the abolition of the federal government as we know it, using a set of rationales that were originally derived from racist movements. Some of the occupiers were known to spout anti-Semitic or Islamophobic conspiracy theories, while another denied that slavery existed. And so it should not have surprised anyone that neo-Nazis and other organized racists have applauded the occupation.

Instead of wearing a swastika and burning a cross, they were wrapped in the American flag and waving the Constitution.

Until their arrest, Ammon and Ryan Bundy (sons of deadbeat rancher Cliven Bundy) were leaders of the occupation of the refuge’s headquarters outside of Burns, Oregon, which had gone on since January 2. They had two demands: to remove control of the bird sanctuary (previously Indigenous-held land) from the federal government’s hands so that ranchers could use it for private gain without current environmental and other restrictions; and release two members of the Hammond family, local ranchers serving sentences for arson on public land.

Many of the ideas and political forms that Ammon Bundy and his friends used were derived from the 1970s white supremacist group Posse Comitatus. It promoted the formation of militias, developed a fictitious parallel legal world based on an idiosyncratic reading of the US Constitution, and rejected the authority of federal and state governments – claiming that the county sheriff was the highest legitimate elected official. But while Ammon Bundy and the others directly around him had many of the same ideas, they were careful not to use Posse Comitatus’ bigoted language.

This was not true of many of the Bundys’ followers at the refuge. Jon Ritzheimer, who was also arrested Tuesday night, is a famous Islamophobic organizer, known for his vicious rhetoric. Blaine Cooper once wrapped a Koran in bacon and set it on fire. Brand Thornton and David Fry are reported to hold anti-Semitic ideas. Ryan Payne (also arrested on Tuesday) believes that slavery didn’t exist. Rance Harris is said to have neo-Nazi tattoos like “88” – the alphanumeric code for “Heil Hitler.” And together they collectively offended the Burns Paiute Tribe (whose land used to include the refuge), by – among other things – breaking into an area where the tribe’s artifacts are stored.

So flirtatious overtures from neo-Nazis to the Bundy gang should not have surprised anyone.

More: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/34575-will-the-history-books-record-how-neo-nazis-made-eyes-at-the-bundy-militia