DIAMOND
BAR CATTLE COMPANY
More cattle being shipped from Diamond Bar
Ranch
Another 162 head of Diamond Bar cattle are to be
shipped today from corrals at Beaverhead to undisclosed auction
facilities.
That will bring to 414 the number of cattle impounded and
trucked away from the allotment on the Gila National Forest, where courts
determined that ranchers Kit Laney and Sherry Farr were grazing livestock
illegally.
Forest Service officials estimate another 20 to 40 head still
need to be captured. Regular employees will do the job during weekend patrols,
or when hunters or others report seeing cattle on the allotment, according to
Wilderness District Ranger Annette Chavez.
She said contract cowboys the
government hired to do the roundup will leave today or Wednesday.
Last
week, 252 head of Diamond Bar cattle were sold at auction, according to the
Forest Service. The sale, at an undisclosed location, netted $121,000, the
agency reported.
The livestock being shipped today includes 55 cows, 31
heifers, 25 steers, 12 heifer calves, eight bulls, five steer calves and two
bull calves owned by the Diamond Bar Cattle Co.; 11 cows and one bull owned by
Farr; and 12 unbranded cattle.
Fourteen horses reportedly captured while
grazing on federal land without a permit remain in a corral at the Forest
Service's Me Own fire base, adjacent to the Diamond Bar.
All but four of
the horses belong to the ranch, according to Chavez. Three are owned by Farr's
sister, and one belongs to Catron County Sheriff Cliff Snyder, the ranger
reported.
Chavez said officials are "in the process of evaluating
(Farr's) request to release the horses."
Farr has said the horses
escaped deeded land by passing through a gate that had been left open.
"This is not willful trespass; this is incidental trespass," she
recently told the Daily Press. "I have acted in good faith."
"These
people (with whom the Forest Service contracted to remove the livestock) have
left every gate open on this ranch since they've been here," Farr
added.
Forest Service spokeswoman Andrea Martinez responded that roundup
personnel "have been very conscientious ... and are very familiar with
livestock operations. ... We have been leaving some forest gates open, but they
were within the national forest."....
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