Texas buffalo killings spark range law questions

[douglas9]

GUTHRIE, Texas — The slaughter of dozens of buffalo amid an apparent spat between neighboring ranches in northwest Texas has reopened a long unresolved debate about what ranchers legally can do when somebody else's animals roam onto their property.

Wayne Kirk recalled the horrific scene in January when more than 50 of his buffalo were found shot to death on a nearby ranch. Some of them had been "caped," meaning their hides were removed.

"Babies, pregnant mamas, bulls, everything," said Kirk, owner of the 14,964-acre QB Ranch. "It was terrible, pitiful. It looked like a death zone."

The then-foreman at the adjacent Niblo Ranch was charged with criminal mischief for the killings, and both ranches filed lawsuits.

The farming and ranching partnership that leases Niblo was the first to sue, contending QB's bison had become a "public nuisance." The animals improperly roamed freely and interfered with Niblo's ranching operations by destroying fencing, eating wheat crops and livestock feed and mingling with its cattle, threatening those animals with crossbreeding and disease, its lawsuit said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7312333.html

[Sal Minella]

1. The buffalo belong there. The cattle don't. n/t

[Winterblues]

2. They seem to think it is quite proper to take the Law into their own hands

in TEXAS...What the Hell are the Police for anyway?

[Hangingon]

3. The QB is a hunting operation.

I am sure there is a cost for a hunter to shoot one of thier buffalo. Thay should have fenced their property.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

4. I hear buffalo are hard to contain.

I was thinking about getting a yearling heifer once and was warned that they just roam. They go through fences and keep going. When our neighbors cattle get on to our place it's not big deal and visa versa. Nobody would dream of shooting someone else's cattle. Some people just like killing shit I guess.