BLM Fails [again] to Protect our Public Lands Against Lawless Welfare Ranchers
A Meat and Dairy Industries Article from All-Creatures.org

All of God's creatures have rights, a fact that most people don't seem to recognize. This includes both human and non-human animals, but not all of them can speak for themselves. As we continue to disregard the value of the lives of the billions of animals we eat, we also are destroying our air, land and water.

FROM

American Wild Horse Preservation
June 2015

[NOTE from All-Creatures.org: If you eat "beef," you may be responsible for wild horse roundups and slaughter...]

During the first week of June, 2015, two Elko County Commissioners joined welfare ranchers Dan and Eddyann Fillippini in breaking federal law by turning out cattle in a drought stricken area of public lands where livestock grazing has been prohibited by the BLM.

In response, the BLM did nothing. Instead the agency "negotiated" with these ranchers, who feel entitled to graze their livestock on our public lands and receive taxpayer-subsidized grazing rates that are a fraction of market rate.

welfare cattle ranchers
Photo by Mike Lorden

Public lands ranchers, many of whom decry the federal government while happily accepting federal grazing subsidies, continue to defy Bureau of Land Management (BLM) restrictions on livestock grazing. Emboldened by Cliven Bundy, who owes the federal government millions of dollars in grazing fees and whose trespass cattle are still illegally grazing on BLM land in southern Nevada, ranchers continue to thumb their nose at federal authority. As in the Bundy situation, the BLM continues to back down. While the agency has threatened to arrest wild horse advocates for the simple act of videotaping, it takes no action against lawless ranchers who flaunt grazing restrictions and offer up threats of violence in the form of armed militias. The BLM”s lack of action against these violators is an affront to law abiding citizens and American taxpayers whose drought-stricken, western public lands are rapidly being turned into a dust bowl, courtesy of welfare ranching.

 welfare ranchers
BLM allows grazing on closed allotment to avoid confrontation

During the first week of June, 2015, two Elko County Commissioners joined welfare ranchers Dan and Eddyann Fillippini in breaking federal law by turning out cattle in a drought stricken area of public lands where livestock grazing has been prohibited by the BLM.

In response, the BLM did nothing. Instead the agency "negotiated" with these ranchers, who feel entitled to graze their livestock on our public lands and receive taxpayer-subsidized grazing rates that are a fraction of market rate.

In a settlement dated June 5, 2015, the BLM agreed to allow the Fillippinis to leave their trespass cattle on the public lands that have been closed to livestock grazing because of the drought. In exchange, the Filippinis admitted to "willful" grazing trespass and will have to pay less than a week's worth of "enhanced" grazing fees, which are still a fraction of market rate, thanks to our taxpayer subsidies Since the settlement, the grazing fee has reverted to $1.65 per Animal Unit Month, which is at least 1/12th of the fee they would pay to graze their livestock on private lands and far cheaper for the Filippinis than keeping their cattle on their own private lands and feeding them hay. So, once again, the BLM rewarded welfare ranchers for illegal behavior and the destruction of our public lands.


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