Range wars, where cattlemen battled sheepherders for grazing in the days of the Wild West, are well-known affairs that have attracted much study. However, I don't think many of them - any of them? - sank to this level.
Accused of bleaching images of male genitalia and other markings onto their neighbor’s cows, a Crook County father and son are now facing felony-level property destruction charges.
Two criminal complaints filed last month in the Sundance Circuit Court allege that Patrick Sean Carroll, who is 66 this year, and his son Tucker Kye Carroll, who is 34 this year, funneled 189 heifers and six bulls into a chute and bleach-dyed them to get a neighbor’s attention after three years of having the cattle cross onto their land.
Some of the heifers had penis shapes bleached onto their bodies, according to an evidentiary affidavit written by Crook County Sheriff’s Deputy Alex Jessen.
. . .
Rusty Williamson of Williamson Land and Livestock also came to the corrals, says the affidavit ... buyers reportedly told Williamson that the heifers, unmarked, would have been worth about $2,600 per head, but now they were worth about $1,850.
Buyers may think the cows were marked to signal something wrong with them, says the affidavit.
The loss among 189 heifers would be $141,750, says the affidavit. This figure doesn’t account for any losses among the marked bulls.
There's more at the link.
In the days of the Wild West, if someone yelled "Draw!" they usually meant to reach for one's gun. Nowadays, it seems to mean "Reach for the bleach!" Odd, that . . . As for drawing genitalia on cattle, aren't most of them castrated before they get too big? (That's what the term "steer" means: it's a bull that's been de-bulled, so to speak.) Therefore, isn't such drawing actually false advertising? Could that be added to the charges?
Curiouser and curiouser . . . and that's no bull!
Peter
...I wish we could de-bull our "government..."
ReplyDeleteLOL, interesting 'take' on the situation... And stupid too! That's serious money involved if those beeves are considered 'unsellable'...
ReplyDeleteSo the cattle were on the neighbors property repeatedly? 🤔 screw that guy. Take care of your fences dude
ReplyDeleteWhen a Marine returns to civilian life in the family ranch, things happen.
ReplyDeleteFFS. It's hair. Wait for them to shed out in the spring if it's that big a deal. If they're young animals going to slaughter, it's irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteGood fences make good neighbors.
ReplyDeleteAnd heres me thinking penis graphiti was a NEW thing.
ReplyDeleteAffidavit smaffidavit. Just someone's opinion. IT doesn't impact the part they are really going to use, which is the meat. "Buyers" reportedly ... says it all. I bet there are lots of opinions about valuation, most not worth the paper they are printed on.
ReplyDeleteDad always told me that we maintained our fences and the neighbor's share of the fences to keep the neighbor's livestock out of our fields. Having said that, this was a pretty restrained way of telling the bad neighbor to keep his cattle on his side of the fence. Electric fence is fairly cheap to install and very effective and it always griped me that the neighbors were never held responsible for fixing their portion of the fence. The portion of the fence you are responsible for is decided by facing the fence and the right half is your responsibility.
ReplyDeletePiles of silage with toxic additions for disposing of pest animals would have sufficed.
ReplyDelete"Oh, looks like your cattle wandered across our property, again, home they didn't eat any of the pest control fodder"