Sept. 26, 2012 - Cattle graze on a ranch outside of Encino, N.M. photo: Russell Contreras/AP[/caption]We picked up this story today in the Spokesman about people in New Mexico cutting fences to steal grass.
With extreme drought drying out grazing land and driving up hay prices, authorities in drought-stricken states say some ranchers have started stealing hay, cutting neighbors' fences or leaving gates open so their cattle can graze on greener pastures.
Authorities in other drought-stricken states say they’ve seen similar fence cuttings, along with thefts of livestock and other materials as ranchers struggle to stay in business.
In some cases, stealing a neighbor’s grass may be the only way for a rancher to feed his or her livestock, but victims say their livelihood is being threatened too.
“We’ve had around five cases in the past few weeks where someone says his cattle just happened to walk through a gate that just happened to be open or an instance where a fence was clearly cut,” Sheriff Michael Lucero said. “And I suspect there are more cases, but they aren’t being reported.”
Ranchers from Missouri to Texas and west into New Mexico have sold off huge portions of their herds this year because the worst drought in decades dried up their pastures and they couldn’t afford to buy food for their animals. While grass thefts might seem relatively harmless, ranchers say they threaten the businesses and animals that are left.
Petty crime and burglaries aren’t unusual in isolated Guadalupe County, but this is an apparently new field of crime for New Mexico, and it’s not clear just how many grass thefts have happened since most aren’t reported, and even when they are, most don’t result in arrests, said Myles Culbertson, executive director of the New Mexico Livestock Board.
“It’s extremely hard to make a case. You almost have to have an eyewitness,” he said.
It seems there is always another test of our ethical and moral boundaries around the bend. I have to ask myself what I'd do in the situation of these ranchers on either side of the fence.
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