DIAMOND BAR CATTLE COMPANY

Cattle removed; rancher remains jailed

Four U.S. Forest Service trucks with a law enforcement escort hauled more than 200 head of cattle off a grazing allotment in the Gila National Forest Wednesday night. The cattle belong to Catron County rancher Kit Laney, who remains in the Doña Ana County Detention Center.
Laney, 43, has been in the detention center since his arrest March 14 for interfering with Forest Service personnel and hired hands executing a court order to remove his cattle. Charged with five counts of assaulting a federal officer and other charges, he has twice been denied release by a federal magistrate who said she feared he would return to his ranch and interfere again.
Federal Magistrate Karen B. Molzen has denied Laney’s release until the cattle are removed. Laney’s federal public defender Jane Greek is appealing Molzen’s ruling.
The grazing allotment for Laney’s Diamond Bar ranch is on federal property.
Laura Schneberger, president of the livestock board in Catron County, said the Forest Service began removing cattle from the impound area Wednesday.
“It was just about dark when the trucks pulled out,” Schneberger said. “I got calls as they went through Winston and Cuchillo.”
“No one in New Mexico will buy those cattle,” she said. “Ranchers here believe the cattle are stolen. They (Forest Service) will probably have to go into Texas to sell the cattle.”
Schneberger and others have videotaped the cattle and indicated some of the cattle are not in good shape.
“One more reason Forest Service wants to sell these cattle out of state is they don’t want anyone to see the cattle unloaded,” Schneberger said. “There will probably be a number of dead animals by the time they get to their destination.”
Andrea Martinez, media liaison with the Forest Service confirmed 251 head of cattle left the holding area, but declined to say where the cattle will be sold.
“We had some livestock auction barns lined up to handle the sale,” Martinez said, “but many of the auction barns are run by ranchers and they all know each other. For that reason we don’t to disclose where the sale will be held.”
Martinez said there have been seven notices posted on the gate of Laney’s Diamond Bar Ranch explaining how the cattle can be reclaimed. She said if the Laneys pay the costs of roundup and prove ownership of the herd, they can have the cattle.
“The other stipulations are they may not place any livestock in the Apache National Forest or the Gila National Forest,” Martinez said.
Martinez estimates there are about 65 head of cattle remaining and thinks it may be two weeks before the Forest Service completes the removal process.
All of Laney’s cattle have been seen by veterinarians and are being well cared for with a mix of hay and alfalfa and plenty of water, Martinez said.

T.S. Hopkins can be reached at thopkins@lcsun-news.com

Officials say Laney can still redeem cattle

There is still time for ranchers Kit Laney and Sherry Farr to redeem cattle impounded from the Diamond Bar allotment, but reclaiming their livestock will have a hefty price tag.
According to a federal court ruling, Laney and Farr, as owners of the Diamond Bar Cattle Co., must reimburse the U.S. Forest Service for all costs associated with gathering, impounding and transporting cattle from the 146,000-acre allotment.
What those costs might be - which are to include labor, fuel and transportation, feed for livestock, meals for wranglers and Forest Service personnel, and other miscellaneous costs - remains speculative.
On March 11, three days after the roundup began, Laney received notice from Annette Chavez, Wilderness District ranger, that the costs associated with gathering and impounding 80 head of cattle totaled $40,950.
"If you intend to redeem your livestock at this point, you must provide a cashier's check or U.S. Postal money order payable to the United States Forest Service in the amount listed above," Chavez wrote.
Two weeks later, as of Thursday midday, 320 of an estimated 400 to 450 head of cattle had been gathered, according to a Forest Service spokeswoman.
The recent cost, on average, of one cow at livestock auctions is about $650. If 400 cattle are sold, they would bring about $260,000.
Toby Laney, Kit Laney's nephew, said his uncle asked the Forest Service how much it would cost to redeem the cattle.
"Kit and Sherry's attorney advised them to say they wanted to redeem the cattle to see where this goes," Toby Laney said. "We knew it was probably going to be an absurd amount of money, and probably wasn't going to be financially feasible, but the principle of the law says we have to have the opportunity.
"(The Forest Service) just put (the cattle) on a truck and shipped them to we don't know where."
A Forest Service spokeswoman said this morning that tallies of costs are updated weekly, and available to Laney and Farr upon request.
"We are not aware of any recent request from Kit and Sherry for redemption costs. We will continue to be responsive to them through the Wilderness District ranger's office for any request regarding those costs," she said.
When asked what the costs are to date, Gila National Forest officials referred the matter to a Forest Service attorney, who was unavailable for comment.
Laney remains jailed in Las Cruces after a federal judge this week denied for the second time the rancher's request to post bond. He was arrested March 14 after allegedly charging on horseback at Forest Service officials who were impounding his cattle.
The fourth-generation rancher has been charged with two counts of obstruction of justice, five counts of assaulting and interfering with federal officers and employees, and one count of interfering with a court order.
In denying bail for the 43-year-old rancher, U.S. Magistrate Karen Molzen said she was concerned he would return to the Diamond Bar allotment and try to disrupt the court-ordered roundup.
Farr and Laney do not hold permits to graze livestock on the allotment, about 85 percent of which is within designated wilderness. They do own private land within the allotment, and have contended in lawsuits that they have grazing rights based on historical use of the land.
Courts have ruled against them numerous times since the mid-1990s.
A U.S. District Court judge had ordered the cattle to be removed from the Diamond Bar allotment because Laney and Farr did not have a grazing permit. Laney was later found in contempt of court.
Forest Service officials have stated it is their intent to impound the cattle until they can be sold at auction.
The agency is now advertising its intent to sell 251 of Laney and Farr's cattle.
Laney has five days from Tuesday's posting of a legal notice in the Daily Press to redeem the cattle.
The Laneys contend they are entitled to surface rights on the Diamond Bar, claiming historical use of the allotment predates the authority of the Forest Service. They have argued they own a "vested fee interest" in areas the federal government claims to control, and that such an interest is similar to owning mineral rights or another easement on the land. In their case, the ownership is tied to both water rights and the land that is incidental to the water rights for grazing.
The ranchers have alleged that the roundup is illegal and that the impoundment is potentially a criminal offense, resulting in "an unconstitutional jurisdiction over us and our life, liberty and property."
Truckloads of Laney cattle have been shipped from Beaverhead, presumably to livestock auction barns.
The Forest Service has declined to disclose the destination of the cattle.
Marcia Andre, Gila National Forest supervisor, said that Kit Laney was notified of the pending shipment in accordance with the law.
"The clock is still ticking. (Kit Laney) can still redeem the cattle prior to any sale, and he has been notified how to do that," Andre said.