DIAMOND BAR CATTLE COMPANY

Diamond Bar cattle are sold at auction

Some 252 head of cattle impounded from the Diamond Bar allotment on the Gila National Forest have been sold at auction, according to a U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman.

A federal court has ruled Kit Laney and Sherry Farr, owners of the Diamond Bar Cattle Co., must reimburse the U.S. Forest Service for all costs associated with the removal of cattle from the 146,000-acre allotment — about 85 percent of which is within designated wilderness.

The livestock sold were the first of some 425 head rounded up so far from allotment. The sale, at an undisclosed location, netted $121,000, according to the Forest Service. Diamond Bar cattle sold, on average, for $480.16 per head.

Costs associated with the roundup, impoundment and transport of cattle — estimated at $884 per head to date, according to the Forest Service — have exceeding the value of the livestock. Money from the livestock sale, as well as that for other Diamond Bar livestock, is to be applied toward the costs of removing cattle from the allotment.

A U.S. District Court judge ordered the cattle be removed from the allotment because Laney and Farr did not have a grazing permit. Laney was later found in contempt of court.

While Farr and Laney do not hold permits to graze livestock on forest lands known as the Diamond Bar allotment, 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.

Most recently, Laney has been indicted by a grand jury on 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.

He remains in federal custody in Las Cruces, from where he is to be released April 8.

Forest Service officers say Laney rode his horse to a temporary impoundment area on March 14. He allegedly charged the horse at law enforcement officers from the Forest Service and tried to tear down a corral holding some of his cattle.

But G.B. Oliver, executive director of the Paragon Foundation, through which a legal defense fund for the ranchers has been established, said he "had serious doubts as to what went on as (Kit Laney) was arrested."

Oliver said the fund has been established to support the ranchers in their effort "to maintain the rights to their private property." During a fund-raiser held in Reserve last weekend, some $6,000 was raised toward Laney's legal defense.

The ranchers 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.

Laney and Farr have alleged that the roundup and sale of their cattle is illegal and that the impoundment is potentially a criminal offense, resulting in "an unconstitutional jurisdiction over us and our life, liberty and property."