Injunction on roaming bison takes effect

An injunction to stop roaming bison in their tracks went into effect Thursday in King County. The injunction was issued in a lawsuit involving the January shooting of 51 bison on a ranch in the county northwest of Abilene. The bison are supposed to be at home on the QB Pasture Reserve, better known as the QB Ranch. The 20,000-acre outfit bills itself as a place to hunt not only bison but also Watusi cattle and trophy whitetail deer. In January, several head of bison roamed onto the neighboring Niblo Ranch, where ranch employee Jackie Doyle Hill allegedly shot 51 head of the QB herd. Hill has been charged with felony criminal mischief in the incident. His trial date has yet to be set. Meanwhile, the farming and ranching partnership that leases the Niblo Ranch filed suit against the QB, and the QB has countered with a suit for damages to recover the value of the slaughtered bison. Don Ross Malone, an attorney who practices in Vernon, is representing the 3-S Texas General Partnership in civil proceedings against the QB. “We went to court,” Malone said. “We asked them for an injunction to abate a private nuisance.” Houston attorney Andrew Sher is representing the interests of the QB. A side note in the case is the classification of the bison as wild animals. “The classification of these animals as livestock, that’s how the QB wants to classify them,” Malone said. “Our position is that they’re wild animals. It’s stated in the Texas Agricultural Code. That’s a determinative factor that’s going to decide who has to build the fence.”...more