Sand to Snow National Monument is a quiet place — its mountainous high desert and cascading streams a draw for those seeking panoramic views, tranquillity and solitude.
But on a recent morning, the serenity was ruined by a menacing bellowing, making it clear passing hikers weren't alone.
On a ridgeline near a popular stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail, five feral bulls, each the size of a small car, were snorting, stomping and pawing the ground — postures indicating they were ready to charge.
The bulls gazed down on human observers; some lowered their footlong horns. Then they lumbered on, trampling the trail and devouring native vegetation in one of California's newest national monuments. Peering through binoculars, Terry Anderson, a board member of the Society for the Conservation of Bighorn Sheep, saw a species he doesn't consider worthy of conservation in the wild lands near Palm Springs.
"They are part of a herd of at least 150 that's ripping up this monument and scaring the heck out of folks who cross paths with them," he said. "They also can transmit disease to native bighorn sheep. So, they need to be removed — and I'm all for lethal removal. They don't belong here."
Signs posted at trailheads warn of an additional danger. A pack of pit bulls has been killing and eating wild cattle in this nature sanctuary framed by mountains and watered year-round by a river roiling through overlapping biological zones including sandy desert, boulder fields, grasslands and forests.
Jack Thompson, desert regional director of the adjacent Whitewater Preserve, roughly 10 miles northwest of Palm Springs, was only half-kidding when he said, "It's Jurassic Park just a two-hour drive east of downtown Los Angeles."...
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I dunno. The few "wild" cattle I've been around would run and brush up. Just the opposite of charging.
Read on and you'll see the enviros would rather confront a bear than a "raging bull". That's ignorance, but, really demonstrates their hatred of livestock.
If they are gonna exterminate these cattle, I'm told they want to use Martin Heinrich's gas-assisted receiver firearms to accomplish their goal. Good luck.
And welcome, all my New Mexico friends, to federal lands management National Monument style.
UPDATE:
These cattle have been on this country, reportedly desert tortoise habitat, for a lot longer than Bundy's cattle were grazing on his allotment. No expense was spared in the attempt to remove the Bundy cattle: contract cowboys ($966,000), heavy equipment and so on. And yet, nothing has been done to remove these monument cattle. Why the difference?
3 comments:
Oddly enough, in the East Bay hills where a lot of these anti-livestock ideas originate, there are cows grazing on regional park lands.
There have been a couple cases of cows charging at hikers, but the park officials insist that it is far more dangerous to not have the cows there grazing due to high fire danger and difficult terrain in close proximity to populated areas.
If any of the hikers continue to complain... the park officials will only have to point in the direction of the Wine Country to make their point.
These cattle probably "charged" hikers who were accompanied by their dogs which were running lose and the cattle took care of the dogs. When the dogs ran back to their masters the cattle followed them. So the hikers were charged by wild, mad cattle and forget about the dogs which were with them. Of course the article doesn't say anything about dogs does it? Certainly not! But brain dead liberals always think they can leave out the truth when they state something to their benefit.
SOS........to whoever writes the headlines.......
Blame the bovines.........rather than the incompetent Government management and rules that are the cause.
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