Bozeman man attacked by grizzly while bow hunting

A grizzly bear attacked a Bozeman bow hunter in the southern Gravelly Mountains last Sunday morning, according to a state game warden. Matt Menge suffered a broken right forearm and large cuts on his head from the attack, which he described as a fast and sudden attack in dense forest, said Warden Sam Sheppard with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. Sheppard said Menge was bow hunting near the west fork of the Madison River south of Ennis. While he had driven up to the area with a friend, he was hunting alone, traveling back to his truck when the attack happened, he said. "This is just something that has the potential to happen when people archery hunt in those areas with a resident grizzly bear population," Sheppard said. "You're stealthing along, cammo-ed up, being extremely quite and you just bump into them." Menge was carrying pepper spray, but could not reach it before the bear reached him, Sheppard said...more

Outfitter camps drawing grizzlies

Bear managers have relocated five grizzlies in the past week from the Pacific Creek area east of Grand Teton National Park after the bears raided outfitter camps for horse feed. On Sept. 9, Wyoming Game and Fish personnel captured an adult female with three yearling cubs. The bears were relocated to the North Fork of the Shoshone River. “The mother with the cubs got a food reward and did a small amount of damage to a utility trailer,” said Mark Bruscino, Game and Fish bear management program supervisor. Monday, Game and Fish captured another grizzly, an adult male, after he obtained horse feed and damaged a tent. That bear was also relocated to the North Fork of the Shoshone. Bruscino said the Pacific Creek area is a hot spot for bears and also an area highly used by outfitters and other members of the public. The relocations were necessary to ensure public safety, he said...more

Bureaucracy complicated news of man’s fatal grizzly mauling

Fatal bear attacks are rare, and the deadly mauling in June of a botanist by a grizzly bear that researchers had trapped and released just hours earlier is thought to be the first and only such incident in the United States. Any attack on a human by a predator draws intense scrutiny from the news media and the public. But bear attacks around Yellowstone National Park happen in a politically charged climate where every rumor, fact and utterance can become fodder for a wider debate on wildlife management. Internal communications and other documents from federal, state and local agencies gathered using public records laws show that wildlife officials closely monitored media coverage of Evert’s death. But there was no single authority that represented a unified voice for a diverse group of individuals and agencies involved in grizzly bear management. Those documents, and interviews with officials involved with the response to Evert’s death, also show that concern about politics, legal liability and interagency relationships complicated communications with the press and the public...more

Wyoming Delegation Protests Interior Memo

Wyoming's congressional delegation is taking issue with a U.S. Interior Department memorandum that they say suggests a secret plan to restrict land use in the state. Republican Sens. Mike Enzi and John Barrasso and Rep. Cynthia Lummis wrote Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday expressing their concerns about the memo. In an internal BLM memo, the agency identified up to 13 million acres nationwide that President Barack Obama could designate as new national monuments. The delegation says the memo mentions using land-use planning to limit oil and gas development in Wyoming. The Interior Department has insisted the memo is nothing more than brainstorming. Federal law prohibits the president from designating monuments in Wyoming without congressional approval. The delegation says the memo appears to suggest ways to circumvent the law. AP

Forest supervisors oppose mega-loads

Supervisors of the Clearwater and Lolo national forests say they're concerned allowing oversized loads of oil processing equipment to travel from Lewiston into Montana could set a precedent that transforms the scenic highway into an industry byway. Clearwater supervisor Rick Brazell and Lolo supervisor Deborah Austin each wrote letters to the Departments of Transportation in both states. The Lewiston Tribune reports both are concerned that the slow-moving loads which will cause periodic road closures could hamper public access to the forest, pose safety hazards, alter natural views and disturb campers. Both Brazell and Austin acknowledge that they have little authority to prevent the shipments, but asked the state agencies to consider the long-term effects of permitting the loads. AP

MT ranchers go to court to end well exemptions

Montana ranchers are asking a state court to review a Department of Natural Resources and Conservation ruling that said homes built in rural areas can be exempted from water permit rules. Four ranchers and a conservation group, the Clark Fork Coalition, were named in the lawsuit. It was filed Tuesday in Lewis and Clark County, and says the DNRC was wrong to uphold well exemptions in an August decision. More than 70,000 permit exemptions have been granted in recent decades, allowing developers to drill wells despite senior rights held by other water users...more

Salmonella at Egg Farm Traced to 2008

A major egg producer linked to an outbreak of salmonella that has sickened more than 1,500 people conducted tests as far back as 2008 that indicated the possible presence of the dangerous bacteria in its henhouses, according to records released on Tuesday by Congressional investigators. The records show that there were 73 instances over about two years in which sponges swabbed on egg conveyor belts and other areas in Wright County Egg’s barns showed the presence of salmonella bacteria, including the strain that infects eggs and causes human illness. In at least one case, further tests showed that the toxic form, Salmonella enteritidis, was present. Records the company provided to Congress, however, “did not show whether Wright County Egg took appropriate steps to protect the public after receiving the positive test results,” Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat who is chairman of the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, wrote in a letter this week to Austin J. DeCoster, the owner of the company...more

FDA poised to impose limits on antibiotic use in meat animals

Dispensing antibiotics to healthy animals is routine on the large, concentrated farms that now dominate American agriculture. But the practice is increasingly condemned by medical experts who say it contributes to a growing scourge of modern medicine: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including dangerous E. coli strains that account for millions of bladder infections each year, as well as resistant types of salmonella and other microbes. Now, after decades of debate, the Food and Drug Administration appears poised to issue its strongest guidelines on animal antibiotics yet, intended to reduce what it calls a clear risk to human health. They would end farm uses of the drugs simply to promote faster animal growth and call for tighter oversight by veterinarians. The agency’s final version is expected within months, and comes at a time when animal confinement methods, safety monitoring and other aspects of so-called factory farming are also under sharp attack. The federal proposal has struck a nerve among major livestock producers, who argue that a direct link between farms and human illness has not been proved. The producers are vigorously opposing it even as many medical and health experts call it too timid...more

12th annual Sheep Wagon Days kicks off today in Craig

If ever there were a reason to adopt a sheep’s state of mind, the next few days would be an ideal time to follow the flock. The 12th annual Craig Sheep Wagon Days begins today on the grounds of the Wyman Museum. Running through the weekend, the agri-tourism event includes numerous educational demonstrations about the heritage of sheep ranching in the area and the craftsmanship of yesteryear. Blacksmiths, saddle-makers and leather workers will be on hand to show attendees what life was like when regional ranchers created their own tools and equipment in the 1800s and early 1900s. Exhibitions about weaving, butter-making, sheep-shearing and branding also give the experience of life on the ranch for local students and visitors...more

Baxter Black: It's your head or your pocketbook

I was sitting on the beach reading the Malibu, Calif., newspaper to acquaint myself with local concerns. There were the usual stories: real estate, recession, anti-motorcycle rants, the Interior Secretary's visit to the park and the anti-rodenticide brigade. The second page had a story complete with photos of a very sick bobcat. One of the Valley Wildlife Care group diagnosed him as having "active rodenticide poisoning." I called the group's number. The answering machine said they were too busy to handle "information calls" since they were deluged with people bringing in injured birds, mostly baby birds that had fallen from their nests. They require so much care. They reported that in order to save the anemic bobcat, a healthy bobcat donor had arrived from almost 200 miles away to administer a blood transfusion. The prognosis was "poor." As a kid I can remember trying to feed baby birds with an eyedropper and taping splints on varmints' broken legs. I don't think I saved many. Rocket forward 50 years and veterinary medicine is now capable of performing almost any procedure that can be done in humans. The question then arises, is there any limit on how much one can reasonably spend to save a dying bobcat? How much would Gandhi spend?...more

Song Of The Day #407

Ranch Radio's selection today is She Took by Johnnie Lee Wills.

This version is on his 14 track LP album Rompin', Stompin', Singin', Swingin' on Bear Family Records.

Recent violence forces Juarez to cancel Diez y Seiz celebration

Heavy security has moved in as Mexico celebrates the bicentennial of its independence. Worries that drug cartels could launch an attack during the holiday festivities has the country on edge. Those fears have led Juarez to cancel its Diez Seis de Septiembre, Independence Day celebration. The mood in Juarez is tense. And this year's celebration should have been bigger than ever. September 16 marks 200 year's since Mexico declared independence from Spain, but vendors are struggling to sell even a few flags. Last year the streets were filled with festive stands as Juarez prepared for the independence day holiday. But this year the border city has cancelled the public celebration. The mayor will still give the grito - or re-enact the cry for independence. But the ceremony will be brief and is not expected to attract a crowd...more

Here is the KENS-TV news report:

Neighbors fearful of violence in the desert

In the wake of a recent murder, where a man was shot and burned on the Ironwood Forest National Monument this weekend, people living in the area are worried for their safety. "These things happen a lot, and have happened over the years quite a bit." Cindy Coping is talking about the violence near her home Northwest of Tucson. "You're very aware of your surroundings at all times, you're armed most of the time. And you know when somebody's coming down the road you take notice of it and you get a good look at them," Coping said. Coping, a cattle rancher, worries because of incidents like this when detectives found a body shot and burned South of her ranch this weekend. "It came to a head in 2007 when we had a murder out here, a mass shooting." She's referring to a shooting that happened just outside their home. Four gunmen opened fire on this truck carrying 10 illegal immigrants, three of them died. "People were left out here, some of them were, they were spread out over quite a distance."...more

Pinal County sheriff, residents plead for anti-smuggling help

But in July, the Murphrees saw more than the occasional mountain lion. For at least three days, a man appeared to be surveying the area from a cave on the mountainside. The Pinal County Sheriff's Office believes that man, a Mexican national who has since been deported, was a lookout for smugglers. "It's scary," Pennee Murphree said. "We just want the public to know it's close and it's real and there's a criminal element there." The Murphrees and other residents told their stories Wednesday alongside Sheriff Paul Babeu, who is calling for more federal help while at the same time asking the county to fund an anti-smuggling unit of his own. Babeu said government officials have been dismissive of his claims of escalating violence associated with illegal immigration and drug smuggling. He said 14 bodies - all connected to drug or human smuggling - were found in the Pinal County desert between January and August and that Sheriff's Office calls for assistance from the U.S. Border Patrol through July nearly topped all requests for help made last year. Residents are also reporting more run-ins with smuggling elements, Babeu said. Nancy Henderson was at work last Tuesday when her home outside Arizona City was burglarized, presumably by smugglers or illegal immigrants. Gone were a cache of guns, batteries, food, night vision gear and socks. Tracks from her home led into the desert. "This isn't happening at the border," Henderson said. "This is happening in my backyard, and I strongly believe if something's not done now to stop these people, it's going to be in all your backyards before long. . . . This is America, the land of the free, and I don't feel free right now."...more

Mexican police neutralize car bomb in border city

Mexican police carried out the controlled detonation of a car bomb Saturday in the troubled border city of Ciudad Juarez, across from Texas. A phone tip around midnight led authorities to a dead body in a car in a shopping center parking lot, the federal Public Safety Department said in a statement. In a second car, police found the bomb. Agents deactivated the device and removed most of the explosive material to analyze it before safely detonating the vehicle, the department said. There were no injuries. Juarez is the same city where drug traffickers staged the first successful car bombing in Mexico, killing three people in July. There have been three other vehicle explosions in recent weeks in Ciudad Victoria, capital of the border state of Tamaulipas...more

Juarez Violence Changing Lives: UTEP Students Affected

In May, 2010, UTEP student Alejandro Ruiz Salazar, 19—also an employee of the Graduate School—was the first known UTEP student slain in Juarez since the beginning of the current drug war. The same day, former UTEP student Jorge Pedro Gonzalez Quintero, 21, was murdered. According to Steve McCraw, Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, the situation in Mexico is worse now than the Colombian drug war of the 1980s and 1990s ever was. “Colombia was never threatened like the government of Mexico is with the level of violence,” McCraw stated at a Capitol hearing. “At first, we all saw the violence and murders as something that would never happen to us but now so many families have been torn apart, and a once prosperous, to some extent happy city, has been destroyed,” Acosta commented. As of July, 2010, a new record for fatalities has been reached in Juarez: 1,645 homicides in a seven-month period. Despite President Felipe Calderon’s war against organized crime, 6,022 crimes have taken place in Juarez from January 2008 to July 24th of this year. This deadly toll includes children, men, women, and even foreigners that have lost their lives in this dangerous city. Mexican federal authorities report that 25% of homicides related to organized crime in the country are committed in Juarez alone...more

LA Times: The killings don't stop in Ciudad Juarez

Drug-related violence continues to consume Ciudad Juarez in northern Mexico, just across the border from El Paso. Last Thursday's toll of 25 killed over a three-hour period rattled a city that is already accustomed to numerous deaths a day. It was the highest single-day toll recorded in the border city since the violence erupted there more than two years ago. Victims in Thursday's shootings range in age from 15 to 67. They were mostly ambushed inside their homes, reports the El Paso Times. Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said the killings were believed to be acts of retaliation by the Juarez cartel for an alleged kidnapping of a child by the rival Sinaloa cartel. What's not clear is what all those victims had to do with the alleged kidnapping...more

Mexico's Top Migration Official Quits After Senate Hearing

Mexico's commissioner of National Migration Institute has resigned after being summoned by the Senate in the wake of the massacre of 72 migrants by suspected drug traffickers that shocked a northern Mexican state bordering Texas, U.S. Senators summoned Cecilia, who is also the former president of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean, to explain measures her office had taken to protect migrants moving through Mexico. Cutting across party lines, the senators condemned the massacre and acknowledged that Mexico could not "demand respect for its nationals in the United States" when it "does not assure the dignified treatment" of migrants from other countries on its own territory...more

Front-and-center sheriff does not take role lightly

With appearances on cable news channels and in front of Congress members increasing exponentially these last few months, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever has become one of the most visible faces and loudest voices representing the efforts of local-level law enforcement to force the hand of the federal government to take stronger measures to secure the nation's border with Mexico. "It's been an interesting set of circumstances that have led to this," Dever said in a phone interview Thursday. Dever was speaking from New Mexico, where his position in the national conversation about border security was highlighted once again after he was elected chairman of the Southwest Border Sheriff's Coalition. "All of these guys are saying the same thing, speaking with one voice," he said of the sheriffs from 26 border counties that make up the organization, which was formed three years ago in an effort to better combat border violence...more

Deputies Rope & Handcuff 7-Foot Alligator Near Florida School

Deputies in Florida had to handcuff a rather unusual suspect -- a 7.5-foot-long alligator. Three deputies in a Tampa-area school trapped an alligator roaming lounging against a wall near the Forest Lakes Elementary school Monday morning. A crossing guard at a Tampa-area school spotted the gator around the time children would be walking to school. She immediately called the deputies, who called a trapper when they arrived. The trapper wasn't able to get to the area right away, and the alligator started moving toward the intersection where kids were crossing to get to school, according to the sheriff's office. The deputies roped the gator's neck and tail as the animal rolled and thrashed, its tail breaking off chunks of stucco from a nearby wall. Deputies later secured the gator's mouth with electrical tape and handcuffed its hind legs. Florida Fish and Wildlife officials took custody of the animal until the trapper arrived. Fox

This may start a new headin' & heelin' event. I expect Denny Gentry will be promoting this at the World Series of Team Roping finals. I'm sure Gator Ropes will be a big sponsor.

A friend and I were discussing the pro's, con's and possible problems with gator roping this afternoon, and he later sent the following:

A common problem for team roping producers is: what to do with corriente cattle once they get too big. Cattle are forced to be slaughtered and eaten by the same ropers that tormented them during their earthly days. Luckily for gators there is a reptile rescue for gators in Mosca, Colorado. Established in 1990, on an old tilapia farm and fed by geo-thermal hot springs. Here the gators can live out their lives in comfort and ease. There is even a “gator rodeo” for reptile reminiscing about the old days when they out ran the ropers. All of this is true, although I can’t believe someone actually has gators near Alamosa.

Do ya think he is kidding? Then go check out Colorado Gator & Reptile Park

My friend also said there would be a place for the gators to go prior to final retirement:

As the gators age and become slower, they are relegated to serve as roping stock in “businessmen’s" roping around the country. These older, more sophisticated gentlemen really like the handbags, wallets, boots and briefcases given away as prizes.

As a former roper though, I know there are many questions about gator roping that need an answer. For instance:

Will this be a team tyin' event rather than team roping? In other words the ropers are tied hard and fast and the header dismounts and ties a square knot (rather than handcuffs) on the hind legs?

Or will it be dally team roping, and if so does the heeler catch the tail (like the deputies) or those short hind legs? How do you make a gator "hop" anyway?

Will Gentry have to modify the settings on the WS Barrier for gator ropings?

Will corriente gators from Mexico turn out to be superior to the Florida variety?

How much will you have to pay the guys in the strippin' chute?

Clem McSpadden used to have big pasture ropings, so couldn't we do the same with gators? I would propose the ropings be held in a Wildlife Refuge. Hey Gentry, I'd be glad to help you on that one. Just call Obama and tell him you're a community organizer from Crow Flats and I'm sure you'll get it approved right away.