Groups ask U.S. to seize rancher Bundy’s cattle to protect tortoises

Business Insider – by Alex Dobuzinskis

(Reuters) – Environmental groups have asked the U.S. government to seize hundreds of jailed militant rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle, saying unregulated grazing of his herd on public lands in Nevada threatens habitat for federally protected desert tortoises.

The request from nine organizations in a letter sent on Monday to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has the potential to increase tensions in the debate over federal control over vast areas in the West.  

The BLM had previously seized Bundy’s cattle for illegally grazing on federal land. However, it backed down in 2014, releasing the livestock to end a standoff with hundreds of armed protesters who came to support the rancher in the Nevada desert.

With Bundy currently jailed in Nevada on charges stemming from the standoff, his relatives have allowed hundreds of cattle to graze on public land around the family’s ranch, said Rob Mrowka, a scientist with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that sent the letter.

The groups are asking the BLM to seize the cattle from the Bundy family, whose ranch is less than 80 miles (129 km) northeast of Las Vegas, and send the animals to farms or sell them for slaughter.

“We recognize that the cattle round-up of 2014 failed due to real threats to agency personnel,” Travis Bruner, executive director of Western Watersheds Project, one of the groups that signed the letter, said in a statement.

“Those ‘threats’ are now mostly imprisoned and awaiting trial, but the crimes against desert tortoise continue,” Bruner said.

BLM spokesman Ronald Evenson said in a statement, “Mr. Bundy’s cattle continue to be in trespass.”

But Evenson said the agency has no immediate plans to round them up, because it continues to work with the U.S. Department of Justice on legal cases against Bundy and others.

Bundy, 70, whose sons led an armed occupation earlier this year at a wildlife refuge in Oregon, was arrested in February at the Portland airport.

He has been indicted on charges that included conspiracy and assault on a law enforcement officer.

Bundy’s sons, Ammon and Ryan, were indicted in connection with the Oregon occupation and face charges in the Nevada standoff. The family is popular with anti-government groups.

Bundy on Tuesday sued President Barack Obama, U.S. Senator Harry Reid and the judge in his criminal case, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-groups-ask-us-to-seize-rancher-bundys-cattle-to-protect-tortoises-2016-5

11 thoughts on “Groups ask U.S. to seize rancher Bundy’s cattle to protect tortoises

  1. Any attempt to remove this man’s property should be met with lethal force.of course amerikans are wusses.

  2. I’m suspecting that these 9 organizations have been paid by Harry Reid to mount their protest. The end result will be to sell the land to the Chinesse for pennies for their wind project, enriching Harry and his son and screwing the public once again. How much longer do these cretins manage to survive in this country?

  3. I am not on the Bundys side but the BLM has grazing permits for a reason, this is one of them. The Bundys did not pay grazing fees for 20 plus years and owed BLM $20 million. That is how this whole thing started

    1. it is my understanding he did pay until he wasnt allowed his cows where the Tortoise was. I do not totally support them, but maybe you might check at all the crooks involved in this process. Also Mr, Finicum was murdered, and they tried to cover that up. There is plenty of room to go round. No one cares about the starving animals left, just a stupid Tortoise, and Money.

      1. Cliven Bundy claimed he had the money in the bank to pay grazing fees to the state or county. He just doesn’t recognize the unconstitutional running violation of the people’s Bill of Rights entity known as the BLM.

    2. First, the BLM is an unconstitutional agency – meaning that the authority to manage state lands were NEVER delegated to those who serve within the federal government. It is NOT their delegated duty, so it is forbidden to them to create an agency and do so.

      Second, it is in writing for which purposes those that serve within the federal government are allowed to buy land from the states. All (new) states came into being on equal footing with the orginal 13. They create their boundaries, and a republican form of government within a territory that WAS being managed until new states were made on the land. All land within those boundaries then belong to the people of that state.

      Article 1, Section 8, Caluse 17: “To exercise exclusive legislative jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever, over such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States [Washington DC], and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards and other needful buildings;”

      Article 4, Section 3: “New states may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; …
      The Congress shall have Power to dispose and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.”

      Notice that since it is NOT a delegated authority (in writing within the US Constiution) it is forbidden to them to create such agencies and to “manage” state land.

      Bundy has all legal and lawful right to that land (through his mothers family), and the BLM has no lawful authority there, or anywhere else here in the USA. All governmental power is DELEGATED, and in WRITING. If it is not there, they do not have any authority in that area. any authority not delegated to the federal government can have been delegated to the states or retained by the people – no delegation of powers.

      Those “agencies” killed all the turtles they “saved” last time. This is just Agenda 21 in action, recognize it or not. It IS Treason against Americans – all Treason is against Americans, though it can be done through their representatives.

      Do not let them lie to you, as the authority delegated to the different governments of our nation – state (as first) and the federal as a creature of the states to represent their interests in mostly foreign affairs so that instead of 50 different treaties with each foreign nation there is one that all the states agreed upon through their representatives.

      The US Constitution is a short document and you should read it. If you are one who is in a position that is REQUIRED to take the Oath then you are REQUIRED to know the US Constitution and/or the state Constitution you are under (if a state employee); or just the US Constitution if you are a federal employee.

      ALL governmental employees of all governmental duties – from the smallest to the largest; from elected, hired, contracted, etc – is REQUIRED to take and KEEP the Oath. If you do not know the US Constitution you cannot keep the oath. It is a felony and the crime of Perjury with a standard time in prison, a fine, removal from office, and never allowed to hold any type of governmental duty ever if found guilty.

      1. Your conclusion is erroneous.
        The Constitution was never ratified by the people, and those who ratified it were not elected by the people, as they were the colonial government of King George and assumed power in the middle of an armed uprising. And even if the Constitution was legitimate, at most it is a breached contract and the power reverts back to the people, not to the corrupt state governments that created and maintained the corrupt federal government.
        Every guilt of crime at the federal level is absolute guilt at the state, county, and city level, because all are of one, corrupt from the meter maid from the president.
        As for Cliven Bundy owning that land because of his grandma, f#@k you and the horse you rode in on. Those were open range lands and they belonged to all the people. And we will gladly put people like Cliven Bundy to sleep to affirm that fact when the time comes.

  4. The legal system is screwing over the Bundy family.
    Yet, the Bundy family is running to and putting their faith in that same legal system for relief. Does this look like insanity to you?

  5. Oh brother, are they still giving that Tortoise excuse again? Don’t they know that we know that’s all a lie? The cats been outta the bag on that one for awhile. Talk about beating a dead horse.

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