The girls and I are stunned about what is going on out in New Mexico

For those who haven’t heard, there are several estray cattle roaming the Gila National Forest on the Arizona/New Mexico border . According to the Federal Wildlife Service, these animals are grazing on sensitive forage.

Here is where my mouth was left agape. The Fed’s solution to this was to take to a helicopter and shoot these cattle and “let nature take care of the rest.”

This is wrong on so many levels

1) There is no federal statute that allows the FWS agents to do this. It is a blatant abuse of power

2) The agents airborne in a helicopter have no way to ascertain if these animals they are tasked with shooting have any brands to identify them. Groups like @nmcattlegrowers are very concerned this could lead to execution of private property

3) By “letting nature do the rest,” this gives predators in this area a taste for beef and will increase the likelihood that wolves and bears will begin to feed on living livestock

Now I honestly have no idea how wild these cattle are. I do know that when a wild cow is stressed, it’s hard to keep her anywhere. But how many efforts have actually been made to capture these cattle? What methods have been tried? Has there been cooperation from any ranchers or anyone knowlad

At one time, I had the intention of not letting this page ever delve into politics. While I still have the intention of never being intentionally divisive, I feel like I need to bring attention to issues such as this that are close to my heart.

Also, if you have heard me speak, you know that one thing I hit on in things that affect our mental health as ranchers is that there is so much out of our control in our industry. So using my little platform to raise awareness to issues such as this is my way to helping take control and do good for the mental health of producers.

I encourage all of you to dig in to this story and find out all you can. Continue to pray for ranchers fighting battles of this magnitude