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Re: [RC] Wolves,bears,snakes,public lands/yippee - Barbara McCraryExcuse me, I hadn't realized western cattle raising was being subsidized. It sure isn't on our ranch. And as far as "the cultural cowboy fantasy kick", I consider that an insult to the hard-working, risk-taking cattlemen all over the country. If the price we received for our cattle at market time kept up anywhere near with the costs of raising them, you wouldn't be able to afford a hamburger, let alone a steak. "Cowboying" is a legend grown out of very practical procedures, but it is more something that has been legendized (is there such a word?) by the rest of the world, not the cattlemen themselves. Cattlemen nowadays may use horses, or they may, like us, use a FUV (farm utility vehicle....my words) to gather cattle rather than horses. We keep Arabs for endurance riding, and most of ours somehow missed the cattle roundup thing, although many Arabs ARE used for gathering cattle. Ours just haven't happened to learn the system. Anyway, you are treading on unsafe ground when you criticize cattlemen...... Barbara ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ridecamp Guest" <guest-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2004 7:48 AM Subject: [RC] Wolves,bears,snakes,public lands/yippee Please Reply to: Ray O'Donohue rno2m@xxxxxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== My opinion is that there are too many people and cows in the world and not enough animals that eat people.Having said that,one of course defends his livestock when neccesary.Just some perspective here:re wolves/grizzlies preying on elk herds on public land: do those public land elk exist only for the hunter or the hunting guide who makes a living hunting them? Of course not. MY interest in OUR federally owned lands is not the same as that of the hunting outfitter,who IS being subsidised by the public. He is also a taxpayer,in turn subsidising my interest in having grizzlies and wolves around. Re livestock predation:again,some balance here is called for.How much of western livestock ranching depends to some extent on MY subsidising it?How much of the west IS cattle country,absent federal/public subsidy of some sort?There are cattle all over Virginia,generally a profitable part time operation on small parcels of land.Absent grazing subsidies,can western cattle raising profitably stand in competition with areas of abundant rainfall? No? The guys in Virginia who raise cattle are not subsidised to my knowledge,and they damn sure are not getting any sort of cultural cowboy fantasy kick out of it.So...let's be moderate,and avoid extremes here. ============================================================ Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough ~ Theodore Roosevelt ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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