December 12, 1997

The Lewiston Morning Tribune

Common compassion should end the roaming of cattle across Idaho highways even if the open range law isn't changed. Lincoln County officials, in the wake of another traffic fatality, are looking into making it against the law for cattle owners to let their cattle stray. But you would think the occasional death of a motorist caused by wandering cattle would get the attention of cattle owners and take care of that problem without any change in the law.

The open range status of Idaho officially excuses cattle owners from fencing in their animals. Many fence them in anyway. But those who don't, while potentially open to civil suits, are not breaking the law.

The open range law once made a lot more sense. Hardly anybody ever died from running into a cow while riding a horse or driving a horse and buggy.

But this is the era of the automobile and the truck. Unless you adopt and enforce a statewide speeding law of 10 miles an hour, letting cattle run free in the vicinity of public highways is going to kill people. It's just a matter of time.

Some in the cattle industry protest that some drivers -- especially out in the wider and more open spaces of cattle country -- drive ridiculously fast. And they do. If you run into a cow at 100 miles an hour and die, are you or the cow's owner to blame?

Probably some of both. Even a driver going an insane rate of speed probably should be able to stupidly expect he won't encounter a cow wandering down the highway.

But the fact is, cattle in the highway can be a threat to the life and limb of motorists traveling within the legal limits. How can any one business or industry claim a right to present the public with that much danger no matter what the now-irrelevant historic basis of a lethal open range law?

The range isn't open anymore. Idaho isn't open. For better or for worse, more than a million people and their fences and their highways and their automobiles have flooded this state with a human reality that will not safely permit herds of cattle roaming here and there the way they did 100 years ago.

Have the people who claim otherwise lost all purchase on reality? -- Bill Hall

Supervisors consider open range restrictions

In response to cattle causing thousands of dollars in property damage in Janesville the Board of Supervisors may consider restricting the open range for livestock.

By Shayla Ashmore
Managing Editor

Board Chairman Lloyd Keefer said sometime in June or July a rancher moved some cows onto a piece of property on Church Street in Janesville directly across from Janesville Park.

"The cows immediately started getting out," Keefer said at the Aug. 23 board meeting, adding they caused $1,300 in property damage to one homeowner in the Granite Knolls subdivision. Another property owner called the rancher and offered to help fix the fence, Keefer said.

"The owner of the cows said 'That fence is beyond repair; it's a leased piece of property and I'm not going to spend a dime on it.' And he probably lived up to that part of it," Keefer said. "And he says, 'What's more if you push the issue, I'll have a certain individual … come and dump a whole truck load of cows in your front yard. This is open range.'"

The cows were reportedly removed on Friday, Aug. 19.

The California Vehicle Code defines open range in Section 21365, saying Caltrans and the board of supervisors of each county must install signs warning "that the territory traversed is open livestock range and warning against the danger of livestock on the highway."

Open-range laws say those who want to keep cows off their land have to fence them out. Ranchers don't have to fence in their livestock. The open range concept dates back to the 1800s, when ranchers let their herds roam over public and unfenced private land.

Keefer said there is an obvious attitude issue involved. He said a number of people suffered significant damage to their property, including County Administrative Officer John Ketelsen, said Supervisor Jim Chapman.

"The cows never got out on the highway, which they could have if they had just walked a little further down the road," Keefer said.

Saying he supports open range laws, Keefer suggested the board consider restricting the open range in certain areas of the county.

"Under the open range law, technically every acre in the county is open to grazing," Keefer said. "But times have changed. We have more people living in some of these more developed areas. Not all of them have fences."

"I'm not going to support changing open range at all," said District 1 Supervisor Bob Pyle, a rancher. "You've got one bad apple that breaks the law."

Pyle said the homeowners who suffered damage can file suit in civil court. District 4 Supervisor Brian Dahle suggested putting the issue on a future board agenda and inviting the cattlemen to attend.