Bison Brawl. Horse Butte residents seeks to shield animals from over-reaching lawsuit. By Matthew Brown.
Brown writes that the plaintiffs in this lawsuit, the Montana Stockgrowers Association who filed the suit on behalf of rancher Bob Myers and the Sitz Angus Ranch, run cattle near Horse Butte.
I did a Google search. The Sitz Angus Ranch has two locations, one near Harrison and the other near Dillon, Montana.
By what amazing stretch of imagination are Dillon or Harrison, Montana “near Horse Butte?”
No the people who live near Horse Butte are the people near Horse Butte where there are no cattle, or do cattle growers now get to rearrange geography as yet another of their privileges as well as impinge on the property rights of others?
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.
It is interesting that the MSGA is challenging the IBMP. The ruling that comes out of this could have large implications.
When I’m out there tabling every week in Bozeman, what happens at Horse Butte is often the most convincing thing I’m able to point to in showing that brucellosis is a red herring. When people hear what goes on there, they realize that something is very screwy.
And, in the kind of latte liberal crowd that comes to the table, I don’t think it’s property rights so much as the insanity of persecuting bison where there are no cows, where the public wants bison.
I think it’s important as we talk about buffalo to make sure people know about Horse Butte Neighbors of Buffalo as another ally in this movement. Carrie Taggart is doing a great job bringing attention to this issue and organizing.
The more that people realize that BFC is not alone, that local people are standing with them, the more people can understand that Montana is only run by cowboys – not populated by them.