History is repeating itself on the Bundy Ranch, near Bunkerville, Nevada, where the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) spends its time and resources on “trespassing” cows.
Hardworking generation rancher Cliven Bundy—the last remaining rancher in the Southern Nevada county—is not the first and tragically won’t be the last American harassed by an overbearing, invading BLM.
If the BLM, in cahoots with radical environmentalists, keeps up its pace, ranchers like Bundy will be the end of an era with with no Hollywood movies like Dances With Wolves to mark the sad passing.
As of yesterday the Bundy Ranch was under siege with 200 (count ‘em) armed federal agents and helicopters whirling overhead. Bundy’s cattle had been rustled off for immediate public auction, and the call was being sent out to patriots, including other ranchers, military, Oathkeepers and sheriffs to come and take a stand against the invading government bureaucrats.
Ranchers from Nevada, Utah and Arizona gathered to protest the ongoing federal roundup of cattle and show their support for the Bundy family ranch.” (Las Vegas Review Journal, April 9, 2014)
In 2003, Wally Klump, who had spent almost 71 years of his life east of Wilcox, Arizona out under the wide open fields and skies of cattle ranching, was locked up for a year in prison, after refusing to remove his cattle from an area the BLM said he had to leave.
“The court repeatedly reminded Mr. Klump that the keys to prison door were in his pocket and that he would be released any time that he decided to comply with the court’s orders,” said Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Guerin, who handled the prosecution of Wally Klump. (J.D. Wallace, News 13, May 12, 2004).
“Wally Klump agreed to corral his cattle so that he could get out of jail. He still said he had every right to use that land, but Guerin said Klump wasn’t abiding by the Bureau of Land Management’s rules.
“Mr. Klump hasn’t been able to establish any right to graze on federal lands since 1991, and there have been lawsuits about this issue,” Guerin said.
“Guerin said Klump threatened anyone who tried to move his cattle.
“He believed that the Second Amendment permitted to bear arms against government employees who were tyrants in his opinion because the federal government cannot own land. (And he believes) that gave him the right to bear arms against those employees of the government,” Guerin said.
“I’m not going to answer that (question about threatening government employees with the Second Amendment) because people will take it the wrong way. (They can take it) anyway they want to take it,” Klump said.
Klump noted an even larger issue still looming on the horizon.
“(This dispute) has nothing do do with cattle or land. It’s a means for a cause, and here I go, Liberty and Freedom, private ownership by that individual who does the work,” Klump said.
Klump was accused of allowing some of his 28 cows to stray onto public lands when grazing. Complaints were filed by environmental activists to the Bureau of Land Management.
While environmental groups lined up for grants, Wally Klump languished in a prison cell, where his wife brought him his 71st Birthday cake. His fellow inmates celebrated his birthday with a card, depicting a grazing cow and a bold caption: “BLM sucks”. During his imprisonment Klump’s bank accounts were seized by the BLM.
In days of yore, it was yahoo cattle rustlers and ravening wolves decent ranchers had to worry about. Today it’s tough-talking government employees, complete with helicopters, and turned out in crisp linens and Stetsons.
Now it’s Rancher Bundy’s turn.
Both are and were up against government employees who have already caved in to strident environmentalists.
In Klump’s case it was the Sky Island Alliance (SIA), a hell-bent-for-leather gang of pro-wildnerness, anti-ranching campaigners.
“SIA members maintain a take-no-prisoners attitude. Director Lainie Levick (a former USDA Agriculture Research Service employee) is a member of what Powerhouse magazine calls the “rabidly anti-grazing Rangenet”. Levick stated in Rangenet that, “I believe that livestock grazing is completely inappropriate on our public lands. The damage caused by ranching and associated activities is enormous and must not be allowed to continue.” (Canada Free Press, April 18, 2003).
In Bundy’s case, it’s the Bureau jumping into the environmental activist fight to save the desert tortoise.
Problem is while ranchers like Klump and Bundy are willing to fight for their cattle and way of life, they are up against ‘government’ employees who long ago caved in to the demands of radical environmentalists.
God bless government-persecuted ranchers and farmers whose backbreaking work feed the rest of us.
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