Ranchers Begin Raising A Legal Defense Fund

Central Idaho ranchers are building a legal fund with such items as old dump trucks, horse trailers, a bull whip and a manure spreader.

Ranchers turned out last weekend to bid on a barn full of equipment donated to raise money for the Lemhi Cattle and Horse Growers Association legal aid fund.

The auction brought in $7,000, which will be kept in reserve in case a fellow stockman finds himself in a legal battle. With public land issues heating up, event chairman Dave Ellis said, it may be just a matter of time before they need it.

“With things the way they are, unfortunately someone sometime is going to run into trouble and need some help. We don’t like to think that way,” he said. “Hopefully the day will come when we can all sit down at the table and talk things out, but that’s not the case now.”

Ranchers have spent more time fighting lawsuits than coyotes this year. Between a Hawaii judge’s attempt to shut down nearby public lands over salmon habitat and the investigation of the shooting of a transplanted wolf on a rancher’s pasture, legal dilemmas are popping up in cattle country.