Normally, I try to keep this column light or at least thoughtful in a positive way, but I’ve had a tough start to the new year. Lost a favorite dog, had the same stretch of fence hit and torn down twice, had someone shoot the lock, chain, post and new gate on my nephew’s entrance at top end of the ranch, had to pick up over a dozen cans/bottles in our main entry, had someone cut through a side gate into where we’ve got our cattle and tear the hell out of our road in this bad weather, and leave a mess of spent shotgun shell casings and what was left of breasted out quail all around my hay stack.
I understand that living out on a ranch comes with occasional accidental property damage, vandalism, and even the loss of livestock, a cherished pet or working dog; but, I’ve endured enough BS in the last ten days to last me a long time.
I don’t think all hunters, trappers and ATV enthusiasts are to blame, but I will say the following…most of you don’t police your friends and acquaintances, and there are enough bad seeds to make all of you look terrible.
I can’t be sure exactly what happened to my dog, but a neighbor was kind enough to pick up her body and return her to us today. Her chest was crushed and from where she was found, I assume she was hit by a vehicle northwest of our main entrance. Please don’t tell me to keep my dogs chained up. Most of us with old ranches have county roads that transect our private property. Many of us donated ground or easements for those roads to make getting around our valley easier for everyone. It just seems unlikely to me that someone could fatally hit a 80+ lb dog and have no idea it had happened. Our dogs follow us from field to field and the big livestock guardians sometimes patrol a big swath of our valley. I’d simply ask you to slow down. Far too many of our weekend guests whiz by our ranches, down our Main Street and by our homes without any regard for the safety of those of us who live and work here full time. One such weekend visitor driving a nice newer 4x4 truck nearly hit my daughter horseback along with one of her dogs this past Saturday morning as she was crossing the county road near our main entrance. She motioned for the driver to slow down and got flipped off for her trouble. Nice, very nice.
It also stuns me that two people could miss their 90-degree turn, run through my fence, and not have the common courtesy to either fix it or at least drive in and tell me what they had done. Our fences aren’t ornamental, they’re in place to keep livestock where they belong.
As for the person who cut wire and opened up a long-closed side gate in order to drive in, and shoot birds off my haystack at the 96, and leave a disgusting mess, you should be ashamed. Same goes for the entitled idiot who shot up my nephew’s lock and entry, and the morons who used my driveway for a trash can.
I’m pretty fed up with weekend warriors at the moment and yet, I still allowed friends from town to chukar hunt our mountain ground last week and we’ll host more hunters again this weekend. I’ve always wanted responsible folks to be able to hunt, fish and enjoy our property along with us. I can’t and won’t accommodate everyone but I genuinely try to be fair and let nice, decent people have access when I can.
My “ASK” of all of you who dearly love coming out to Paradise Valley or any of our rural ranching communities to hunt, fish, camp or ride ATVs…do the right things yourselves and start holding your friends and bar buddies accountable. Even if you have an accident and cause property damage or death to an animal, coming in and letting us know allows us to get things fixed and taking care of the animal or what is left of it.
The truth is that hunters and outdoorsmen only have themselves to blame for losing access to ranch lands. I for one can only take so much, and January is off to a tough start.
Kris Stewart is a rancher from Paradise Valley, Nevada.
