I live in Cedar Hill Ranch Estates, which is a 23,000-acre subdivision of Blake Ranch Cattle Company in Arizona. I own a 40-acre parcel and have been here for 8 years. I own 3 horses and have recently spent around $2,000 to put in a new smooth wire paddock for them.

Bill Blake’s cattle have always been a nuisance. Aside from cattle droppings and stealing hay for my horses they hadn’t caused much damage until recently though. About a year ago one of Blake’s bulls destroyed one of my gate panels so I called Blake and told him about this. He sent one of his ranch workers up here and he welded the panel back together, which I thought was the proper thing to do since it was his bull that broke my panel. I’ve called Bill Blake several times on occasion to inform him that small herds of his cattle have been parking on my property, stealing hay and upsetting my horses. Each time he has sent his wrangles up here to herd the cows off. So far so good right?

Due to the drought conditions more of his cows have been foraging in this area looking for food. It’s gotten to be quite a problem recently because there is very little for them to eat. I am tired of chasing them away and injuring myself in the process so I invested $5000 in barbed wire perimeter fencing and am in the process of having it installed. As luck would have it, prior to the completion of the perimeter fencing, his cattle invaded my property again and this time they broke down a section of my smooth wire paddock and uprooted a corner post. One of my horses was injured as a result as well. So like I’ve done in the past I called Bill Blake and told him that ‘we have a problem’.

I explained what happened and asked if he would help me fix the damage like he had done in the past. I was stonewalled this time and in fact he insulted me. He said to me, “You’re a big boy. I don’t need to hold your hand. Fix it yourself. It’s open range.” I was shocked by his response since I was expecting that he, like before, would take responsibility for his cattle and help fix the damage that they had caused. This time, for whatever reason, he throws it back in my face and chooses to be irresponsible and hide behind the open range laws. And to add insult to injury he verbally insults me for making a reasonable request for him to take responsibility for his cattle and fix the damage that they have done on my property like he has always done in the past. Perhaps his cows are getting too expensive for him due to what I imagine are numerous damage complaints around here so he has chosen to renege in the area of being responsible for the damage that his livestock are causing.

I could see I was getting nowhere with him so I told him that I would have to take a legal route to resolve this problem. It is not so much that the damage that his cattle had done was so expensive; it was his attitude about responsibility in the matter that concerned me the most.

Why should Bill Blake, and people like him, be allowed to be above the law with respect damages caused by their livestock property? Why should he be allowed to dictate to me what he will and will not be responsible for in the way of damages caused by his property? Why should my sovereignty rights under the United States Constitution be violated by a special interest group sanctioned by archaic Arizona state laws?

This is not the 1800’s and it’s not India where people worship cows either. This is America where all citizens have equal rights protected by the US constitution. Arizona cattle account for at best perhaps 1% of the food supply so why should these cattle barons be exempt from adhering to US constitutional law? 

The problem is not Bill Blake; the problem is the state of Arizona with respect to it allowing archaic Open Range legislation to remain on the books so that “privileged” cattle people, like Bill Blake, can hide behind it in this day and age and abrogates their social responsibilities. Why should they be allowed to act like dictators at the expense of tax paying property owners and citizens who are in every way held accountable for their actions and the actions of their property?  There is no basis for this dichotomy in reality anymore. It’s time that the State of Arizona make good on it’s promise to represent the interests of the majority of it’s constituency and stop supporting special interest groups through archaic on the books legislation. It is also time for the state to stop pandering to the small minority comprised of cattle ranchers who in fact do not comprise a majority of their constituency base and do not pay enough taxes to really be of major significance anymore anyway.

The people of the State of Arizona want equal rights. They deserve equal rights and it’s high time that elected officials realize that it is these people that have the power to put them into the public positions that they occupy and not the cattle ranchers.

You can count me in as a concerned citizen seeking justice and constitutional reform in the area of archaic Open Range laws. I hereby give you permission to use this entire document or any part thereof to further the cause of legislative reform in the above-mentioned matter. Furthermore please advise me what other avenues I might have available to pursue this so that we as concerned citizens can get this Open Range Law issue revised to represent the interests of all.

 

Sincerely,

 

Marvin L. Speciner