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Independent Cattlemen’s Assn. Of Texas Executive Director’s Report

published: May 28th 2010
by: Bill Hyman
source: ICA Of Texas

Most cattle ranchers wake every day to a multitude of chores. South Texas border ranchers start the day with the same number of tasks but work under a cloud of danger and uncertainty. In addition to the normal tasks of ranching, these South Texans face the possibility of confronting armed drug smugglers, trespassing illegal immigrants, and continual damage to gates, fences and ranch facilities. To make matters even worse, the ever present threat of fever tick infestation by foreign livestock and wildlife and the dreaded quarantine of their property are constantly on their minds. Adding to this litany of problems are the prospects of drought and the outbreak of foreign animal diseases emanating from their neighbor to the south.
    These ranchers are reluctant to discuss their problems for fear of having themselves or their families targeted for violence, in-cluding kidnapping or even murder. One rancher, who asked that he not be identified, spoke of hearing gunshots from Mexico on a routine basis. Having lock-ed gates destroyed weekly, he has given up trying to deter trespassers. “I had to install cattle guards on one north/south road because I just couldn’t keep my gates up because of all of the nighttime traffic. The in-truders would either run through the gates and fences with their vehicles or cut my locks off as they made their way north,” he stated.
    Each day he checks his cattle and keeps a watchful eye out for illegal activity. “I’m not acting as a border cop,” he stated. “I’m just making sure I don’t wander into some type of illegal activity and put myself in danger." Rattlesnakes used to be the reason to carry a weapon in the ranch truck but these days, the cattlemen carry semi-automatic rifles for personal protection.
    When ranchers have to arm themselves with assault rifles prior to venturing onto their own property, it is time for action to be taken by Homeland Security. The recent murder of rancher Rob Krentz, shot by an illegal alien along the Arizona-Mexico border, exemplifies the need for increased security for our Texas landowners. Thousands of miles of ranch roads and trails are cut into Texas border lands, and many ranchers live in fear of the illegal activities and random acts of lawlessness that occur across the border and which are now spilling into the U.S.
    In April, ICA wrote to the Department of Home-land Security (DHS) Se-cretary Janet Napolitano, urging her to increase security along the Texas-Mexico border. The ICA letter requested Secretary Napolitano to take immediate and decisive action to protect those ranchers caught in the cross hairs, as drug cartels fight for control of smuggling routes.
    As the issue has "gained ground," I spoke on May 26 at a Texas House Commit-tee on Agriculture and Livestock interim charge meeting in Alice. This day-long hearing, chaired by Representative Yvonne Gonzalez-Toureilles, was to gather information about the problems and border issues faced by South Texas ranches.  These problems also include dealing with infestations of fever ticks--foreign ticks capable of transmitting Babesia, a blood parasite that can kill adult cattle.  Although new products promise longer-lasting control of fever ticks, border security issues and the ineffectiveness of our Mexican counterparts are creating life-threatening obstacles.
    Recently, the United States Department of Agri-culture (USDA) closed the livestock import facilities in Mexico near Laredo and Pharr, due to concerns for the security of their personnel who had to enter Mexico to inspect the animals prior to their crossing of the border. Despite the pleas of Mexican ranchers to reopen these ports of entry, USDA stopped the entry of cattle at these two points until secure inspection pens could be built on the U.S. side of the border. Currently, new ports of entry on U.S. soil are being tested which will provide safe working conditions for inspectors. 
    Even USDA "tick riders" who routinely patrol-led the Rio Grande from Del Rio to Brownsville have been pulled back from the river by officials, due to safety concerns. Previously the tick riders would conduct horseback patrols to round up Mexi-can livestock that strayed across the Rio Grande and inspect and treat the animals for fever ticks. The tick riders would return the livestock to their Mexican owners for the cost of feed the animals consumed while being held, and those animals not claimed were sold at the nearest livestock market. Now the horseback surveillance only oc-curs when conditions are deemed safe and the riders only work in pairs. Land along the Rio Grande has been all but ceded to the tick, as the line of defense has been moved further inland.  Many ranchers have given up on restocking their pastures along the Rio Grande, as gathering cattle so close to the lawless border has become more dangerous.
    Several new strategies are presently being tested which have shown significant progress in combating the tick. A treated molasses block and a longer lasting parasitecide show great promise, along with a vaccine for cattle which causes many of the fever ticks to die after feeding on vaccinated cattle. While the long term outlook for these products is heartening, we must wait on an excruciatingly slow federal clearance process to use them. 
    The greater solution to all of these problems requires enormous effort on a local, state and federal basis to secure the areas along the border and to take back complete control of privately owned as well as public properties. Cur-rent fever tick eradication efforts must be enhanced in the permanent quarantine zone along the Rio Grande, and we must demand that Mexico establish its own fever tick-free buffer zone along the Texas-Mexico boundary to alleviate problems with "ticky" livestock and wildlife crossing the river into the U.S.
ICA