Federal agents seized more than 100 cattle and jailed a 66-year-old woman who owns some of them in the first U.S. criminal or civil enforcement action in five years against Nevada ranchers accused of trespassing livestock on public land.
Bureau of Land Management rangers began impounding the cattle across a 10-mile stretch of the high desert rangeland in north central Nevada on Monday. They said Inger Casey and Larry "Dudley" Hiibel had been grazing cattle on BLM land without a permit for more than three years and failed to comply with federal court orders this fall demanding they keep them off U.S. land.
Advertisement"They've never had permits or authorization to have their cattle on public lands," said BLM spokesman Doran Sanchez, who counted 107 cattle that have been impounded.
Long at odds with the BLM, the two ranchers maintain the U.S. government has no legal jurisdiction over rangeland in Nevada, although federal courts have ruled otherwise.
