Montana lawmakers hope to head off rustlers with mandatory fines and community service

By SHANDA BRADSHAW
Community News Service
UM School of Journalism

In late March of 1885 two men trailing horses from Canada were surrounded in a saloon near Dupuyer by a “committee” of two-dozen armed men, most of them carrying Winchesters.

According to the Sun River Sun, the horse traders, suspected of being horse thieves, eventually “accepted an invitation to take an active part in a neck tie sociable.” They were buried on Birch Creek, about a mile above the saloon.

They don’t hang rustlers these days, but Montana’s Legislature has passed a bill this session to jack-up the penalties for stealing livestock.

Senate Bill 214 requires that a person convicted of the theft or illegal branding of any livestock pay a minimum fine of $5,000 and not exceeding $50,000 or serve a jail sentence not exceeding 10 years or both. The current law has no mandatory minimum fine.

The bill also says that if prison terms are deferred, offenders must contribute a mandatory 416 hours of community service. In addition, any equipment used in the crime – trucks, horse-trailers, etc. – could be confiscated. An earlier version of the bill would have allowed authorities to seize a rustler's ranch.

“The reason for the bill is to put more teeth in the law so we can somehow punish these people,” said Sen. Don Steinbeisser, R-Sidney, who introduced the bill.

SB 214 passed by overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate, though the frequency of livestock thefts is difficult to gauge.

The state Public Defender’s Office says it defended two cases of rustling last year. The state’s special Crimestoppers hot line for livestock crimes received eight calls last year, though officials say other reports are made to local law enforcement officials and county hot lines.

A recent case of large-scale rustling in northeast Montana made news because it was so unusual, but John Grainger, administrator of the Brands Enforcement Division at the Montana Department of Livestock, said small-scale thefts involving an animal or two are persistent.

That's why he supports the passage of SB 214.

“I agree with it,” Grainger said. “There needs to be a bigger penalty to deter the crime.”

The bill's opponents in the Legislature argued that rustling is already covered under state’s laws against felony theft, which give judges leeway to tailor the punishment to fit the crime. They also noted that any revenue raised by increasing fines will not go to compensate ranchers for stolen stock.

Rep. Mike Menahan, D-Helena and a prosecutor in Lewis and Clark County, also argued that no other property crime carries a mandatory minimum fine or mandatory community service. Others asked why the law should treat rustlers more harshly than someone who steals a flat-screen TV.

Supporters said Montana should make a special case of rustlers because flat-screen TV’s don’t produce other TVs.

Stealing a cow, with its potential to produce calves, "is stealing someone’s livelihood,” said Rep. Ed Butcher, R-Winifred, a rancher himself.

The bill's mandatory minimum fine of $5,000 drew support, though some supporters considered that too low. Rep. Wendy Warburton, R-Havre, said she preferred the $10,000 minimum mandated in the Senate's version of the bill.

“We used to hang these people in Montana, and, unfortunately, we went from hanging them to a pittance right now," Warburton said.

The bill's House sponsor, Rep. Tony Belcourt, D-Box Elder and also a rancher, noted the recent conviction Roosevelt County in what officials described as the biggest Montana cattle rustling case in decades. The bill would serve as a deterrent, he said.

Richard D. Holen, of Wolf Point, was convicted earlier this month in Roosevelt County District County of eight counts of felony theft for allegedly stealing cattle from eight neighboring ranchers.

During the investigation, officials said they found 33 stolen cows, calves, bulls and heifers in addition to six other cows and calves that Holen had previously sold. The prosecutor told the Associated Press that he couldn't find a comparable case in Montana since the early 1900s.

Under current laws, Holen faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine for each of the eight counts. He has yet to be sentenced.

The bill now heads to Gov. Brian Schweitzer for his signature.

- Photo by CNS photographer Alison Smith

Bill would give FWP the power to manage bison

The old Supreme Court chambers were crammed with those hoping to testify on the controversial bill. (Photo by Molly Priddy)

HELENA -Wildlife groups and others squared off with the ranching industry today over a bill that would strip the state Department of Livestock of its responsibility for managing bison that wander from Yellowstone National Park.

House Bill 253, sponsored by Rep. Mike Phillips, D-Bozeman, would give the job to the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. As wildlife, bison should be managed by wildlife professionals, he told fellow legislators.

“We have operated under a paradigm that says the Department of Livestock can manage wild bison,” Phillips told the House Fish, Wildlife and Parks Committee.

Phillips said FWP would do a better job of working with of private landowners near the park. The switch also would allow the Department of Livestock to concentrate more specifically on the fight against brucellosis, a disease that causes cows to abort their offspring.

Phillips said the Department of Livestock has angered some landowners by going on their property, without permission, to haze bison. “They have interpreted that to mean trespassing is legal,” Phillips said.

The bill's supporters spoke in three-minute increments for an hour and a half. Many were from rural towns near Yellowstone National Park who said they were tired of the bison being hazed near their property.

Jim Bailey, representing the Gallatin Wildlife Association, said the Livestock Department has mismanaged the animals, allowing Montana to lose its brucellosis-free status in the process.

“We’ve been managing brucellosis with a feather,” Bailey said, adding, “We’ve been managing bison with a hammer.”

Other supporters said bison are wildlife and should be allowed to roam freely as they had for generations. Many said the number of bison slaughtered annually by the state was overkill.

But ranchers and their representatives told legislators they feared what would happen if the Livestock Department stopped managing the animals.

“The question is disease, not bison,” said John Bloomquist, lobbyist for the Montana Stockgrowers Association. He said other states would surely question Montana’s ability to manage brucellosis if FWP, an agency without a disease control department, took over.

Bob Hanson, president of the Montana Farm Bureau Federation, said the bill would not help Montana get its brucellosis-free status back.

“We feel that it puts the cattle industry at risk,” Hanson said.

Others also said the bill does not address eradicating brucellosis from Montana.

“It does nothing to solve the problem, and you’ve heard time and time again the problem is disease and wildlife,” said Sen. Rick Ripley, R-Wolf Creek.

Other opponents included the Montana Association of Counties, the Montana Board of Livestock and the Citizens for Balanced Use.

The Department of Livestock was given primary authority to manage bison by the 1995 Legislature.

-by CNS correspondent Molly Priddy