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Show CATASTROPHE THREATENS LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY The Oregon State Humane Society has had surveys made of the range conditions in that state and authorizes the statement that there will be heavy losses of cattle and sheep this winter on the range from starvation. A report to the Chicago Drovers Journal says: "There are bone-dry conditions over large areas of the western range states Livestock is going into winter quarters with famine taring; it in the face and prices of hay advancing rapidly. Credit has been largely exhausted and advances by the War Finance corporation corpora-tion to banks and cattle loan companies have relieved the banking situation but will not save the stock. Cowmen are mortgaging their ranches to buy hay. Losses from the slump in prices of cattle are beavy, and individual herders and catties firms will be helpless to ve their stock. Losses of a half million head in eastern Oregon last winter will reach into millions if the coming winter is not mild ' and open." Col. Hofcr appeared before the National Humane convention con-vention in St. Paul with a plea for the range stock and advocates tt and national action to save the industry from terrible losses, if ttxe coming winter is a hard one. Asked what could be done to prevent injury and disaster to live stock on the ranges he said: "There must be legislation to make it crime to withhold sustenance from live stock on the ranges just a it is against the law to starve a domestic animal in cities under moat state laws. Custom and tradition permit owners of herds and flocks and managers of cattle and sheep corporations to live in comfort com-fort in cities and winter in California and Florida while their dumb animals freeze, starve and die of thirst by millions on the ranges. A herd may lose 1 0 to 60 per cent in winter and the remainder come out fkin-and-boncs and nothing is said and nothing done. If the price goes up they make it back on the survivors. The last government govern-ment statistics for the winter of 1918-19 show 2,247,000 cattle, 1,606,000 sheep and a vast number of lambs perished from starvation. starva-tion. A few, years ago nearly the entire cattle industry onf Montana and Nevada was wiped out by freezing and starving. The stock rustle in two to four feet of snow and break through the ice and drown trying t o get to the water in the rapidly rushing rivers partly frozen over.-. "In one valley in a western state 700 head of white-faced cattle taved while hay just over a slight ridge was held at thirty dolars a tor. Our humane officer last January found herds dying of starvation starva-tion and eating willows and trees, with hay-stacks on all sides of them and not a ton for sale. Greed and inhumanity to creatures that auply our nation with food and clothing have been carried to faj'. y The departmhent of Commerce and Agriculture can do much tcj .relieve the danger of losses of millions of stock that it will take three to five years to replace. The states must act. The county farm agent law should be extended to include livestock and county farm agents should be given the power to move starving stock or feed it through the winter, with power to commandeer hay and make it a first lien against stock to take precedence over all other claims. The right to keep the herd alive comes first and if this rjght does not exist it should be created. "The great cattle range country is in a transition stage. Settlers are crowding in and fencing more and more land. Large cattle companies -the best of them, have fenced lands and provide water, feed and shelter. The shoe-stringer still operates by the hundreds and is the cause of a great share of the losses in winter. He is being crowded out by the settlers and the western organizations of wool-growers are demanding that he be given no leases. Rules and regulations on the Forest Reserves require that leases for pasturing pastur-ing livestock be granted only to owners of cattle and sheep who are able to show ownership of ranch lands and ability to take care of stock when it is taken off the resrve. That practically excludes the hoe-8tringer from the forest reserves and has reduced fatalities to livestock. The shoe-stringer operates without owning a foot of land and generally without credit or capital, taking his chances 'to make winning on open winter when his stock will get through without losses. Some way must be found to hold him responsible for losses to his herds.; Thes hoe-stringer or irresponsible herder should be shut off the state and federal range lands as he is off the Forest Reserves. |