Never park your truck...

[PronghornHunter]

by a watering hole.

A friend and myself went riding ATV's. We took his truck. We parked next to a watering hole on BLM land. After returning back to the truck that afternoon we noticed several dents on one side of the truck. With a closer inspection we then noticed that the whole truck had been worked over with one of the mirrors broken off the passenger door. At first we thought vandalism by some tree hugger but there were no other vehicle or people tracks around the vehicle. I did notice over by the water hole were several head of cows that were not there when we pulled in that morning and standing in the middle of them was a large Hereford bull with red paint on his horns and a smile on his face.
Yes this bull used my buddies truck for a rubbing post! I just about $hit!
He wanted to put a 240 grain slug between the bulls eyes but I talked him out of it.
Luckily he had full coverage insurance on his truck.

Let's say that he would have only had liability insurance. Would the rancher who owned the bull be held liable? It was on public land?

What are your thoughts?

 

[clyde]

the ranchers responsibility especially with the red paint on his horns. Funny story!!!

 

[grizzlyplumber]

Is it free-range public land? Dont know if its the same legally but my buddy hit a dead cow on a state hiway and totalled his car. He had no recourse because the land was free-range.

 

[polarbear]

My gelding use to come along side of my wife's brand new, blood red Toyota pick-up and scrape strips of paint off of it with his teeth. I told her that it was her fault for leaving it in the pasture. Boy she was p!ssed! I think that she was more mad at me for laughing about it.

Eric

 

[NVBighorn]

Don't know about around a waterhole but the way it works around here is if you hit a cow within the fenced and cultivated areas the cow owner is liable for damage to your vehicle and you if you are hurt. If you hit one out on open range you just bought yourself a cow and you fix your own vehicle.

My suggestion is to not park too near a waterhole. You may be blocking access to wildlife as well as cattle, not to mention becoming a rubbing post. Here it's illegal to camp within 100 yards of a waterhole so you don't keep the wildlife away.

 

[eelgrass]

I'm not positive but I don't think you have any recourse. Hope that doesn't "rub" you the wrong way.

Steve

 

[idhunters]

On public lands the rancher is no more liable for the damage than the fish & game would be if an elk had dented the truck.

Probably not the best place to leave a truck!

 

[PronghornHunter]

Nahhh...doesn't rub me wrong. It wasn't my truck anyway.
Of course I will remember to never park my truck by a watering hole.

 

[RLH]

ain't it sorta against the law to camp, park, hangaround, etc, by a waterhole?

 

[kilowatt]

Read post #4 and the second paragraph.

Brian

 

[B_F_E]

Since the truck was painted red it would be considered baiting, kind of like a matador waiving a red flag.
If the truck were white, the rancher would have to pay

 

[mtmuley]

LAST EDITED ON Jan-30-06 AT 06:45PM (MST)[p]It wouldn't matter if you had parked by a waterhole or in the middle of a pasture. Cattle tend to bump into vehicles when they are close to them. Whether you are feeding them, or it is parked and they are only scratching, cows mess up a truck. Then there are the bulls, usually in a bad mood. I've had horses damage a truck also. mtmuley Montana is a free range state. I'm not sure of the legalities on a parked vehicle on public ground.

 

[PronghornHunter]

The water hole we were parked by was out in the middle of the desert "BFE" in a sage brush area with thousands of BLM acres around us so in no way were we encroaching on where the animals need to roam.

 

[NVBighorn]

How about where they need to water?

 

[PronghornHunter]

Plenty of water holes. There are at least four in a square mile area where we were at. This area hold lot's of natural springs too so it wasn't like they only had one to choose from.The cows just happen to pick that hole at that time. Probably grazed off the good grass around the others so this is the one they were grazing by. Just bad timing I guess.

 

[Longun]

PronghornHunter,

Tell you buddy its a good thing he didn't pop that Bull cause it is a Felony offense. The cattleman pays the Feds a certain amount of money every month per cow to be grazing on State,BLM or Forest Service land. So they have just as much right as any other person to be out there. You kill a cow on a public grazing allotment and then you have the Stockgrowers Association on your butt along with all the other
authorites. Sorry but thats the way its been for a 100 years. And thats why you see the tree huggers raising so much cain to get cattle off public ground.

 

[JACKELOPE]

happened to me too. but it was on private land where i had permission to be. never complained about it, wasn't as bad as what happened to your buddy's rig. i also had the plastic on my bumpers chewed up by a couple goats. that sucked.