Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Neighbor won’t keep his cows up.

3 weeks back just around the Greenville exit on I81, MM30-40ish the prettiest white-face heifer was grazing along, maybe 5' off the interstate.
Would hate to have a 75MPH interaction with that!

Just slaughter them or sell them, my neighbor did the same to me, his grass was eaten up so he let his cattle into my place, I asked him if this was his cattle and he said no, so I called a friend he came by loaded them up and that was it.

Appropriating someone else's cattle no matter whose property they happen to be on is a crime. Killing another man's cattle no matter whose property they happen to be on is a crime, that is unless maybe one corners you and you have to kill it to protect yourself.

There are legal ways to handle this. If it were me and I had no way of corralling them I would first write the suspected offenders a letter identifying the problem and asking them to put a stop to it. If that did not work I would get an attorney to write them a letter again asking them to solve the problem and advising that you would reluctantly seek a restraining order if the cows were not kept off your property. At last resort, go get the restraining order and seek to have the cattle owner assessed all expenses (court costs). No judge will refuse to issue an order in a case like this.

I know you said you didn't want to go to court but that is a big part of the reason you are being misused like you are.

It'll happen again at some point if whoever it is doesn't take care of his fences.

Here's what I think. It sounds like you know them well enough to talk. If it happens again, just call up each guy and politely tell them that you're calling animal control (if there is such a thing there). Then hang up the phone and call animal control. If not, call the cops, especially if they're in, or near the road. Loose cattle is a serious road hazard and someone could get killed. You're a tax payer and the authorities need to do their job. If .gov starts slapping fines on them, they might take better care if their fences. They don't have anybody to blame but themselves. I understand that cows get loose, but if it happens a lot, it's a big problem.

One of my neighbors had one out last week. All of his cattle are black and they can be a mofo to see in the dark when you're driving down the road.

I've had neighbor's cows get out here and even destroy some inexpensive stuff. I politely told my neighbors, and they took care of it. I didn't threaten them or act like a dick. I even offered to help fix the fence if needed.

On the other hand, if I had asked nice a couple times and still had a problem, something the neighbors wouldn't like would have happened, and there would be no way to prove it had anything to do with me.

That's just something that's cultural to this area and what everyone expects, so everybody usually plays nice.

There's a guy that lives about 4 miles from me that tried "farming" for awhile. He had a few head of cattle, 2 Appaloosa horses, and about 20 goats. The goats used to spend more time in the road than anywhere else. At least till about 8 or 10 got made into roadkill. Some of the cattle and the 2 horses traveled as far as 5 or 6 miles from his place. Everybody around pastured and fed the damn things with their grass. Eventually the cattle and horses never made it back to his place. Don't know what happened. Nobody spoke of it.

Be sure and put hidden cameras and microphones in and outside all your vehicles and domicile. When the deputy retaliates you will have him on camera planting the cocaine during the traffic stop.