Ranchers see public lands as their own. [View all]

[SarahD]

Public lands in the American west constitute an enormous welfare system benefitting logging, ranching, railroads, energy companies, and some I probably forgot. Ranchers are probably not the worst of these bad actors, but they try to be. They insist every square inch of public prairie be dedicated to feeding their cattle. And don't expect to charge them a fair price for munching on that public grass, either. They hate bison because... well, because they're not cows, but also because bison carry brucellosis and the ranchers don't want to spend money to vaccinate their cows. These appear to be private bison, so they could be vaccinated by whoever owns them, but the ranchers are complaining that the fences aren't stout enough to prevent the bison escaping and mingling with their cattle. Of course, the delicious irony of this is that they're behaving exactly like the ungrateful welfare recipients to whom they hate being compared. No matter how much money we spend on them, they demand more. Real rugged cowboy individualists.
https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/environment/american-prairie-greg-gianforte-austin-knudsen-blm/article_4b3d2104-5562-5942-93e1-2e7d89308415.html