Militiaman Launches Campaign Encouraging More Ranchers To Stop Paying Grazing Fees

Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum carries his rifle after standing guard all night at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, near Burns, Ore. With the takeover entering its fourth day Wednesday, a... Arizona rancher LaVoy Finicum carries his rifle after standing guard all night at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, near Burns, Ore. With the takeover entering its fourth day Wednesday, authorities had not removed the group of roughly 20 people from the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon's high desert country. But members of the group, some from as far away as Arizona and Michigan, were growing increasingly tense, saying they feared a federal raid. (AP photo/Rick Bowmer) MORE LESS
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LaVoy Finicum, an Arizona rancher and key figure in the standoff in Oregon, has a new campaign to encourage ranchers to stop paying grazing fees to the federal government.

According to the Oregonian, Finicum and others have launched a petition and plan to have a ceremony Friday to reveal growing support for their movement.

Finicum told the Oregonian that he had recruited two ranchers to join so far, but that “I hope they bring a couple more in tow.”

Finicum has also been traveling away from the Malheur Wildlife Refuge to gin up momentum for the standoff in Oregon. Finicum believes the federal government should not charge ranchers for using federal lands and instead insists that those lands be given to local ranchers.

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Notable Replies

  1. Woo boy, let’s incite more sedition. Sounds like a fool-proof plan, Leroy.

  2. The thing that really makes me want to puke about these asswipes is that the fees for grazing cows on federal land is a tiny fraction of what private landowners charge.

  3. Avatar for sooner sooner says:

    I think it’s time to nip his beliefs in the bud. I can appreciate that he believes that he and other ranchers have a greater sense of ownership that the general public but where and how does this all end?

    Perhaps the federal government really should do the right thing and cede ownership of vast tracts of western lands back to their original occupants. Native American tribes.

  4. I’m all for it. You stop paying grazing fees, and we simply set up a new hunting license for cattle on public land. This would help reduce the population of invasive cattle, as well as provide food for anyone who wants to go hunt the cows themself.

    If your cow eats my grass, pay me or I kill the cow and eat it.

  5. “Welfare Queens,” White Privilege Style.

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