I was told that Farm Bureau went into this with good intentions. They were trying to keep the the oil companies temporary employees from accessing private land w/out notifying the owner 24 hours ahead, and they were trying to help the cattlemen in western Okla. that had been victomized by theives possing as cattle owners looking for strayed cattle. But things got changed when it went to the senate and the final version wasn't what Okla. Farm Bureau initially wanted. The oil companies got a free pass and the livestock owners got turned into criminals. I reciently got voted in on the Board of Directors for OFB for this area and I hope to be able to present our view point to the rest of the members this year. I am learning all the processes that have to be gone thru before a bill can gain enough momentum to succeed. I would like to point out that the Board members that I have talked to did not mean for this to turn out the way that the final version is now. We evidently have a lot of pressure from people that have either just moved in from other states that have similar laws or maybe didn't think about dog hunters or people that lease land with bad fences or river frontage. I have leased land that on 2 diferent places has river frontage and every time the river rises and falls I have cattle that get out. Also some of my lease places have old fences that have dead trees (from the last 2 years drought) that are constantly falling on the fences and there also I have cattle getting out sometimes daily. Especially after each high wind or storm that blows in here. It would be good if everyone that hunts with dogs or owns a farm would contact Farm Bureau and the Oklahoma Cattlemans Assn and their State Senators and Represenatives. If we would flood the phone lines of everyone involved we would see some action.

It has made crimimals out of honest ranchers and dog men every time their horse, cow, goat, or dog gets on their neighbors property. We really need to get this thing reversed. I am talking to people with Farm Bureau and the Oklahoma Cattlemans Assn. But it is an uphill battle. It was initially started as a way to keep rustlers from gaining access to cattle in private pastures. Farm Bureau initally got it started and then the Timber companies helped push it through.  But it is just as illegal to steal cows now as it was before this got passed. From what I can gather the Timber companies in Eastern Okla wanted this thing passed so they could lease out hunting leases on land that had been put in a tax shelter (classified as wasteland instead of producing agriculture for tax purposses)in exchange for getting it classified as waste land the land was suppossed to be made available for public access. Now that same land has been sold to a sister company and they have leased it out, fenced it with taxpayer money and removed public access. I pay a lot more per acre in taxes for my ranching land than the timber companies pay for theirs. I think that we need to demand that the waste land exemption be removed from tax rates on private land state wide. And we also need to repeal this version of  hb1249. I will be going to the Okla Farm Bureau convention next weekend. And would appreciate any help I could get on this. my phone # is 580-372-3950

Thanks bigo. Looking forward to seeing some good dogs work.

Could someone give me the directions and maybe a phone # ?

I had the same problem last year with some of my hounds and a guy told me to try wheat germ oil, I gave them 2 cc a day in food or squirt down the throat. Both bitches came in, one was 7 yrs old and had skipped the previous cycle. I don't know anything about the shot except my vet said that it would be better to stay away from it.