Interesting article.
For one who has had the opportunity to quail hunt the King Ranch one weekend 10 or 12 years ago, I was truly amazed at the number of deer blinds maintained on the fence lines by some of their neighbors.
Interesting comments (some), too.
http://www.caller.com/news/2012/mar/18/man-facing-criminal-hunting-charge-questions-his/
Man facing criminal hunting charge questions King Ranch's property boundary with his family's ranch
Man charged with hunting without landowner's consent
By David Sikes
Corpus Christi Caller Times
Posted March 18, 2012 at 1:40 a.m., updated March 18, 2012 at 7:57 a.m.
KINGSVILLE — Something about the atmosphere wasn't quite right at the modest Ramos home during the family's 2010 Christmas celebration.
Without his wife at the family ranch, Danny Cabrera felt awkward and out of place among all the kids, the gifts and the revelry. This was the second holiday since Cynthia had died of cancer in November 2009.
"I don't know how to describe it," Cabrera said. "It was like a panic attack or something. I just knew I needed to get out of there."
So the 52-year-old widower walked a short distance to be alone at a nearby creek. He brought along a hunting rifle but really didn't plan to shoot anything. It was after 4 p.m. when Cabrera arrived at a spot along San Fernando Creek very near to where he had shot his first deer when he was 6.
He also was within sight of the Laureles Division of the King Ranch, which the Cabrera family had shared a boundary with since the 1920s.
Reflections on hunting with his grandfather helped to relieve Cabrera's anxiety and to forget why he had wandered away from a house full of relatives.
He crawled into a deer blind with his thoughts and his gun. Around 5:15 p.m. Cabrera spotted a big black hog feeding across the creek south of his blind. As the pig got closer, Cabrera decided to take it, even though the hog would be difficult to retrieve from across the fairly wide creek.
This decision turned out to be a problem. King Ranch officials, who say they pursue dozens of poaching cases each year, insist the hog was shot on King Ranch property. During the summer of 2010, a note claiming that San Fernando Creek was the King Ranch property line had been posted on a feeder where the pig was shot. The feeder had been toppled.
The King Ranch note refers to a recent survey of the property as well as a line of purple posts marking the legal boundary along the creek. It read: "Please remove all feeders from this area promptly. Any animals harvested on this side of the creek will result in a filing of Hunting Without Landowners Consent (a Class A misdemeanor)."
A number was listed to call with questions.
King Ranch officials say they gave adequate notice of the survey to all their neighbors.
"I feel very comfortable (King Ranch) gave the individuals every opportunity for an amicable solution," wrote Dave Delaney, King Ranch vice president and general manager, in an email about the ranch's general practices in such matters.
Soon a Kleberg County court will settle the dispute, which Region X Major Game Warden Larry Young referred to in an email as a trespassing case.
From his hunting blind, Cabrera's aim was true, felling the 160-pound black hog immediately with a single shot to its head. What now? He waited a while, then waded across the muddy water.
Cabrera, a big man, wrestled the hog to the creek then floated it to the other side, where currents had carved a steep bank. It was too heavy. So the struggle ended there.
Cabrera phoned the house and summoned his nephew to bring a pickup. They tied one end of a rope to the pig and the other to the truck's trailer hitch, then dragged the animal several hundred yards to the house.
They cleaned, dressed and skinned the pig, hung it in the garage and went to bed on that chilly night. Cabrera awoke about midmorning and spotted a gobbler in the backyard, which he decided would make a nice holiday dinner. The celebration continued inside while Cabrera breasted the bird and butchered the hog.
Later a call came to the house from a close family friend who had just left the property and encountered a game warden on a road nearby. Game Warden Brad Meloni said he was investigating a report of a deer shot without permission that morning on the King Ranch. The young man pleaded ignorance and was allowed to leave.
Meloni's next stop was the ranch house. Cabrera greeted the uniformed officer near the gate.
The tone of this exchange was pleasant and friendly, Cabrera said. Again, Meloni asked about a King Ranch deer shot that morning.
Cabrera explained that he had shot a turkey earlier and a hog the previous evening, offering to show the officer both.
"I told him we don't hunt the King Ranch, that we hunt our property," Cabrera said. "I even offered to take him to where I'd shot the pig."
Meloni accepted the offer and the two men rode to the creek in Meloni's dark green pickup. The two men stood on the creek's west bank while Cabrera described the shooting of the pig and where it fell.
Cabrera said Meloni's response took him aback.
"He told me that was King Ranch property," Cabrera said. "And I explained the history and how we had been hunting that strip of land for generations. But he insisted that it was King Ranch."
Cabrera acknowledges periodic boundary disputes in the past between the King Ranch and property owners along San Fernando Creek and elsewhere. But Cabrera has always trusted the word of his late grandfather, who told him not to cross the fence on the east side of the creek and never to shoot anything beyond the barbed wire.
The King Ranch's Dave Delaney wrote in an email that sometimes when a creek forms a property line the King Ranch will erect fences some distance from the bank to keep them from being washed away by floodwaters.
"And people had the audacity to actually set feeders on our property, despite our telling them we had filed surveys that clearly delineated our property," he wrote in an email. "These are just some examples of what happens when you own 830,000, and everyone wants a piece of it. The ranch has been very neighborly and has worked well with our neighbors, most of whom are like-minded stewards of the environment and our wildlife resource."
Cabrera said he recalls at one time the fence was closer to the creek. And he acknowledged that King Ranch workers moved it eastward years ago to avert damage to the fence when the stream overflowed. He also said he recalls his family helping King Ranch cowboys round up cattle when these breaches occurred, allowing cows to wander onto Cabrera property.
Members of the Cabrera family, and Cabrera's attorney Mark Thering, said they do not consider a note posted on a feeder and signed by King Ranch employee Beau Hester as legal notice.
Cabrera's brother-in-law Leo Ramos called the number on the note and requested a meeting. That meeting occurred about a month after the pig was shot. Ramos said he and two neighbors with property that borders the King Ranch presented an argument to King Ranch officials to support their position that the ranch's survey was illegal or invalid based on a legal claim of adverse possession.
The law of adverse possession recognizes that most landowners will act promptly to remove a trespasser from their property. But if a person remains in possession of the land in question long enough they may acquire ownership of that property through adverse possession. Generally the period of possession may be between three and 25 years. This is similar to the concept of squatter's rights.
Ramos said the meeting ended amicably with a promise from King Ranch officials they would review his adverse possession claim and get back to him.
"They never did," Ramos said.
Instead, King Ranch officials filed their new survey with Kleberg County in February after that meeting with Ramos and two months after Cabrera shot the pig, Thering, Cabrera's attorney, said.
Cabrera said he had not read the note before shooting the pig and still has not read it. He noticed the purple markers along the creek around the time the note was posted, but said he did not discuss this with other family members. He said he thought the markers might indicate the route of a future pipeline. So he checked with Kleberg County officials, but they couldn't help. Then he contacted Exxon, which also couldn't solve the mystery.
During his creekside conversation with the game warden, Cabrera said he got the sense this was not about poaching a deer or hog. It was about the ongoing property dispute.
"He came there saying he was looking for a deer, but now he was telling me this was not our property," Cabrera said. "This went against what my family had known for generations. At some point, I realized this was not about a deer."
Cabrera said he and Meloni returned to the house, where the game warden spoke with other family members, photographed the hog and took a blood sample from it. He checked Cabrera's driver's license and hunting license.
"I asked him, 'Are we in trouble here?' " Cabrera said. "He said as far as he was concerned his investigation was over."
The encounter ended pleasantly with a handshake, Cabrera said.
Meloni's supervisor, Major Larry Young, said department policy prevents an officer from commenting on a pending case. The Caller-Times received Meloni's written offense report from Texas Parks & Wildlife attorney Laura Russell. All of the report's narrative was redacted.
Russell said she had earlier received a letter from Diane Elizondo, an assistant county attorney with the Kleberg County Attorney's Office, requesting that the Parks and Wildlife Department withhold the information to prevent interference with the case. A phone call to the Kleberg County Attorney's Office was not returned.
The Caller-Times sent an open records request for the report on Feb. 6. Russell forwarded this request to the Texas Attorney General's Office for a ruling. On March 8 the request was denied.
About two months after Cabrera's encounter with Meloni on a February afternoon, Cabrera received a call from his nephew, saying his name was in the Kingsville Record newspaper. Cabrera had been criminally indicted on a charge of killing an exotic animal (swine) without the landowner's permission, a Class A misdemeanor, which could result in a fine as much as $4,000 and a year in prison.
Cabrera, who lives in Houston, contacted the Kleberg County Courthouse to verify they were looking for him.
"They said I should turn myself in, but that I should drive slowly because if I get caught speeding there is a warrant for my arrest," Cabrera said.
So he made the trip, saw a judge, spent several hours in jail and was released on a personal recognizance bond.
Cabrera said he's a fan of Texas history and has long been fascinated by the King Ranch's rich heritage.
"I've always respected and admired what they mean to the culture of South Texas," Cabrera said. "But I don't respect this kind of behavior. They're not acting in a neighborly manner. This is all about intimidation."
Cabrera said he believes he has done nothing wrong and will not be intimidated.
"My grandpa told me something a long time ago, after I got caught doing something wrong as a little kid," Cabrera said. "I'll never forget this. He told me you're too big to hide and too slow to run, so you'd better live your life right. Otherwise you're going to get caught. And that's how I've always lived my life."
The trial is set for April 23.
For one who has had the opportunity to quail hunt the King Ranch one weekend 10 or 12 years ago, I was truly amazed at the number of deer blinds maintained on the fence lines by some of their neighbors.
Interesting comments (some), too.
http://www.caller.com/news/2012/mar/18/man-facing-criminal-hunting-charge-questions-his/
Man facing criminal hunting charge questions King Ranch's property boundary with his family's ranch
Man charged with hunting without landowner's consent
By David Sikes
Corpus Christi Caller Times
Posted March 18, 2012 at 1:40 a.m., updated March 18, 2012 at 7:57 a.m.
KINGSVILLE — Something about the atmosphere wasn't quite right at the modest Ramos home during the family's 2010 Christmas celebration.
Without his wife at the family ranch, Danny Cabrera felt awkward and out of place among all the kids, the gifts and the revelry. This was the second holiday since Cynthia had died of cancer in November 2009.
"I don't know how to describe it," Cabrera said. "It was like a panic attack or something. I just knew I needed to get out of there."
So the 52-year-old widower walked a short distance to be alone at a nearby creek. He brought along a hunting rifle but really didn't plan to shoot anything. It was after 4 p.m. when Cabrera arrived at a spot along San Fernando Creek very near to where he had shot his first deer when he was 6.
He also was within sight of the Laureles Division of the King Ranch, which the Cabrera family had shared a boundary with since the 1920s.
Reflections on hunting with his grandfather helped to relieve Cabrera's anxiety and to forget why he had wandered away from a house full of relatives.
He crawled into a deer blind with his thoughts and his gun. Around 5:15 p.m. Cabrera spotted a big black hog feeding across the creek south of his blind. As the pig got closer, Cabrera decided to take it, even though the hog would be difficult to retrieve from across the fairly wide creek.
This decision turned out to be a problem. King Ranch officials, who say they pursue dozens of poaching cases each year, insist the hog was shot on King Ranch property. During the summer of 2010, a note claiming that San Fernando Creek was the King Ranch property line had been posted on a feeder where the pig was shot. The feeder had been toppled.
The King Ranch note refers to a recent survey of the property as well as a line of purple posts marking the legal boundary along the creek. It read: "Please remove all feeders from this area promptly. Any animals harvested on this side of the creek will result in a filing of Hunting Without Landowners Consent (a Class A misdemeanor)."
A number was listed to call with questions.
King Ranch officials say they gave adequate notice of the survey to all their neighbors.
"I feel very comfortable (King Ranch) gave the individuals every opportunity for an amicable solution," wrote Dave Delaney, King Ranch vice president and general manager, in an email about the ranch's general practices in such matters.
Soon a Kleberg County court will settle the dispute, which Region X Major Game Warden Larry Young referred to in an email as a trespassing case.
From his hunting blind, Cabrera's aim was true, felling the 160-pound black hog immediately with a single shot to its head. What now? He waited a while, then waded across the muddy water.
Cabrera, a big man, wrestled the hog to the creek then floated it to the other side, where currents had carved a steep bank. It was too heavy. So the struggle ended there.
Cabrera phoned the house and summoned his nephew to bring a pickup. They tied one end of a rope to the pig and the other to the truck's trailer hitch, then dragged the animal several hundred yards to the house.
They cleaned, dressed and skinned the pig, hung it in the garage and went to bed on that chilly night. Cabrera awoke about midmorning and spotted a gobbler in the backyard, which he decided would make a nice holiday dinner. The celebration continued inside while Cabrera breasted the bird and butchered the hog.
Later a call came to the house from a close family friend who had just left the property and encountered a game warden on a road nearby. Game Warden Brad Meloni said he was investigating a report of a deer shot without permission that morning on the King Ranch. The young man pleaded ignorance and was allowed to leave.
Meloni's next stop was the ranch house. Cabrera greeted the uniformed officer near the gate.
The tone of this exchange was pleasant and friendly, Cabrera said. Again, Meloni asked about a King Ranch deer shot that morning.
Cabrera explained that he had shot a turkey earlier and a hog the previous evening, offering to show the officer both.
"I told him we don't hunt the King Ranch, that we hunt our property," Cabrera said. "I even offered to take him to where I'd shot the pig."
Meloni accepted the offer and the two men rode to the creek in Meloni's dark green pickup. The two men stood on the creek's west bank while Cabrera described the shooting of the pig and where it fell.
Cabrera said Meloni's response took him aback.
"He told me that was King Ranch property," Cabrera said. "And I explained the history and how we had been hunting that strip of land for generations. But he insisted that it was King Ranch."
Cabrera acknowledges periodic boundary disputes in the past between the King Ranch and property owners along San Fernando Creek and elsewhere. But Cabrera has always trusted the word of his late grandfather, who told him not to cross the fence on the east side of the creek and never to shoot anything beyond the barbed wire.
The King Ranch's Dave Delaney wrote in an email that sometimes when a creek forms a property line the King Ranch will erect fences some distance from the bank to keep them from being washed away by floodwaters.
"And people had the audacity to actually set feeders on our property, despite our telling them we had filed surveys that clearly delineated our property," he wrote in an email. "These are just some examples of what happens when you own 830,000, and everyone wants a piece of it. The ranch has been very neighborly and has worked well with our neighbors, most of whom are like-minded stewards of the environment and our wildlife resource."
Cabrera said he recalls at one time the fence was closer to the creek. And he acknowledged that King Ranch workers moved it eastward years ago to avert damage to the fence when the stream overflowed. He also said he recalls his family helping King Ranch cowboys round up cattle when these breaches occurred, allowing cows to wander onto Cabrera property.
Members of the Cabrera family, and Cabrera's attorney Mark Thering, said they do not consider a note posted on a feeder and signed by King Ranch employee Beau Hester as legal notice.
Cabrera's brother-in-law Leo Ramos called the number on the note and requested a meeting. That meeting occurred about a month after the pig was shot. Ramos said he and two neighbors with property that borders the King Ranch presented an argument to King Ranch officials to support their position that the ranch's survey was illegal or invalid based on a legal claim of adverse possession.
The law of adverse possession recognizes that most landowners will act promptly to remove a trespasser from their property. But if a person remains in possession of the land in question long enough they may acquire ownership of that property through adverse possession. Generally the period of possession may be between three and 25 years. This is similar to the concept of squatter's rights.
Ramos said the meeting ended amicably with a promise from King Ranch officials they would review his adverse possession claim and get back to him.
"They never did," Ramos said.
Instead, King Ranch officials filed their new survey with Kleberg County in February after that meeting with Ramos and two months after Cabrera shot the pig, Thering, Cabrera's attorney, said.
Cabrera said he had not read the note before shooting the pig and still has not read it. He noticed the purple markers along the creek around the time the note was posted, but said he did not discuss this with other family members. He said he thought the markers might indicate the route of a future pipeline. So he checked with Kleberg County officials, but they couldn't help. Then he contacted Exxon, which also couldn't solve the mystery.
During his creekside conversation with the game warden, Cabrera said he got the sense this was not about poaching a deer or hog. It was about the ongoing property dispute.
"He came there saying he was looking for a deer, but now he was telling me this was not our property," Cabrera said. "This went against what my family had known for generations. At some point, I realized this was not about a deer."
Cabrera said he and Meloni returned to the house, where the game warden spoke with other family members, photographed the hog and took a blood sample from it. He checked Cabrera's driver's license and hunting license.
"I asked him, 'Are we in trouble here?' " Cabrera said. "He said as far as he was concerned his investigation was over."
The encounter ended pleasantly with a handshake, Cabrera said.
Meloni's supervisor, Major Larry Young, said department policy prevents an officer from commenting on a pending case. The Caller-Times received Meloni's written offense report from Texas Parks & Wildlife attorney Laura Russell. All of the report's narrative was redacted.
Russell said she had earlier received a letter from Diane Elizondo, an assistant county attorney with the Kleberg County Attorney's Office, requesting that the Parks and Wildlife Department withhold the information to prevent interference with the case. A phone call to the Kleberg County Attorney's Office was not returned.
The Caller-Times sent an open records request for the report on Feb. 6. Russell forwarded this request to the Texas Attorney General's Office for a ruling. On March 8 the request was denied.
About two months after Cabrera's encounter with Meloni on a February afternoon, Cabrera received a call from his nephew, saying his name was in the Kingsville Record newspaper. Cabrera had been criminally indicted on a charge of killing an exotic animal (swine) without the landowner's permission, a Class A misdemeanor, which could result in a fine as much as $4,000 and a year in prison.
Cabrera, who lives in Houston, contacted the Kleberg County Courthouse to verify they were looking for him.
"They said I should turn myself in, but that I should drive slowly because if I get caught speeding there is a warrant for my arrest," Cabrera said.
So he made the trip, saw a judge, spent several hours in jail and was released on a personal recognizance bond.
Cabrera said he's a fan of Texas history and has long been fascinated by the King Ranch's rich heritage.
"I've always respected and admired what they mean to the culture of South Texas," Cabrera said. "But I don't respect this kind of behavior. They're not acting in a neighborly manner. This is all about intimidation."
Cabrera said he believes he has done nothing wrong and will not be intimidated.
"My grandpa told me something a long time ago, after I got caught doing something wrong as a little kid," Cabrera said. "I'll never forget this. He told me you're too big to hide and too slow to run, so you'd better live your life right. Otherwise you're going to get caught. And that's how I've always lived my life."
The trial is set for April 23.