Dear Editor:

I am writing this letter in response to Andy Nasisse’s recent letter to the editor concerning the cattle keeping him awake at night. His letter has caused quite a stir in the ranching community! When I first read the letter, I was angry, but after giving it some thought, I realized that the author doesn’t know anything about cattle or ranching.

Mr. Nasisse asked some questions, and I will attempt to answer them without being insulting or condescending.

The reason the cattle are bawling is because the calves were recently weaned.

This is a necessary process that must occur each fall. The calves are born in the spring and must be weaned in the fall so that the cows have time to recoup from the rigors of parenting before giving birth again in the spring. Weaning is stressful for both the calves and cows.

Attempts are made to make it the least stressful possible. They are separated so they can’t nurse, but can still see and hear each other. As with human babies, the calves are eating solid food before weaning.

The reason this happens so close to town is because that ranch is privately owned and has been in the same family since 1893 when Ridgway was 2 years old. As far as moving this operation away from Ridgway, the thought of asking this family to sell their land and move away from what has been their home for 131 years is unspeakable!

These animals are not being treated badly as Mr. Nasisse implied. Human babies cry when they are weaned as well.

I’ll admit that no one likes losing sleep listening to cattle bawling at night in Ridgway, but I’ll bet we would all prefer it to listening to constant traffic, sirens and gunfire, as we would in Chicago or New York.

Personally, I would rather hear the cattle bawling than the barking dogs in Ridgway that could easily be taught to be quiet if their owners understood animals.

Animals, wild and domestic, are why many of us want to live in Ridgway.

When it comes to being kept awake by the bawling cattle, no one has it worse than the owners who live at ground zero. They are willing, however, to sacrifice a few nights of restful sleep each fall in order to insure that America has beef, milk, cream, butter, cheese and leather.

Willie Richardson

Ridgway