Dead cattle punctuate devastation of wildfi res

WICHITA, Kan. — Kansas rancher Greg Gardiner got into some of his scorched pastures for the first time Wednesday and surveyed what he likened to a battle zone: carcasses of dead cattle everywhere.

“It’s pretty much a catastrophe,” Gardiner said as he looked out on his ranch near Ashland, charred by wildfires that have burned through hundreds of acres in four states. “It’s as bad as a mind can make it.”

Gardiner cries when he talks about how thankful he is that none of his family members was lost in wildfires that that have led to the deaths of six people. Gardiner’s brother Mark lost his home — like dozens of other people in largely rural areas of Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and Colorado — but he is safe.

Gardiner figures he lost 500 cattle. Any badly burned animals found still alive are mercifully shot.

“A lot of people have gone out and run out of shells and come back to get more shells,” said Gardiner. “It’s pretty grisly work out here right now, to be honest.”

He saw a coyote’s carcass and wryly stated that there’s not even coyotes left to clean up the dead. No wildlife is left as far as he can tell.

Most of the burned land is in Kansas, where more than 1,000 square miles has been consumed in a series of blazes, including one believed to be the largest in the state’s recorded history.

It is too soon to know yet how many animals perished. In Clark County, where Gardiner lives, ranchers so far have lost about 2,500 adult cattle and at least 1,000 calves, said Randall Spare, co-owner of Ashland Veterinary Center.

In the Texas Panhandle, three ranch hands — Cody Crockett, 20, Sydney Wallace, 23, and Sloan Everett, 35 — died trying to save cattle from fires that have burned nearly 750 square miles.