For those of you who have never traveled in the West or
Southwest, cattle guards are horizontal steel rails placed
at fence openings, in dug-out places in the roads adjacent
to highways (sometimes across highways), to prevent cattle
from crossing over that area. For some reason the cattle
will not step on the "guards," probably because they fear
getting their feet caught between the rails.
A few months ago, President Obama received a report that
there were over 100,000 cattle guards in Colorado. Because
Colorado ranchers had protested his proposed changes in
grazing policies, he ordered the Secretary of the Interior
to fire half of the guards immediately.
Before the Interior Secretary could respond and presumably
straighten him out, Vice-President, Joe Biden, intervened
with a request that before any guards were fired, they be
given six months of retraining.
