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Texas Panhandle wildfires leave “dead animals everywhere” as agricultural commissioner predicts 10,000 dead cattle
The historic wildfires ravaging the Texas Panhandle aren’t just destroying homes. Officials say the fires are devasting the agricultural community – a vital component of the state – and leaving “dead animals everywhere” as farms and ranches take massive losses.
Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson of the state’s 13th District said in a video update on Wednesday that after viewing the impact of the fires from a helicopter across several counties, “the damage is much worse than what is being reported.”
Since Wednesday, the most prominent of the active fires, the Smokehouse Creek Fire, has merged with another blaze and is now the largest wildfire in the state’s history and believed to be the second-largest wildfire in U.S. history. It’s so far burned nearly 1.1 million acres, and weather conditions in the days ahead could help fan the flames even further.
“There are literally hundreds of structures burned to the ground – houses, barns,” Jackson said in the video posted to social media. “There are dead animals everywhere – cattle, horses. Unfortunately, there are many animals that are seriously burned, that aren’t dead yet, that will have to be put down.”
Texas Agricultural Commissioner Sid Miller said on Thursday that it’s believed thousands of animals have died. He said in a press release on Wednesday that many grain and seed operations have also “reported total losses.”
“Just my prediction, but it will be 10,000 that will have died or we’ll have to euthanize,” he said, according to CBS News partner BBC. “…A lot of those cattle are still alive but the hooves are burned off, the teats are burned off, their udders are burned off. It’s just a sad situation.”
Miller said in Wednesday’s statement that more than 85% of the state’s cattle population is in the Panhandle.
“There are millions of cattle out there, with some towns comprising more cattle than people,” Miller said. “The losses could be catastrophic for those counties. Farmers and ranchers are losing everything.”
Photos show undetermined numbers of dead cattle along charred lands.
In an emotional video posted on Thursday, Morgan Broome of the disaster relief group Rancher Navy said many of the cattle in the Panhandle “have been lost.” Among other donations, the group is looking for heavy equipment to help bury the deceased livestock.
Nick Oxford / REUTERS
“We don’t have accurate numbers, but we’re hearing reports of thousands of cattle and horses dead,” she said through tears. “And because of that, the hay needs are less than what we anticipated them to be. … This is emotional for all of us.”
And it’s not just farm animals. Many locals have lost their pets in the fires.
“I lost two dogs and two cats,” Richard Murray, who lives near the town of Canadian, told the Associated Press. “It’s still emotional. This is our life. I mean, we’ve been here for 50 years.”
Marni Prater
The toll has been devastating, but many Texans, especially those in the agricultural community, have been rallying to help each other, offering their time, land, labor and supplies.
One woman, Marni Prater, wrote on Facebook that she is treating livestock in the towns of Stinnett and Fritch with a nebulizer, for free, and has also offered up medical supplies for livestock.
Prater told CBS News she purchased the treatment about two years ago for a horse that was struggling with allergies.
“I was in contact with my vet after the fires as 5 of our horses had to be left behind and the fire line came right up to our property in both sides and they were in smoke and active fire for hours on Tuesday night,” she told CBS News in a message. She said her horses “seem to be doing great” and will be checked out by veterinarians over the weekend.
The vet said she could use the albuterol on other animals who had inhaled wildfire smoke, and Prater was able to secure more albuterol donations and is now working to help others in her community.
One of those animals is a 2-week-old goat whose mom died in the fires and whose owner “lost everything they had,” Prater said.
“[They] couldn’t care for her any longer and asked us to help take her in so she had a chance to survive,” Prater said, adding the goat is doing “much better.”
“We have been doing breathing treatments 3 times a day and she immediately perked up and yesterday she finally started eating well,” Prater said. “I’ve been bringing her to work with me and everywhere I go so I can make sure we stay on top of her care.”
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
Getty Images
Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
LEAH MILLIS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming, second administration.
CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market.
Trump also said in a statement Saturday that Wright will serve on the newly-created National Energy Council, which will be chaired by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s selection for secretary of the Interior.
Burgum will oversee a panel that crosses all executive branch agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, Trump said in a previous statement.
Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
Wright also has criticized what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.”
Consideration of Wright to head the administration’s energy department won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.
Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.
Hamm helped organize an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate $1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. The agency is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons, oversees 17 national research laboratories and approves natural gas exports, as well as ensuring environmental cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. It also promotes scientific and technological research.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Trump promised bold choices for his Cabinet, and Wright’s nomination delivers.
“He’s s an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom. After four years of America last energy policy, our country is desperate for a secretary (of energy) who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security,″ Barrasso said of Wright, adding: “Wright will help ensure America remains committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that puts American families first.”
Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group that supports fossil fuels, said Wright would be “an excellent choice” for Energy secretary. Pyle led Trump’s Energy Department’s transition team in 2016.
Liberty is a major energy industry service provider, with a focus on technology. Wright, who grew up in Colorado, earned undergraduate degree at MIT and did graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and MIT. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which helped launch commercial shale gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
He later served as chairman of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010.
