OK, maybe we shouldn't have been up there. But Bear wasn't trying to hurt the cattle. He was just playing. In fact, his rolling-hills ranch some 10 miles south down Santa Teresa Boulevard from the Ciprians seems to be a dog paradise. The one-lane road leading to the ranch house has several posted signs asking drivers to slow for children and animals.
Sheep dogs greet a visitor's car in the yard, tails wagging and clamoring to get in.
Inside, Chihuahuas rule the kitchen, standing on hind legs to look in laps for food or a pat on the head. Baird opposes the proposed 1,000-yard firearm buffer zone, saying that if a rancher uses his weapon recklessly in defense of his livestock, there are plenty of laws already on the books to prosecute. He thinks that the state livestock protection law is proper and since state law supersedes county ordinances, he believes that it will continue to allow ranchers to shoot dogs they feel are threatening their cattle, even if a county ordinance is passed. The stocky, weathered cattleman spreads out a series of Polaroid snapshots on the kitchen table of his spread-out Morgan Hill ranch home. According to Baird, both sets of livestock were attacked by packs of neighborhood dogs.