An effort by North Dakota's largest rancher group to strengthen the penalties for livestock fraud has been overrun by opponents who feared sloppy paperwork might turn an honest rancher into a felon.

"The penalty has to fit the crime," said Rep. Shirley Meyer, D-Dickinson, who sponsored the legislation and later turned against it after it went far beyond what she had envisioned. "I don't want to put my friends and neighbors and fellow ranchers in prison for losing their paperwork."

Wade Moser, executive vice president of the North Dakota Stockmen's Association, said the effort to derail the bill was based on misinformation and efforts to address Meyer's questions only led to confusion.

"When it got muddled up in confusion, it fell in a heap," he said.

The bill pushed by the Stockmen's Association sought to toughen the penalties for fraud crimes, such as defacing a cow's brand or falsely claiming ownership of an animal, by making them felonies. They are now misdemeanors.

Senators approved the bill 45-0. But it was changed in the House to an interim legislative study of state branding laws, and then killed. Sen. Tim Flakoll, R-Fargo, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said it was not likely the subject would have been picked for a study.

Meyer and Rep. Rod Froelich, D-Selfridge, both ranchers, said the bill did not properly distinguish between cattle thieves and honest ranchers who fail to do proper paperwork.

"Guys stealing cattle - hang 'em, shoot 'em, I don't care," Froelich said. "The rest of the parts of the bill (were unacceptable)."

The Stockmen's Association handles brand inspections and recording for the state, and Moser said it was "ridiculous" to argue that the bill might make honest ranchers into felons.

"There's never been any attempt by us to criminalize anybody who loses their paperwork," he said.

Meyer and Froelich said the legislation made it too easy for an overzealous brand inspector or prosecutor with a grudge against a rancher to accuse that rancher of a felony. It is a possibility that ranchers who "sometimes keep receipts in a coverall pocket" should not have to worry about, Meyer said.

Froelich, a former member of the Stockmen's Association, is an outspoken member of the Independent Beef Association of North Dakota, a group of ranchers who split off from the Stockmen's Association about two years ago over policy disagreements. Meyer's husband, Dean, is a former Stockmen's Association president who is now IBAND's main lobbyist at the Legislature.

Froelich, Shirley Meyer and Moser said the disagreement over the branding bill was not the result of friction between the two groups.

From Texas to South Dakota, violations of livestock fraud laws similar to those dealt with by the North Dakota bill bring felony charges. Steven Stanec, executive director of the Nebraska Brand Committee, said the state has no problems with ranchers being jailed for innocuous paperwork violations.

"A stray animal that strayed into a neighbor's place and was brought to town (and sold), it would be hard to prove the neighbor intended to deprive the rightful owner of the livestock," he said. "There is that protection there. That intent has to be established."

Moser and Darryl Howard, North Dakota's chief brand inspector, say one of the goals of stiffening livestock laws is to nudge county prosecutors to take on more cases.

Some prosecutors don't have time for misdemeanor cases, and less than one-fourth of livestock law investigations end up in the legal system, Howard said.

Paul Murphy, the Foster County state's attorney and head of the state prosecutors' association, said local prosecutors generally will prosecute felonies before misdemeanors. However, most state's attorneys "look at the big picture" and consider whether the crime is a "recurring thing" and a major problem, Murphy said.

The bill is SB2206.