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Case #10568 Rating: 4.3 out of 5
Hundreds of sheep neglected, dead and dying
Bluejacket, OK (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Jan 18, 2007
County: Craig
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Convicted
Case Images: 2 files available
Defendant/Suspect: David Bradley Bell
Case Updates: 6 update(s) available
The owner of a flock of starving sheep has been jailed on animal cruelty complaints after the corpses of dozens of the sheep were found on his Craig County farm.
Craig County authorities had been investigating properties owned by 46-year-old David Bradley Bell for about a month and moved in with a search warrant on Jan 18.
They found hundreds of dead or dying Barbado sheep, some piled several deep in a feeder pen inside a barn, others strewn about a pasture.
Authorities say some of the animals had been dead a short time, while bones protruded from worn-away hide on other corpses.
Investigators from the state Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners found no feed or water on the farm, so Bluejacket Volunteer Fire Department members cut holes in nearby ponds.
Authorities say Bell told them he could not afford to feed the sheep.
Case UpdatesA former Craig County man pleaded no contest Wednesday to one count of felony animal cruelty.
David Bradley Bell, 47, formerly of Bluejacket, received a two-year deferred sentence. He was also ordered to perform 240 hours of community service in lieu of serving 30 days in the Craig County jail. The community service must be completed within 18 months. Judge Gary Maxey also ordered Bell to pay restitution to the Craig County Sheriff's Office and withdraw from two civil cases he filed. One civil case claimed Bell's livestock were seized illegally and the other sought to have restitution withdrawn in the plea agreement.
Bell, who now lives in Comanche, Texas, is on unsupervised probation, but that will change should he move back to Oklahoma, court records show. In Oklahoma he would be required to report to a
probation officer. Conditions of his probation say Bell cannot own sheep or cattle during that two years. If Bell violates his probation, he could be sentenced to the maximum for this charge, which is five years.
In January 2007, authorities found hundreds of sheep and cattle starving to death or already dead on Bell's ranch. The livestock were removed and cared for on other ranches, racking up a sizeable feed bill to both the county and ranchers Johnna and Lonnie Kelley.
The plea agreement was arranged between Bell's lawyer Jot Hartley and Assistant District Attorney Barry Farbro. | Source: Pryor Daily News - Feb 23, 2008
Update posted on Feb 24, 2008 - 10:08PM |
Animals taken from a Craig County rancher are back in his care.
"We didn't get what we wanted, but I guess you never do," said Craig County Assistant District Attorney Jim Ely.
The Bank of Kremlin, located near Enid, has a loan on all the livestock, which includes approximately 1,500 head of sheep, cattle and horses. The livestock were seized more than two months ago when more than 600 carcasses were found on the property of David Bell, Bluejacket. The other livestock had no feed and were emaciated, according to the Craig County Sheriff's Office.
Ely said all parties agreed to the arrangement in court last week. The Bank of Kremlin will supervise the care and feeding of the animals until they are in better condition for sale to satisfy the lien and bills against them for feed.
"Otherwise, we'll be back out there," Ely said. "It was not our office or the Sheriff's office who returned the animals to the Bells."
Technically the bank is taking the livestock. The sale is not court ordered at this time, but Ely said "it could be."
Bell was ordered to pay $46,000 to the Craig County Court Clerk of which $23,000 will be given to the Lonnie Kelley family who has taken care of the livestock since they were seized. The other $23,000 will be given to the Craig County sheriff. Both the Kelleys and the Sheriff's office say they have bills in the six digit range and the cost of feeding the livestock has been approximately $2,100 per day.
Ely said a hearing will determine the distribution of further costs and expenses. Judge Dwayne Steidley, who has presided over this case, has not yet set a date for that hearing. A criminal charge of animal abuse is still pending, Ely said. | Source: Enid News and Eagle - March 31, 2007
Update posted on Apr 3, 2007 - 1:39AM |
Sheep, cattle and other animals that belonged to a Bluejacket rancher accused of allowing hundreds of them to starve to death now may be taken away from a Vinita family that has cared for them over the past two months, authorities said Thursday.
The attorney for rancher Bradley Bell helped forge a tentative agreement to move the animals with the Craig County district attorney's and sheriff's offices and a representative for the Bank of Kremlin, which holds Bell's loan note for the sheep.
No one could say whether the animals would or would not be returned to Bell.
Johnna Kelley, whose family took the animals in after they were seized from Bell's property by sheriff's deputies in January, said the herds now are in good shape, but would be moved soon because authorities do not want to pay for their care.
"They're trying to get out of paying us," Kelley said after learning of the tentative agreement. "We've had to seek legal advice because we're pretty much shut out of anything about the animals."
The Kelleys filed a $135,351 lien against Bell this week in Craig County District Court. The sum is for compensation in feeding and caring for 1,250 sheep, 300 head of cattle, seven horses and one donkey, according to court records.
Bell lost the animals in January after authorities found dozens, perhaps hundreds, of them dead or dying in and outside a barn and on a porch.
A Tulsa World reporter and photographer also saw
the scene.
Bell is charged with felony animal neglect and faces a May 24 preliminary hearing.
He has denied any wrongdoing. His attorney, Jot Hartley, has alleged that the animals died as the result of a combination of an ice storm, drought and other natural causes.
Hartley would not say where the animals might go, but contended they needed to be moved from the Kelleys' smaller property to a larger plot of land with more grass. The bank would decide where to place the animals, sources said.
Bank of Kremlin attorney David Ezzell could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
"That would give them more spaces with more foraging ability instead of having to haul everything to them," Hartley said. "I think everyone agrees that time is of the essence. This needs to be resolved as soon as possible to remove the burden from the sheriff's office."
Craig County Sheriff Jimmie Sooter has said that his office has racked up more than $60,000 in expenses in investigating the case against Bell and seizing the animals. His investigators became involved after neighbors' complaints, and then gained a search warrant after seeing dozens of carcasses around the property, according to reports.
Several fundraisers have been held to help offset the expense of feed and hay for the sheep and cattle. Those donations have totaled in the thousands of dollars, which pale in comparison to the estimated $2,000- a-day cost of caring for the animals, officials said.
"It's pretty staggering," Sooter noted.
Johnna Kelley said that she and her husband, Lonnie Kelley, agreed to take care of the seized herds after seeing the alleged conditions at the Bell property. They were told that the arrangement would only last about 10 days until Craig County authorities gained forfeiture of the animals.
A judge has not yet signed off on any forfeiture. Meanwhile, the Kelleys allege they are shouldering most of the financial burden themselves.
In fact, Johnna Kelley pointed out, the sheriff's office has given them only about $300 for feed over the past two months. The sheriff has helped locate hay and feed sources, but nothing else, she said.
"The sheriff's department has not provided any labor to take care of the animals," Kelley added.
"For two months, we gave up our whole entire lives," she said earlier. "Day and night, we're dealing with the animals."
Sooter would not comment on Kelley's complaints because of the pending agreement and criminal case. The sheriff, Kelley and Assistant District Attorney Jim Ely agree that they do not want the animals returned to Bell.
Ely said he has no intention of settling the felony charge against Bell as part of the agreement over the animals. Hartley predicted that the issue will be resolved in Bell's favor soon.
"This did not arise out of lack of money. He was caring for the animals and feeding them on a daily basis," the defense attorney said.
"We believe, that when this all settles down, that it was a tremendous overreaction," Hartley added. "It's not anything that anybody wants to happen when raising sheep or goats, but it does happen."
Kelley does not believe that, having viewed the animals when they were being moved. Yet she now almost regrets getting involved.
"All we wanted to do was help the animals," she said. "Now, we've become a victim." | Source: Tulsa World - March 16, 2007
Update posted on Mar 17, 2007 - 12:34AM |
A judge denied a Craig County rancher's request to have his animals returned, after his arrest for animal cruelty charges. Tanya and David Bradley Bell are out on bail.
Bradley faces felony charges of animal abuse.
His wife faces a separate misdemeanor charge.
The sheriff says more than 700 dead animals were found on their property; another 1500 sheep and cows were confiscated by Sheriff's Department.
The Bell's neighbors contacted the Sheriff's Office last month.
They claim the couple's animals kept breaking through fences to get to food and water on their land.
When deputies arrived to investigate, they were shocked at what they found.
The Sheriff's Office estimates it costs 2,000 dollars a day to care for the animals.
They need hay and money.
If you can help, call them at 918-256-6466. | Source: NBC 2 - Feb 8, 2007
Update posted on Feb 12, 2007 - 12:34PM |
What struck Humane Society officials when they arrived at David Bell's ranch was how quiet it was. "It was totally silent. There were piles and piles of dead sheep," said Cynthia Armstrong. She also says there were dead sheep slumped against fences, some huddled on porches, one had tried to crawl into the engine space of a pickup truck for shelter. "It was a very, very horrible sight and overwhelming because of the degree of neglect and starvation that had occurred."
Craig County Undersheriff BJ Floyd said, "after the evidence, they look like they haven't had anything to eat or drink either one." About 1,200 sheep along with a handful of cows and horses have been moved to the ranch of Lonnie and Johnna Kelley, who also helped moved them all. "It was very disheartening to see what I saw. And whatever we can do to help, we're here."
One of the first things you notice is just the sheer number of animals that had to be rescued. Now consider that the Humane Society, when all is said and done, expects to find almost as many dead animals. "To our knowledge, this is the largest case of animal cruelty and neglect that we have ever seen in the United States," said Armstrong.
Officials say there are probably more dead animals still under the snow. They say David Bell is blaming the recent ice storm for the animals' condition. But Cynthia Armstrong says the kind of starvation they've seen had to have started before the storm. "This didn't happen overnight. These animals were in various stages of decline."
Bell is charged with felony animal cruelty, along with several other charges. The News on 6 contacted his lawyer for comment, but so far, we have not heard back from him. | Source: KOTV - Jan 25, 2007
Update posted on Jan 26, 2007 - 11:55PM |
Craig County authorities have seized the remaining animals owned by a Bluejacket rancher accused of allowing hundreds of sheep to starve to death, Undersheriff B.J. Floyd said Monday.
Deputies, animal-rights activists and community volunteers worked over the weekend to move a total of 1,250 Barbados adult sheep and 30 of their lambs, 300 head of cattle, 12 horses and one dog from the properties of Bradley Bell, the undersheriff added.
Investigators estimated that they found about 400 dead sheep last week on Bell's property. Authorities believed many of them starved to death.
The surviving animals appeared to have been hungry, reports say.
"We're taking everything," Floyd said. "The cows were so weak we had to load them in trailers by hand."
All of the animals were taken to a farm west of Vinita, authorities said. They are being fed and vaccinated throughout this week, reports show.
Bell, 46, was arrested last week. Officials said he could be charged with animal cruelty. He is free on $5,000 bail.
Another person in the investigation might be arrested this week, Floyd said.
"We're real careful in how we're doing it," he said. "We're still investigating."
Bell's attorney, Jot Hartley, could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon. He previously said that Bell insisted that he had fed and cared for the sheep, which he had bought and moved from southern Texas in the past year.
Bell will be vindicated in court, Hartley predicted. He said autopsies would reveal that the dead sheep had food in them.
The scene of sheep carcasses stacked atop each other in Bell's barn has attracted attention from across the country, authorities said. The Humane Society of the United States even sent a disaster-response team to Bluejacket to help with the recovery, reports say.
The story has particularly disturbed ranchers who raise Barbados sheep, an Illinois-based representative of one breeders group said Monday.
Mary Swindell, the secretary-treasurer of the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep Association International, said ranchers from across the country were getting in touch with her to talk about the Oklahoma case. Swindell also helps run Bellwether Farm in Cobden, Ill.
"The immediate reaction from people in the know was disgust and anger that someone could (allegedly) allow their stock to come to this kind of end," Swindell said.
She concurred with Hartley's earlier assessment that some Barbados sheep undergo serious stress when they are moved. However, Swindell said the number of deaths in Bell's flock was unusually high.
She also downplayed the theory that Oklahoma's recent icy weather may have contributed to the animals' demise.
In fact, Swindell added, ranchers raise Barbados sheep from southern Texas to Canada.
"They don't have very much trouble with the cold," she said. "This breed is known as one of the heartiest sheep breeds."
Oklahomans also have responded by donating money toward the animals' food and medication costs. Floyd estimated that the Craig County Sheriff's Office has received "all kinds of donations," including about $1,600 on Monday alone.
The Oklahoma Alliance for Animals also has solicited donations to help care for the sheep. Those contributions so far have totaled more than $4,800 since last week, OAA Executive Director Laurie Searcy Mayes said.
"I think it's awesome," Mayes replied. "People are just really compassionate and hate to think this was even possible."
Floyd added that authorities are amazed at how well the surviving sheep are doing. They were grazing on hay and munching on medicated alfalfa pellets by Monday.
"All of them are content," the undersheriff noted. "It's unreal the difference it's made." | Source: Tulsa World - Jan 23, 2007
Update posted on Jan 24, 2007 - 5:54PM |
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