Horse and cattle neglect - 80 found dead
Harney, OR (US)Incident Date: Friday, Mar 27, 2009
County: Harney
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged
Case Images: 2 files available
Alleged:
» Roxanna Still
» Richard Baldwin
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
The discovery of pits filled with the remains of more than 80 horses and cattle has increased scrutiny of two Harney County ranch owners.
Harney County sheriff's deputies arrested ranch co-owner Roxanna Still, 42, on charges of animal neglect earlier this week after bird-watchers reported seeing two horses dying on the ranch. Deputies then discovered about 75 malnourished animals and suspected they weren't being cared for properly.
Authorities returned to the ranch Friday with a search warrant and, with help from the Humane Society, removed 45 horses and 30 cattle. They also discovered three pits that held skeletons and remains of 60 horses and 20 cattle.
Humane Society.
Scott Beckstead, Oregon director of the Humane Society, and his wife, Jackie, an animal cruelty caseworker for the society, said the scene was unlike anything they'd seen before.
"I was raised on a ranch," Beckstead said. "I've been around plenty of dead animals. But I've never seen that many thrown into a heap and left. And the ones left on the ground after starving to death were just lying there."
Harney County Sheriff Dave Glerup said the district attorney will decide whether the pits were created intentionally. That could boost the current misdemeanor charges to felonies, he said.
Still was arrested on five counts of first-degree animal neglect and four counts of second-degree animal neglect, misdemeanors that carry fines. She was jailed for two days and released Friday.
A warrant was issued for the arrest of co-owner Richard Baldwin but police say he is likely in Texas or Mexico. Glerup said Still was convicted on charges of animal cruelty in Texas in 2006.
Most of the animals rescued were malnourished and had parasites. One cow died while being taken to another ranch, and three horses are in bad shape, Glerup said. They were taken to a veterinarian at the Harney County Fairgrounds.
Case UpdatesThe woman who was arrested near Burns has a past conviction of animal cruelty from Texas, and that has infuriated officials.
Sixty horse and 20 cow carcasses, some in pits, some out in the open, were found by sheriff's deputies on a property almost 30 miles south of Burns in Harney County. They say there was no hay, no grass - nothing.
The animals were left to starve on the property where Roxanne Still lives. Officials say she would buy the animals cheap and try to re-sell them.
"These people just didn't care," said Scott Beckstead, Oregon director of the Humane Society of the U.S. "They were just leaving animals to die out there on the ground, and bring more in. And maybe the dead ones were taken and dragged into a pit, and maybe not."
But what really angered humane society officials and Bend volunteers who helped rescue the 47 horses who were still alive, is the fact that Still was convicted of this same thing in Texas several years ago.
Beckstead says he doesn't know yet if Still was told she couldn't have any more animals after her conviction. But after police contacted her last Wednesday, he says she signed a release agreement to let the horses go.
But police say they showed up the next day to find she was trying to load up some animals to take them away. That's when they arrested her and charged her with neglect.
"The pure cruelty of letting the animals starve to death without taking any steps to try and help them or take care of them, but to bring more of them in, to me just shows wanton cruelty," said Beckstead.
There is a second suspect in this case, 57-year-old Richard Baldwin, who allegedly fled just before sheriff's deputies arrived this weekend.
They think he may have possibly fled to Texas or Montana, evading those charges, and there's a warrant for his arrest.
The largest case of animal abuse ever recorded in the state happened back in 2002 in Millican. The Deschutes County Sheriff's Office rescued 129 neglected and malnourished horses.
Many of them were filled with worms, had curling hooves, frost bite and were starving. Wayne and Rebecca Nichols were arrested and convicted on 150 counts of animal abuse, sending them to jail with hefty fines.
It was learned after their arrest that the couple had done this same thing before when they lived in Thurston County, Wash.
Deputies labeled them animal hoarders, and they were ordered to never own any more animals.
Officials auctioned off 126 of those horses to good homes that promised not to send them to slaughter, and most all of them made full recoveries.
It was the state's largest animal seizure, and gave local law enforcement good experience in spotting neglect in the future. | Source: KTVZ - March 31, 2009
Update posted on Mar 31, 2009 - 10:40PM |
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