Torturing goats
Madison, WI (US)Incident Date: Saturday, Jan 17, 2004
County: Dane
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged: Daniel Considine
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
Daniel Considine, 59, a Wisconsin goat farmer has been charged with animal cruelty for allegedly slicing open a conscious mother goat giving birth and helping burn a goat alive.
Considine faces a count of mistreatment of animals causing death and a count of being party to the crime of mistreating animals causing death. Both charges are felonies. He could face up to seven years in prison and $20,000 in fines if convicted on both counts. He is scheduled to make an initial appearance in Columbia County Circuit Court.
The American Dairy Goat Association's Web site lists Considine as president. He also is a Wisconsin Dairy Goat Association director. A criminal complaint said two employees on Considine's farm told authorities they'd seen Considine commit "disturbing acts" against his goats.
According to the complaint:
Diana Moyer and her husband, Larry, told sheriff's deputies in August they had worked on Considine's farm for the past eight years, the complaint said. They said they moved onto the farm about five months ago.
Diana Moyer told deputies she saw Considine strike baby goats over the head with a hammer until they died.
She said she saw him in March 2003 cut open a live mother goat while she was giving birth and removed the kid. She said he didn't use any anesthesia and didn't call a veterinarian. Considine then left the mother goat to die, she said.
She also said that around Easter in April 2003 she saw Considine help some people use lighter fluid to burn a live goat on the farm. Larry Moyer said he had seen college students on occasions come to the farm, buy a goat and burn it alive on the farm, according to the complaint.
Considine told deputies he has euthanized baby goats by hitting them on the head with a hammer because they didn't meet his standards, the complaint said.
He told deputies college students have bought a goat from him. He said goats have been burned on his property but they were killed first, the complaint said.
He also said there were times when he cut open a mother goat that was having difficulty giving birth, the complaint said.
The complaint cites a written report by Yvonne Bellay, a state humane officer. She calls cutting fetuses from a conscious mother goat "barbaric and unacceptable" in the report and burning live animals "extreme cruelty."
Considine's neighbor, Patricia Coleman, said she's never seen or heard anything strange at the farm.
"I'll feel really, really sad if there is some proof to this," she said. "It would be pretty devastating to the community. If he's found guilty, I hope justice is served. If he's innocent, his credibility is ruined."
Coleman, who raises horses, said the baby goats might have had defects they wouldn't have survived and veterinarians are expensive.
"On a day-to-day basis, when you're running that kind of operation, you can't afford to be calling the vet out," she said.
An American Veterinary Medical Association report in 2000 said blows to the head can be an effective and humane method to euthanize newborn animals with thin skulls, but people who try the method should be properly trained.
Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association president-elect Dale Bjorling said he doesn't recommend striking animals with hammers.
"You could miss or injure the animal and it would still feel pain," he said.
Cutting a kid out of a conscious mother goat is tough to justify, although it might be necessary when the mother is near death, Bjorling said.
"The acceptable reasons for doing that are very limited," he said. "It would have to be under some pretty dire circumstances."
Coleman said she didn't understand why the Moyers would raise the allegations now after working with Considine for eight years.
Case UpdatesThe Columbia County District Attorney's Office has moved to dismiss charges of animal cruelty against Daniel J. Considine.
Prosecutors don't believe they could prove Considine's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, they said Friday. Their reason is that a key witness in the state's case phoned Assistant District Attorney Crystal Long last week, saying they and another witness would not testify unless the District Attorney's Office brought charges in an unrelated civil matter.
Prosecutors filed a motion Friday asking Columbia County Circuit Court Judge Daniel S. George to dismiss the charges, submitting affidavits citing the "questionable motives" of the witnesses.
Those motives would cause "irreparable damage" to the witnesses' credibility with a jury, prosecutors said.
Considine, 48, of Portage, was to stand trial Sept. 15 for three counts of mistreatment of animals.
The charges against Considine were based on statements from Larry and Diana Moyer, who worked and lived on Considine's farm for several months in 2003. They described to authorities a number of instances of alleged mistreatment in March and April 2003, including killing a goat with repeated hammer blows to the head, performing a Caesarian section on goat in labor without using anesthesia and burning a goat alive.
In the criminal complaint, Dr. Yvonne M. Bellay, a state humane officer, called the purported Caesarian method "barbaric and unacceptable," and labeled the alleged burning of a goat "extreme cruelty."
Considine denied the allegations the Moyers leveled at him throughout his court proceedings, calling the couple's statements at their worst, "outright lies."
At Considine's preliminary hearing, defense attorney Richard G. Davis moved to dismiss the charges. He argued the Moyers' allegations came only after Considine decided to contest a small claims case the couple filed against him a month earlier.
George refused the motion and bound Considine over for trial after hearing testimony from six witnesses called by prosecutors. Considine pleaded innocent May 17.
Long, Considine and Diana and Larry Moyer could not be reached for comment Friday evening.
Considine has raised dairy goats since 1956. He is a past president of the American Dairy Goat Association. He relinquished the title in mid-January amid the cruelty charges. | Source: Portage Daily Register - Sept 4, 2004
Update posted on Sep 7, 2004 - 9:07AM |
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