Buffalo calf dragged
Mills County, IA (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Nov 25, 2004
County: Mills
Disposition: Not Charged
Person of Interest: Marsha Leigh
The Mills County Sheriff's Office has launched an investigation into an incident involving a buffalo calf allegedly being dragged, resulting in its death.
After meeting with Mills County Attorney Marci Prier Thursday morning, Sheriff Mack Taylor said the department opted to proceed with the investigation.
According to the police report, Marsha Leigh of 50980 Ashton Road was contacted to help recover the calf Nov. 25.
Leigh stated she was contacted by Mills County Sheriff's Office officials to round up the buffalo, adding it took eight and a half hours to complete the task.
"And I tore up two vehicles," Leigh added.
The buffalo's temporary owner, Charlie Spetman, contacted Leigh about getting the calf back after it was recovered. Leigh informed them the animal would be returned after a $500 finder's fee was paid.
Spetman and his friend, Gary Teig, a Pottawattamie County Sheriff's deputy who was off duty at the time, went to Leigh's residence Nov. 28 to get the calf back.
Again, according to the report, Leigh stated she wanted the finder's fee. She was offered $30 by Spetman, which she declined.
At that point, Leigh was informed by an unnamed Mills County Sheriff's deputy to either surrender the buffalo and take Spetman to civil court or face theft charges and go to jail. Leigh then agreed to surrender the animal.
Leigh took them to the building where the buffalo was being held and turned it back over to Spetman, and informed him and Teig that the buffalo had pneumonia.
Leigh said the green mucus from the buffalo's nose was one sign of pneumonia. She also cited the animal, weighing close to 300 pounds, was around three months old, and between 150 to 200 pounds underweight.
"They're not allowed to be removed from their mother until they're six-and-half to eight months old," she said. "I know why it ran away. It went to go and find its mother."
Spetman laughed at Leigh's opinion.
"At what point did she take its temperature? Before she chased it, or after she drug it? She said it was breathing hard. You would be too after being chased for eight hours," he said.
What Leigh was stating didn't make sense, Spetman continued.
"Let's assume the calf was sick," he said. "What do you think its condition is going to be after being chased for eight hours? It's probably going to be worse. And if it was so sick, why did it take them so long to catch it?"
The report states Leigh said her partner broke his hand helping to capture the buffalo, she sustained a bruised leg and the buffalo was dragged one-half mile.
Leigh said she never dragged the animal, but simply put a rope around its neck and it "walked on its own."
The hair around the buffalo's neck was gone, according to the report.
On Tuesday, Mills County Attorney Marci Prier said the buffalo later died, but there is no report stating a cause of death.
Spetman said the time to perform an autopsy is past because the calf's body was destroyed in a fire after its death.
Within the past several weeks, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals was contacted about the incident, according to Stephanie Bell, who is based in Seattle but handles PETA cases nationwide.
In the state of Iowa, Bell said, animal cruelty charges are an aggravated misdemeanor.
"There is no justification to dragging an animal, regardless of the intentions of that person," she said.
Bell said she understood that the dragging of the buffalo calf was confirmed, and that, not the calf being sick, could very well be the cause of death.
"It is my understanding the rest of the buffalo (herd) were in satisfactory condition.
"As far as the cause of death, I would then call into question whether it was because the buffalo was ill or because it was chased for eight hours, then dragged," she said.
Bell said she could not release the identities of those who contacted her about the matter because of confidentiality rules, including if she has spoken to Leigh.
"I have no idea if they've (PETA) been contacted, but it wasn't me," Leigh said.
Bell said the sheriff's office has the full backing of PETA. "We applaud the fact that they've opened up an investigation and are looking into the matter thoroughly," she said.
The buffalo incident also opened the door to yet another investigation involving three bobcats found on Leigh's property, this one being handled by the Department of Natural Resources because of keeping a protected wild animal as a pet.
DNR Officer Dan Cain said he made contact with Leigh, who contended they were not bobcats, but rather pixie bobs, a variant of house cat bred to look like a bobcat.
Pixie bobs, according to pixie-bob.com, are very similar in appearance, other than having a shorter face and less of the mane, than the bobcat. The most noticeable difference is the size and weight. While male pixie bobs are on the larger end of house cats, usually weighing between 11 and 22 pounds, they are still smaller than bobcats, which can reach 30 pounds or more.
Outside of the building where the buffalo calf was being held was a cage housing the three bobcats, according to the police report. Leigh said she's had the animals for 14 years, and DNR officers came out to inspect them in 1996.
However, during Leigh's interview with The Daily Nonpareil, she said the animals aren't pixie bobs or bobcats, but are a hybrid of bobcat and lynx, a larger version of the bobcat.
Hybrid animals are what got her arrested six years ago. On July 23, 1998, she was indicted on 12 counts of mail fraud and five counts of witness tampering. The charges stem from the offering she began in 1983 and continued until March 1998, and was advertised in newspapers and notices pinned to public bulletin boards.
Leigh pleaded guilty in February 2000, but it is unknown what type of sentence she received.
The indictment said Leigh told prospective customers that a $5,000 investment in a pair of wolf-hybrids for breeding could produce $20,000 in pups and another $50,000 in stud service.
None of the wolf-hybrids she claimed were the 84 to 97 percent wolf as advertised. Leigh's mail fraud charge came from mailing customers the photos of her stock, which were actually photos from calendars, magazines and post cards. The witness tampering charge stemmed from her urging some of her customers to hide all records of their purchases from investigators.
Pending the outcome of DNR's investigation, Cain said Leigh could be charged with harboring a protected species, and illegal possession. Both are simple misdemeanors.
Despite being involved in two separate investigations, Leigh is adamant that she will be paid for her services in capturing the buffalo, and will send a bill to Mills County, if needed, to collect.
"They'll pay me, I'll guarantee they will," she said. References
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