Over 170 cattle found dead
Mount Vernon, WA (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Mar 31, 2005
County: Skagit
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Roger E. Pederson
Case Updates: 5 update(s) available
Kevin Geagen's German shepherd took a romp at his neighbor's Bay View ranch. Two weeks later, the dog was dead.
Suspicious, Geagen investigated. On his neighbor's land, he discovered carcass after rotting carcass of cattle � some in standing water, some skulls stuck in trees, some bones covered with moss.
"It looks like the Killing Fields," Geagen told the Skagit Valley Herald newspaper.
He took his findings to the Skagit County Health Department. Armed with a search warrant, health and law-enforcement officials found the remains of at least 172 cattle in fields, in a shed and in a run-down truck on the property northwest of Mount Vernon.
Matt Kaufman, an environmental-health specialist with the Health Department, said it was among the most severe cases of disregard for public health and animal husbandry he had ever seen.
"This was a long-term violation," Kaufman said.
The ranch owner, Roger Pederson, initially refused to allow law-enforcement and health officials to enter the 120-acre property, Kaufman said. They returned later with the search warrant and found the grisly landscape.
Pederson was not at the ranch when officials began their search.
Dead animals are required by law to be buried within 24 hours of death or be taken by an animal rendering service. Dead animals attract flies that can spread disease, said Corrine Story, supervisor of the county's environmental-health office.
Kaufman said the carcasses could also contaminate ground water. Geagen's dog, Dallas, died of a disease that leads to kidney failure in dogs. The disease, leptospirosis, can cause kidney damage and meningitis in humans and is caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of infected animals.
"It's one thing to see a carcass on the ground and think, 'Oh, wow, I don't want to go near that,' " Kaufman said. "If it is in water, you have no idea where it's going."
Kaufman heads the county's West Nile Virus prevention effort and is the official who deals with dead-animal problems.
He said the cause of the cows' deaths is unknown. He said he planned to call the state veterinarian to ask what tests, if any, should be performed on the dead cattle.
Pederson is known in the Bay View community as a man with firmly held political views. He ran, unsuccessfully, as a Republican for a seat in the state House of Representatives in 2002. He was a vocal opponent of the Port of Anacortes redistricting from three commissioners to five.
Pederson is also well-known for his unsuccessful lawsuit to stop the Skagit Public Utility District from extending municipal water service to Bay View. He has also opposed efforts by the Health Department to investigate failing septic systems in the Bay View area.
Case UpdatesThe Skagit County, Wash., beef raiser charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty entered a guilty plea to one count of second-degree animal cruelty during a district court hearing on Jan. 18.
Using the Alford plea, Roger Pederson, 77, wrote that he did not believe he had committed a crime.
"However, I do believe a jury will convict me," he wrote. "I am taking advantage of an offer of settlement."
The state agreed to dismiss the other nine counts against him. His sentence was deferred for one year, and the remaining charge against him will be dismissed if his herd passes three veterinary inspections.
The first inspection is not scheduled until April.
Pederson's attorney Richard Sybrandy said that according to his own observations, Pederson's herd is in good shape.
But Will Reichardt, chief criminal deputy with the Skagit County Sheriff's Office, said authorities have not been allowed to enter the ranch to determine if that is the case. He also said he had hoped that the herd would be inspected soon after the settlement was reached.
In spring 2005, Pederson attracted widespread media attention after a neighbor, searching for clues in the death of his dog, discovered more than 170 skulls, bone-strewn fields and several cattle carcasses rotting in standing water on Pederson's 120-acre ranch.
Based on the neighbor's photos, the county launched an investigation. As part of that, the state's Agriculture Department sent a veterinarian to the ranch several times to assess the condition of the animals.
Reports submitted to Reichardt by the veterinarian included detailed observations of animals suffering from malnourishment, lice, worms, tee-peed spines and lack of muscle condition. Hay quality was also described as very poor.
"All of the above are indicators of mismanagement and no management and malnutrition - that is, starvation," said the vet's report.
At the time of the investigation, Pederson had a herd of about 120 cattle, 35 percent of which were bulls.
His attorney said the herd has been significantly downsized since then, although he could not provide any numbers to confirm that.
Reichardt said law enforcement had wanted Pederson to be ordered to give up his herd. That, however, did not happen as part of the legal settlement.
The cows, meanwhile, have been through one winter and are now going through their second winter since the situation on Pederson's ranch came to light.
After the recent court hearing adjourned, Pederson told a Skagit Valley Herald reporter that he has been accused of lots of things, "but people are accused of things all the time."
"In this case," he said, "I was accused unjustly."
A call by the Capital Press to Pederson after the hearing was not returned.
The day after the hearing, Kevin Geagan, the same neighbor who took the photos 21 months ago and turned them over to the county, called the county's Health Department to report that a dead cow was lying in Pederson's field.
After county health officials had visited the ranch in 2005, Pederson had been fined for not disposing of cattle properly.
Reichardt said the recently reported dead animal was bloated, and animal control was therefore not able to determine how long it had been lying there or if it had been in good condition at the time of its death.
However, an employee of the county's Health Department said it had been there long enough for scavengers to eat it.
Pederson was ordered to dispose of the dead cow properly.
Under state law, an animal corpse must be disposed of within 24 hours, by taking it to a rendering plant, burying it or incinerating it in an approved unit.
In a recent letter to the county on this issue, Sybrandy said Pederson had burned the corpse. The county has turned what it considers to be a case of an illegal burning over to the county's health officer and the prosecuting attorney.
In a phone interview after the hearing, Skagit County Prosecutor Rich Weyrich said the deputy prosecutor who worked on the details of the settlement, including setting April as the date of the first veterinary inspections, most likely did not confer with livestock experts.
Saying it probably would make sense to have the cows inspected before April, Weyrich said he would look into that possibility.
State Veterinarian Leonard Eldridge said knowing the past history of the situation, he thinks it would be prudent to go back.
He said his office would be glad to assess the animals at any time. | Source: Capital Press - Feb 2, 2007
Update posted on Feb 3, 2007 - 12:54PM |
A Western Washington cattle rancher has been charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty second degree. The rancher attracted a media blitz earlier this year after 172 cattle skulls, bone-strewn fields and several corpses rotting in a pool of water were found on his 120-acre ranch.
The case against Roger Pederson was filed Sept. 9 in Skagit County District Court. Pederson�s attorney, Richard Sybrandy, entered a not-guilty plea through paperwork. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Oct. 18.
Sybrandy said he has filed a discovery request so he can review all of the county�s information in the case.
�The legal procedure is just starting,� he said.
Animal cruelty in the second degree includes criminal negligence that causes unnecessary suffering on the part of the animals. If found guilty, Pederson could be fined, sentenced to jail, or both.
In its decision to charge the rancher, the county selected 10 photos out of about 40 showing cattle on Pederson�s ranch in varying stages of neglect. Each of the counts represents one cow.
When contacted about the charges filed against him, Pederson declined to furnish any information, saying that his lawyer had advised him not to discuss the matter with the press.
This spring, the county began investigating Pederson�s ranch after photos taken by a neighbor showed skulls, bones and rotting corpses on the property. Newspaper reporters and TV crews flocked to the ranch.
Based on the neighbor�s photos, the county launched an investigation and the state�s Agriculture Department sent a veterinarian to the scene several times to assess the situation.
Reports submitted to the county�s chief criminal deputy, Will Reichardt, by Jeffrey R. Howlett, area veterinarian for the state�s Department of Agriculture, included detailed observations of animals suffering from malnourishment, lice, worms, tee-peed spines and lack of muscle, a condition that occurs when an animal is forced to use its muscle mass to support daily life functions. Hay quality was also described as very poor.
One animal was described in the report as �a shell of a cow.�
�All of the above are indicators of mismanagement and no management and malnutrition � that is, starvation,� says the vet�s report. �These findings are what one would expect to observe in a mismanaged herd of beef cattle that are underfed.�
In an earlier interview, State Veterinarian Leonard Eldridge said that the tests results of some of the animals and conditions found at the ranch indicate that overcrowding may have been part of the problem. In cases like that, he said, the stronger animals push weaker animals, such as calves and pregnant cows, away from the feed.
The area vet�s report said that 35 percent of the cattle were bulls and described the ranch�s management of its herd as �the survival of the fittest.�
Referring to legal guidelines that livestock owners are required to follow, Eldridge said that under state law, animals have the right to be fed and housed properly and humanely treated.
At the time of the investigation, Pederson had a herd of 120 cattle. In a recent telephone interview, he declined to say how many are in his herd now. In an earlier interview, criminal investigator Reichardt had said that the hope was that Pederson would give up his herd. Pederson, 75, said he has been trying to reduce his herd for some time now but that �it takes time� to do that.
The case has attracted the interest of several groups dedicated to the humane treatment of animals.
In a July 7 letter to Skagit County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Seguine, Stephanie Bell, cruelty caseworker for PETA � People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals � urged Seguine to consider having Pederson undergo a thorough psychological evaluation followed by mandatory counseling, if he is found guilty. She also urged the prosecutor to prohibit Pederson from owning or harboring animals and to have authorities seize any other animals currently in his custody.
Meanwhile, in another legal action in this case, the county fined Pederson $3,300 for failing to dispose of two carcasses � a cow and her calf � that were found rotting in a pool of water.
Under state law, livestock that die on a farm must either be buried or taken to a renderers within 24 hours of their death.
Pederson appealed the fine based on the county�s failure to follow certain procedures and a judge reduced the fine to $2,100. But when Pederson filed an appeal against the lowered fine, the appeal was nixed and the fine was upheld.
Pederson�s attorney Sybrandy said that Pederson has filed an appeal with the Skagit County Superior Court in an attempt to have the fine lifted. | Source: Capital Press Agriculture Weekly - Oct 7, 2005
Update posted on Nov 7, 2005 - 7:40PM |
The Skagit County commissioners decided Tuesday to uphold a $2,100 fine against Roger Pederson, a Bay View rancher who let a dead cow and calf rot on his land without disposing of the carcasses.
Pederson, who gave a rare, on-the-record interview about his cattle and his fight against the civil fine, said he was "disappointed" by the commissioners' decision. He said he plans to file with Skagit County Superior Court to have the fine reversed.
"I think they made a political decision rather than a legal one," Pederson said.
He said he expects to have an impartial hearing before a judge because, unlike the county commissioners, county judges do not oversee the department he is fighting.
Commissioners Don Munks and Ken Dahlstedt agreed that while the county's health department did not follow proper procedure trying to contact Pederson, and the department failed to inform him of how to appeal his fine, these elements had been dealt with in a previous appeal.
The Skagit County Health officer, Howard Liebrand, heard an earlier appeal and lowered Pederson's fine from $3,300 to $2,100.
The commissioners said they consulted with their attorney for advice on the legal issues.
Commissioner Ted Anderson was on his way to Washington, D.C., Tuesday, July 26, and did not hear arguments by Pederson's attorney or the county health department. Because of his absence last week, he did not attend Tuesday morning's meeting.
Dahlstedt said that the health department's failure to tell Pederson how to appeal was a "technical error," but that it did not seem to interfere with Pederson's rights.
Munks agreed.
He said that if Pederson's earlier appeal had been late or incomplete, it could indicate that his rights had been jeopardized. As it was, Pederson knew how to appeal despite the health department's lapse, he said.
Pederson was not at Tuesday's meeting, nor was his attorney.
In his written appeals to both Liebrand and to the county commissioners, the rancher admitted the two dead cattle on his ranch had not been buried or burned within 24 hours of death, as the law requires.
But in his written appeals he did not otherwise talk about his herd. His appeal before Liebrand was not an open meeting, a topic Pederson raised in his written appeal.
On Tuesday, when reached for comment after the commissioners' decision, Pederson said there is likely nothing he could say that would change peoples' minds about him.
"I'm not mean to my cattle. I feed them every day and watch them and look after them," Pederson said. "I'm not trying to change anyone's mind � what people say about me, I can't do anything about."
Pederson also addressed concerns raised in a detailed report written by a state veterinarian for the Skagit County Sheriff's Office, a report obtained by the Skagit Valley Herald. In it, the symptoms of malnourishment in Pederson's herd are detailed.
The report said mineral levels in the herd were low and that the levels of blood urea nitrogen were high.
The latter symptom shows that the cattle were burning muscle in order to support their daily life functions, said Leonard Eldridge, Washington's state veterinarian.
In 32 of 53 live cattle mentioned in the report, bones were showing through the skin, indicating undernourishment. One was described in the report as "a shell of a cow."
Pederson answered questions about his skinny cattle by asking a question.
"Have you been to a nursing home recently?" Pederson said. "How are the elderly citizens in the nursing homes?"
Pederson said other symptoms mentioned in the report, such as mites, lice and molted hair are typical of the long-haired Highland cattle he raises.
The report said worm eggs, mites and coccidia, an intestinal parasite, were present in fecal matter from the herd. "This indicates there has been no deworming, delousing, or antimange medicine used," the report said.
Pederson responded by saying that he has medicated his herd, but he declined to provide the most recent instance.
Pederson also took issue with the ongoing allegation that the 172 skulls found scattered throughout his property during a search on April 14 indicated a historical and on-going problem with disposing of dead cattle.
Pederson said that he sells the skulls and horns, which are a novelty because of the long horns on Highland cattle. He said that "very few" of the skulls the health department found were from cows that had died of natural causes on his land. The rest were butchered, he said.
But photos taken by the health department during the April search showed numerous cattle in states of decomposition. Only the cow and calf pair were fresh enough to be a public health concern and therefore a civil offense.
Based on the veterinarian's report and earlier complaints from neighbors, the sheriff's office started an animal cruelty investigation.
The case has been given to the county prosecutor's office, which has yet to indicate whether it will file charges. | Source: MSNBC - Aug 3, 2005
Update posted on Aug 7, 2005 - 5:32AM |
An attorney representing Roger Pederson, the Bay View rancher whose ranch was littered with rotting cattle, asked the Skagit County commissioners to ignore the political pressure surrounding the case as they decide whether to lift a $2,100 fine.
Meanwhile, animal-rights groups have been pressing the Skagit County Prosecutor's office to file criminal animal-cruelty charges against the rancher.
Health inspectors and animal control officers searched Pederson's 120-acre ranch in April based on complaints that cattle were rotting on the property. They found evidence that 172 cattle had died over the years and had not been buried. Only two carcasses were fresh enough to support a fine against Pederson.
Tests commissioned by the state veterinarian's office found that the cattle likely died of starvation and that other members of the herd were malnourished.
In May, Pederson's ranch also had been searched as part of an animal cruelty investigation, and the county prosecutor's office is considering criminal charges.
"It's under consideration," said deputy prosecutor Katherine Wetmore.
Pederson is fighting his civil fine for allowing two dead cattle to rot on his ranch, a violation of the county's solid waste laws.
Pederson's attorney, Richard Sybrandy, told the Skagit County Commissioners to look past political pressure to be harsh on Pederson, pressure he said had been fueled by the media.
"We can think whatever we want about whatever allegations have been made by the neighbors or by the media," Sybrandy said. "What we really have to do is look at what the facts are."
The two commissioners at Tuesday's hearing, Ken Dahlstedt and Don Munks, said they will announce their decision next Tuesday at 9 a.m.
Pederson has fought the health department's fine, submitting two appeals to bring the matter before the county commissioners.
Howard Leibrand, the Skagit County Health Officer, explains to the county commissioners on Tuesday details from Roger Pederson's first appeal, which he heard.
The rancher has stuck to three arguments:
- He was not told of his violation until after he had incinerated the cattle carcasses.
- The health department should have known that the carcasses were destroyed a few days after his property was searched.
- The health department failed to include in its notices information about how Pederson could appeal his fine, a requirement of the department under the county's code.
"He (Pederson) knew he had the right to an appeal because he looked it up," Sybrandy said. "Nevertheless, the statue requires that the notice be given and it wasn't."
Sybrandy said that media attention given to Pederson's violation, especially from television stations the days after the search was first reported in the Skagit Valley Herald, is putting pressure on the commissioners to be hard on Pederson.
"There's a lot of political pressure in this situation. We can't look at that," Sybrandy said. "We have to look at only whether the law allows this penalty to be made."
In an earlier appeal last month, the health department admitted that it did not include information about the appeal process when it wrote to Pederson.
Corinne Story, the county health department's environmental health supervisor, told the commissioners that Pederson had the burden to contact her office once the cattle were buried, burned or taken off the property. It was not until Matt Kaufman visited the ranch on May 20 and saw cattle on a burn pile that the fines ended. Kaufman is the health inspector handling the Pederson case.
Story also said her department followed its procedure for trying to contact Pederson, who uses a post office box in Mount Vernon rather than a mailbox at his home in Bay View.
Kaufman told the commissioners that he went beyond the health department's normal procedure when he personally delivered a notice of the public health violation on April 28, 14 days and two unanswered letters after the search.
Kaufman and animal control officers from the Skagit County Sheriff's Office asked for permission to search the ranch the morning of April 14. Pederson declined, but the officials returned later in the afternoon with a search warrant.
Cattle were found in various states of decomposition and seemed to be concentrated around a wetland in a grove of trees on the southern portion of Pederson's ranch. The health department found 172 different cattle skulls, indicating that many cattle had died on the premises and were not buried, the department said.
According to the health department's records, health inspectors were called in 2001 about a similar situation at the Pederson ranch.
Tests of the cattle carcasses, live cattle and hay have indicated that the cattle died of malnourishment and that the feed on the ranch had hardly any nutritional value, state officials said. | Source: Skagit Valley Herald - July 27, 2005
Update posted on Jul 27, 2005 - 4:56PM |
Two cattle that died at a Bay View ranch were suffering from malnutrition and were eating feed with little nutritional value, according to test results commissioned by the Washington state Department of Agriculture.
The cattle tested were the most recent of 172 cattle that died and were not disposed of properly at Roger Pederson's ranch. They were the only cattle corpses fresh enough to test. The other 170 had been reduced to bone.
The state agency wanted the cattle tested for viruses, bacteria or communicable diseases. The test results indicated that the two cows died of malnutrition.
The state gave the test results to the Skagit County Sheriff's Office for possible investigation of animal cruelty charges.
The test results come as Pederson is preparing to fight a $100-a-day fine the county imposed upon him for the two cattle.
Pederson, in his appeal, claims he was never given a copy of the search warrant used to search his ranch April 14. He also claims he did not receive notice of his violation until after he had disposed of the cattle. Pederson's appeal will be heard later this month.
Pederson could not be reached for comment. In earlier interviews, he declined to say how many cattle are in his herd or to discuss their conditions.
Tests of the carcass tissue of two cattle showed they were lacking minerals and nutrients needed to maintain a healthy metabolism, state veterinarian Leonard Eldridge said.
Tests of the cattle's feed showed it had "hardly any nutritional value at all," Eldridge said.
But Eldridge said the test results do not suggest that all of Pederson's herd were malnourished, just the two that were tested.
Sheriff's Chief Deputy Will Reichardt said the matter is under investigation and declined to comment further.
"It is still an active case," Reichardt said. "We want to investigate it further."
Janet Mcrae, head of the Skagit County Cattlemen's Association, said photos of live cattle on Pederson's ranch show that some cows were healthy and well fed. She said it is likely that any cattle suffering from malnutrition were not getting to food fast enough.
"The old ones and the weak ones don't get as much to eat in big herds," Mcrae said.
When the dead cattle were first discovered by the health department there were concerns that the herd was carrying leptospirosis.
Leptospirosis is a disease that can cause kidney failure in most animals and meningitis in humans. It is transferred by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of other infected animals
The leptospirosis test was ordered because a neighbor's dog died of the disease two weeks after running through Pederson's property. The owner of the dead dog alerted the health department to the problem.
Land owners are required to bury, burn or remove dead animals within 24 hours. Pederson incinerated the two corpses within a week of being fined by the health department. | Source: Skagit Valley Herald - May 13, 2005
Update posted on May 13, 2005 - 6:45PM |
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