Lost Cause
It's a wrap!
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2001
- Posts
- 30,949
Setting animals on fire, mutilating them too. I thought those were as bad as people could get....... until this! Suggestions for punishment, besides a mental institution?
MONROE, WA -- Fifteen calves were found beaten to death Thursday and 18 other calves were severely injured on a dairy farm south of Monroe in what police are calling the worst case of animal cruelty in years.
A 19-year-old man was arrested in connection with the killings at the Werkhoven Dairy Farm, where the calves were rounded up and bludgeoned to death in their pens, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.
The Monroe teen, who lives across from the farm on Tualco Loop Road, was booked into Snohomish County Jail for investigation of multiple counts of first-degree animal cruelty and burglary and one count of first-degree malicious mischief.
"I didn't kill no cows," the teen yelled at deputies as they placed him in the back of a patrol car Thursday afternoon. He was being held on $260,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court today.
The animals, owned by brothers Andy and Jim Werkhoven, had been struck on the back of the head with a blunt object. The slain Holstein calves died of massive hemorrhaging to the brain, a veterinarian at the farm said. As Andy Werkhoven surveyed the bodies of the dead calves, he shook his head in disbelief.
"It's just brute violence. I don't know who would want to do this to us. It's just over the edge," he said.
Around 6 a.m., Werkhoven's nephew noticed that a couple of gates were open on the outdoor pens, where the 4-month-old calves were kept. He spotted blood streaming from one calf's nose. A handful of dazed calves were huddled in white hutches, and others were lying motionless against the fences.
A day-old calf was found dead in a cornfield not far from the pens, and another was dead in a nearby pasture.
"I thought it was poison" because no wounds were visible, said Steve Werkhoven.
But poison doesn't work that fast, said Rich Guthrie, the veterinarian who examined the animals. Guthrie performed necropsies on two of the slain calves and concluded that they had been struck on the back of the head.
"I've never seen anything like this," Guthrie said.
The Werkhovens hadn't either. They've lost cattle before, but never to such violence.
Andy Werkhoven's parents, Sam and Hilda Werkhoven, started the farm in Monroe in 1959 after their herd in Minnesota was killed off by fern poisoning.
"You expect to lose a calf here and there, but nothing like this," Andy Werkhoven said.
The family, who was named the county's dairy farm family of the year in 1992, keeps about 650 milking cows on about 250 acres. About 10 families count on the farm for their livelihoods.
"This is unbelievable," neighbor Crystal Silva said. "This is their livelihood. This is one whole year of calves they won't have. I just don't understand this."
The calves, which were not insured, were worth more than $10,000. But their future value was tenfold, Werkhoven said.
"These were the very best on the farm we had. This was the future of our herd," he said.
Sheriff's deputies did not have a motive for the killings and had not recovered a weapon. They did not expect to make more arrests Thursday night, sheriff's spokesman Capt. Kevin Prentiss said.
A 15-year-old Maltby boy also was arrested by police, but he was later released. He is not believed to have been be involved in the incident, police said.
The Werkhovens and their neighbors, however, doubt that only one person could kill and injure so many 200-pound calves in such a short time.
"This takes rage. This takes sick people," Andy Werkhoven said.
MONROE, WA -- Fifteen calves were found beaten to death Thursday and 18 other calves were severely injured on a dairy farm south of Monroe in what police are calling the worst case of animal cruelty in years.
A 19-year-old man was arrested in connection with the killings at the Werkhoven Dairy Farm, where the calves were rounded up and bludgeoned to death in their pens, according to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office.
The Monroe teen, who lives across from the farm on Tualco Loop Road, was booked into Snohomish County Jail for investigation of multiple counts of first-degree animal cruelty and burglary and one count of first-degree malicious mischief.
"I didn't kill no cows," the teen yelled at deputies as they placed him in the back of a patrol car Thursday afternoon. He was being held on $260,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court today.
The animals, owned by brothers Andy and Jim Werkhoven, had been struck on the back of the head with a blunt object. The slain Holstein calves died of massive hemorrhaging to the brain, a veterinarian at the farm said. As Andy Werkhoven surveyed the bodies of the dead calves, he shook his head in disbelief.
"It's just brute violence. I don't know who would want to do this to us. It's just over the edge," he said.
Around 6 a.m., Werkhoven's nephew noticed that a couple of gates were open on the outdoor pens, where the 4-month-old calves were kept. He spotted blood streaming from one calf's nose. A handful of dazed calves were huddled in white hutches, and others were lying motionless against the fences.
A day-old calf was found dead in a cornfield not far from the pens, and another was dead in a nearby pasture.
"I thought it was poison" because no wounds were visible, said Steve Werkhoven.
But poison doesn't work that fast, said Rich Guthrie, the veterinarian who examined the animals. Guthrie performed necropsies on two of the slain calves and concluded that they had been struck on the back of the head.
"I've never seen anything like this," Guthrie said.
The Werkhovens hadn't either. They've lost cattle before, but never to such violence.
Andy Werkhoven's parents, Sam and Hilda Werkhoven, started the farm in Monroe in 1959 after their herd in Minnesota was killed off by fern poisoning.
"You expect to lose a calf here and there, but nothing like this," Andy Werkhoven said.
The family, who was named the county's dairy farm family of the year in 1992, keeps about 650 milking cows on about 250 acres. About 10 families count on the farm for their livelihoods.
"This is unbelievable," neighbor Crystal Silva said. "This is their livelihood. This is one whole year of calves they won't have. I just don't understand this."
The calves, which were not insured, were worth more than $10,000. But their future value was tenfold, Werkhoven said.
"These were the very best on the farm we had. This was the future of our herd," he said.
Sheriff's deputies did not have a motive for the killings and had not recovered a weapon. They did not expect to make more arrests Thursday night, sheriff's spokesman Capt. Kevin Prentiss said.
A 15-year-old Maltby boy also was arrested by police, but he was later released. He is not believed to have been be involved in the incident, police said.
The Werkhovens and their neighbors, however, doubt that only one person could kill and injure so many 200-pound calves in such a short time.
"This takes rage. This takes sick people," Andy Werkhoven said.
