Too late for LBN: Montana Hutterite colony charged in horse deaths

[Ptah]

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/article/20111026/NEWS01/110260303/Montana-Hutterite-colony-charged-horse-deaths?


A Hutterite colony near Cut Bank, along with two of its members, is set to
plead guilty to federal charges after two horses belonging to ranchers
neighboring the colony died from poisoned oats the colony used to eradicate
gophers on its land, according to court documents.

Thomas J. Wipf, the farm boss of Seville Colony, Inc., agreed to plead guilty
to misapplication of pesticides. Edward G. Waldner, the colony's secretary,
agreed to plead guilty to false statements. The Seville Colony, which was listed
as a co-defendant in the case, agreed to plead guilty to another count of
misapplication of pesticides. According to court documents, the pleas were
scheduled to be entered Tuesday, but it was unclear if that happened as of late Tuesday.

An offer of proof from the U.S. Attorney's Office states that on April 15, a
Cut Bank-area rancher found a horse dead about 75 yards away from the fence line
the rancher shares with the colony. The horse had blood coming from several orifices.
The rancher collected oats along the fence line that were later found to contain
strychnine. A veterinarian later found that the horse was likely poisoned by eating the oats.

Three days later, another rancher's horse died along the colony's property line,
and exhibited the same type of bleeding as the first dead horse. Both ranchers
separately confronted Waldner about the deaths. He told one of the ranchers that
the colony had scattered the poisoned oats around gopher holes, court documents state.


----------------------

I grew up not far for Cut Bank (about 60 miles).
The Hutterites were generally good neighbors.

--------------------

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutterite

Hutterites (German: Hutterer) are a communal branch of Anabaptists who,
like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation
of the 16th century. Since the death of their founder Jakob Hutter in 1536,
the beliefs of the Hutterites, especially living in a community of goods and
absolute pacifism, have resulted in hundreds of years of odyssey through many
countries. Nearly extinct by the 18th and 19th centuries, the Hutterites
found a new home in North America. Over 125 years their
population grew from 400 to around 42,000.

[Ptah]

1. Maybe this should be moved to Environment/Energy

An EPA cleanup of the area Wipf spread the oats in found about 300 acres
of illegally applied pesticide, according to court documents. The EPA filled
eight 55-gallon drums with poison oats and impacted soil, the documents state.