Goat Abuse: No Kidding, Montana Rancher Charged With Starving 200 Animals to Death
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (CBS/AP)
Dogs, and cats, and... goats, oh my!
A Montana rancher in a community where there really are more goats than people is facing animal cruelty charges for allegedly starving 200 of those goats to death.
Neighbors of Dodson-area rancher Jon Carman alerted state livestock
officials to the suspected abuse Feb. 4. Investigators went to check it out and
reported finding hundreds of dead goats, including babies, piled on top of each
other in a barn.
Three others are said to have died with their heads stuck in a fence, with still more found in a trailer.
Carman allegedly locked the animals in a barn without food or water for more than a month. Phillips County Sheriff Tom Miller says a few goats and two horses on the property survived.
Carman was arrested, and pleaded not guilty to aggravated animal cruelty. If convicted, he faces up to two years in prison and a $2,500 fine.