Posted on 05/18/2016 11:04:41 AM PDT by Ellendra
TOWN OF WESTFIELD, Wis. -
A Sauk County man and woman face multiple charges in connection with the death of hundreds of farm animals discovered in early March, the sheriff’s office said.
A criminal complaint filed in Sauk County court Monday said 22-year-old Ashley Grage is facing 14 counts of mistreatment of animals in connection with the deaths of several hundred chickens, about 40 pigs and several dozen rabbits on a farm where she lived with her boyfriend.
According to the complaint, Grage had been living with 27-year-old Bradley Kruse on a farm at S7004 Highway 23 where the animals were kept. Grage had bought 500 chickens in early February, but she moved out of the home when she and Kruse broke up on Feb. 14. When she returned a month later on March 13 to retrieve some belongings, she found many animals dead and called the sheriff’s department.
There were “dozens of animal carcasses: many chickens lying dead on the ground, dead pigs and rabbits that filled a green grocery cart, and a large pig that appeared to have fallen through a barn floor,” according to the complaint. Kruse told the sheriff’s office that the sow had been hanging from the barn floor since December 2014.
Grage claimed that she sold the chickens to Kruse for $1,000 when she moved out and that she had a written agreement for it, according to the complaint. Kruse said the $1,000 he paid Grage was for debts he owed her, including for a washer and dryer.
Kruse said freezing pipes during the winter made it difficult to water the animals at times, but that the farm had more than 50,000 pounds of food for the animals at the farm and food was not an issue, according to the complaint. Kruse also told the sheriff’s office that only about 50 or 60 of the chickens were still alive by the time Grage moved out in mid-February.
Online court records show Bradley Kruse also faces 14 counts of mistreatment of animals causing death in Sauk County.
Arrest warrants were issued Monday for Kruse and Grage, according to online records. On Tuesday morning, neither was in custody at the jail, a jail records custodian said.
Sickening.
Oh my Lord. We have a lot of animals on the ranch and though of them starving to death hurts me just to think about.
Now that's what I call Redneck Prosciutto.
Bill Clinton was in town and he F’d ‘em all ti death.
Farming.
It’s not for the lazy. Or for morons.
Gotta be drugs involved.
Exactly what I was thinking. I smell a meth-head or two.
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