MONROE — Police found Chase Klemm’s cattle herd dying and “severely scavenged” by vultures just weeks after his conviction in a prior animal neglect case, according to a new criminal complaint against the Brodhead man in Green County Circuit Court.
Klemm, 22, pleaded no contest in early August to misdemeanor animal neglect charges related to four young calves found in January without food or shelter in below-freezing temperatures on a rural Brodhead property. Two of the calves were already dead and frozen stiff.
Klemm avoided jail time and probation in the case. As part of a jointly recommended sentence, he was fined $600 in addition to more than $2,500 in other court costs. At the sentencing hearing, his attorney argued that the case was “a learning experience” for Klemm. Green County District Attorney Craig Nolen said he believed the fine was “an effective deterrent.”
But just a few weeks later, deputies reported finding continuing evidence of animal neglect among Klemm’s livestock.
As a result, Klemm now faces 21 misdemeanor counts of failure to dispose of an animal carcass in a timely fashion, allowing exposure to dogs or wild animals. He also faces one misdemeanor count each of intentional animal mistreatment and intentional failure to provide food to an animal.
He stood mute on the charges and signed a $2,500 signature bond Dec. 10 with the condition that he possess no livestock. He has a pre-trial conference in the case on Feb. 5.
Klemm has also been sued by Green County and by the Bank of Brodhead for costs related to the criminal case.
On Dec. 17, Green County won a judgment for $2,378.92 from Klemm for costs related to the seizure of his livestock, including deputy time and vet costs. A separate civil case filed by the Bank of Brodhead seeks a money judgment for the livestock and two trailers that Klemm used as collateral for a bank loan.
That case remains open.
The new criminal case against Klemm is built on reports by deputies who observed his herd of cattle, as well as consultations with area vets.
According to the complaint filed Nov. 19:
On Aug. 20, the Green County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report from the Bank of Brodhead that Klemm’s herd of cattle was being neglected. Since the cattle were collateral for a loan to Klemm, bank employees had recently gone to the farm property in the Town of Decatur to inspect the animals and “were overcome by the smell of something decaying” and found four dead cows.
When he arrived at the pasture, located just north of Brodhead off County E near Condon Road, Deputy Scott Ellefson noticed vultures flying in circles overhead and found a beef cow carcass on the property that had “decayed to the point of the skeletal remains being visible.”
Ellefson found no hay or other food available to the cattle besides grass, which “was eaten down and not sufficient enough to sustain the weight needed for the animals in the pasture.” The cattle “had visible backbones, visible hip and shoulder bones, visible ribs ... and bony body outline.”
Ellefson took photos of the living animals and showed them to a vet. He noted that he did this without telling the vet to whom the cattle belonged, so as to get an “unbiased” opinion. The vet determined the cattle had deteriorated body conditions, “but the vet service and the DA’s Office both agree that the animals have not deteriorated enough to where they are in imminent danger of death,” Ellefson wrote.
About a week later, Ellefson went back to the property with Deputy Paul Weichbrod, a Humane Officer Investigator with the department since 2003. They found 34 live animals and 21 carcasses, many scavenged down to the bone.
“The smell was so overpowering that you could not be in the area for very long,” Ellefson wrote. One carcass was in a nearby creek bed, “allowing the decaying animal to pollute the creek.”
Weichbrod described the stench as “putrid” and the dead cattle as “severely scavenged.”
The herd had chewed off the roots of an uprooted tree, and trees by the creek “had their leaves completely chewed off as high as the cows could reach,” Ellefson wrote. “This is noteworthy as cattle normally do not eat leaves unless they are very hungry.”
A number of the cattle had a cough, which “would indicate that the animals have not been seen by a veterinarian recently.”
He also noted that beef cattle “under normal conditions usually do not allow you to walk around them without ‘spooking’ them and having them run away,” but these animals were not spooked and appeared to have “little to no energy to run away from us.”
A search warrant executed the same day removed the carcasses along with 12 calves, 20 cows and two bulls. Two of the seized animals subsequently died of pneumonia. Water samples from the property were sent to a state lab in Madison on Sept. 5, but no test results are included with the criminal complaint.