MONROE — An area man charged with neglectfully abusing four young calves over the winter months pleaded no contest to three Class A misdemeanor counts Friday, resulting in a fine of $200 per charge as well as more than $2,500 to be paid to the Green County Sheriff’s Office.

Chase Austin Klemm, 22, Brodhead, was charged with intentionally mistreating animals, providing improper outside shelter and failing to provide adequate food for animals. 

Green County District Attorney Craig Nolen said the “substantial financial fee” was a “steep expense” meant to ensure Klemm will not behave similarly in the future.

“I believe a fine is an effective deterrent in this case,” Nolen said. 

Klemm appeared with his attorney, Amanda Fields of the Monroe law firm Kittelsen, Barry, Wellington, Thompson and Schluesche, S.C. Fields said the fine will be a burden to Klemm and that the charges have “certainly been a learning experience” for him.

“He did not do this on purpose,” Fields said. “He did not mean for this to happen.”

The sentencing was jointly recommended by Nolen and Fields.

The case stems from an investigation Jan. 16 into a report of animal neglect on the land just north of Brodhead where Klemm was keeping calves and a herd of 30-plus beef cattle, according to the criminal complaint.

Green County deputies found four calves outdoors with no water or food and “very limited bedding.” The temperatures that day and in the preceding days were well below freezing, with gusty winds and lows in the single digits.

The two living calves had signs of frostbite and were so skinny their eyes and bodies had a “sucked-in appearance” that indicated they were dehydrated and had not been fed recently.

“These calves would not survive the night if left uncared for,” the deputy wrote in his report.

Two of the calves were already dead and frozen stiff to the ground. They “appeared to have been in that state for a length of time,” a deputy noted.

Klemm was snowmobiling but returned to the property to meet with deputies that night. He claimed he had been out to feed the four calves twice that day already and all four were alive at the time. The deputies pointed to holes in his claim, telling him the two dead calves appeared to have already been frozen stiff for a while when deputies arrived that afternoon, and the absence of tire or foot tracks in the snow indicated that no one had been on the land since it snowed several days earlier.

Klemm said he bought the calves at Equity Co-op Livestock Sales in Monroe and estimated they were a month old or younger.

The deputies got a search warrant that night and seized all four calves. The two living calves were taken to a nearby farm for care under the approval of the Sheriff’s Humane Officer, warmed under a heat lamp and blankets and fed every four to six hours.

One didn’t survive the night. The other showed signs of getting stronger but died about a week and a half later.

Necropsies on the four calves showed causes of death included hypothermia, pneumonia, swelling of the kidneys and “lack of receiving the necessary calories that milk supplement would have provided.”

As part of the investigation, deputies also checked out Klemm’s herd of 30-plus beef cattle on the same land and found them to be healthy and kept in adequate conditions.

Nolen said Friday that while calves from Equity were not always of “standard quality” because of their susceptibility to disease due to numerous interactions with other animals in their handling, the necropsies showed that the cold and lack of appropriate food sources contributed to the animals’ death.

“I don’t know if he knew what he was getting into when he decided to raise these cattle,” Nolen said. 

Green County Court Judge Thomas Vale said that while the intent may have not been present, Klemm’s actions still resulted in the death of the four calves, which is a crime. 

Klemm agreed to pay the fines at a rate of $200 per month. Vale ordered that he begin making payments within the next 30 days. If Klemm fails to meet the requirement, he would be jailed in Green County at a rate of one day per $50 of the remaining balanced owed.