Teresa Landon tends goats on a Pickaway County farm where the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals keeps rescued animals. The group has just 14 bales of hay to last the winter.

Teresa Landon tends goats on a Pickaway County farm where the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals keeps rescued animals. The group has just 14 bales of hay to last the winter. Elvis doesn’t look or act, or especially smell, very friendly or inviting right now.

He’s a goat who seeks a mate, and so do most of his 30 friends on the Pickaway County farm. That means that the animals pretty much have slathered themselves with their own urine for rutting season. Apparently, the doe finds this attractive.

But no matter how gross they might look or smell, the goats still have to eat. And that’s what concerns Teresa Landon. She is volunteer director of the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and right now she finds herself with 14 bales of hay to last the animals at the organization’s sanctuary through the winter.

A Pickaway County farmer, whom Landon wouldn’t name, cut nearly 30 acres of hay on the private farm where the society keeps its animals, just north of Circleville, in June. He was supposed to leave most of the hay for the society. Instead, Landon said, he left behind scrub and took the good stuff for himself.

A bad season prevented a second cutting.

“Now, we’ve stopped taking in any more rescued animals and we won’t know beyond the next week how I’ll feed the ones we have,” she said. She has tried to get more hay from other sources, but Ohio, like many states, is in a hay crisis and she can’t find any the group can afford.

She estimates the organization needs 900 to 1,000 bales to get the goats, two horses and a sick cow named Duncan through the winter.

The goats, she said, are especially problematic because they have special health needs and a changing hay supply isn’t good for them.

But at least there are fewer goats than before. Elvis and his buddies were part of a sickly herd of more than 220 that authorities seized from a condemned Scioto County farm in 2005.

Ohio officials also found at least 80 carcasses on the property of Christopher Weathersbee back then, including one in the house and several in a freezer, according to an Associated Press article.

Weathersbee eventually was convicted of animal-cruelty charges, but animal-welfare advocates were left to deal with the fallout. Many of the goats were adopted, but Elvis and his friends remain.

Now, Landon is moving them about the pasture in hopes of getting them through the winter.

“They’ve already escaped one bad fate,” Landon said. “I can’t let them starve to death now.”

More information can be found at www.ohiospca.org or by calling 740-420-2984.

Associated Press, Wednesday, March 16, 2005 9:51 PM PST, CHARLESTON, W.Va.

A man who allegedly left a trail of dead goats through several states has lost custody of his 200-plus remaining animals pending the outcome of animal cruelty cases in Ohio and West Virginia.

Christopher Weathersbee, 64, fled to West Virginia with 16 of his goats, including a dead one he’d been storing in a freezer, in late February amid an impoundment and seizure by agents in Scioto County, Ohio.

Ohio agents found an estimated 80 goat carcasses on his rented property — including one in the house and another nine in a freezer, according to Teresa Landon, director of the Ohio Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They also seized about 220 live goats from the property.

In West Virginia, shelter officials found another goat dead after a passer-by notified officials that the goats appeared thin and weak. Officials seized the 14 living animals — a seizure that was upheld Tuesday.

Weathersbee said Wednesday that he was obligated to care for the goats as a Third Order Franciscan. When they died, he said he didn’t have the strength to bury them, considering the fact the ground was frozen.

“I’m one old man trying to fight city hall in three states,” he said, adding that he is also seeking to overturn a 2004 animal cruelty conviction in Vermont.

It was not immediately known whether Weathersbee had retained a lawyer.

Weathersbee first came to the attention of officials in 2001 when he started seeking assistance in caring for his more than 300 goats while living in Corinth, Vt.

He wanted to start a no-kill goat shelter where he could produce cheese and wool, said Dana Starr with the Central Vermont Humane Society. He applied for loans, grants and even petitioned the governor for help.

“He couldn’t afford to feed them and couldn’t understand why others didn’t aid him,” Starr said on Tuesday.

At one time Weathersbee had some of the animals living in his house with him. The animals were allowed to breed and multiply and started starving, Starr said.

The Vermont humane society seized 44 goats in February 2004, she said, and Weathersbee was later charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty. He entered into a plea agreement under which he agreed to take his goats, including those that were seized, and leave the state, Starr said.

Weathersbee went to eastern Kentucky, telling Vermont humane officials his animals would be cared for as part of a vegetation-management project, Starr said.

He was in Kentucky only a couple of weeks, and it was unclear how many of his animals died by the time he arrived in Franklin Furnace, Ohio, on Dec. 28, Landon said.

Weathersbee is scheduled to have a pretrial hearing in Ohio next month on 15 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 90 days in jail and fined up to $740 on each count. He also faces 16 counts of animal cruelty in West Virginia.

He has previously acknowledged that he could not afford to give the herd sufficient care, but he refused to get rid of the animals because he said his religious views prohibited him from slaughtering any of the goats.

Read more on the status of the Ohio Goats…

On April 12, 2008, another group of vet students once again made a “farm call.” These young men and women provide an invaluable service to the Ohio SPCA by donating their time and by helping to keep the sanctuary residents healthy. We are very grateful for their visits.

Eric, Jenny Jenkins '08, Johanna Rosenfield '10, Morgan Schrock '10, Aaron Madeira '09, Lisa Mangus '09, Kristen Scrafford '10, Brian Hirshback '10

Inspecting the Goats

Sweet Pea arrived full of lice and with a leg that had been broken and never repaired. She now needs expensive surgery to repair the leg before she gets any older. Funds are needed for this surgery which will be done at the OSU Veterinary Hospital in Columbus.

Angel, a sweet small white goat, will forever live with damage resulting from neglect. When she came to us, her hooves were grossly overgrown and she had been walking on her knees for a very long time. Her knees will never be normal and she still wants to graze while on her knees. Due to long-term neglect, Angel walks slower than normal and raises her legs abnormally high. Additionally, she has what is called a parrot mouth. Her upper jaw extends beyond the lower jaw. Volunteers continue to treat her skin issues which have resulted in loss of fur. Despite her handicaps, Angel is thriving at the farm sanctuary. Both Sweet Pea and Angel have become favorites on the farm. Their rehabilitation continues.

Please consider making a donation towards their care and Sweet Pea’s surgery. Donations may be made through PayPal or by mail