Story Created: Feb 7, 2010 at 3:12 PM MDT
Story Updated: Feb 7, 2010 at 3:12 PM MDT
File photo
Jorge Reyes was charged last month in 5th District Court with permitting animals to go without care, failure to remove carcasses, and providing false information to a law enforcement officer.
Authorities say they seized 20 surviving cows from the property in Jerome County, and many of the cows appeared undernourished.
Fifth District Magistrate Judge Thomas H. Borresen on Wednesday approved an agreement at a forfeiture hearing to sell the 20 cows at an auction next week.
Authorities say Reyes faces maximum fines of $5,000 per dead animal.
Agencies taking part in the investigation include the Jerome County sheriff, the county code enforcement officer, county prosecutor, Idaho State Department of Agriculture and the Attorney General's Office.
Authorities first started investigating on Jan. 13 after a call reporting dead cattle on the property near an area that drains into the Snake River.
Code Enforcement Officer Bob Wright accompanied Jerome County Sheriff's Deputy Rick Ustick to the property where they reported finding three dead animals. Reyes told them there were five, but Ustick later counted seven and on another trip to the property on Jan. 20 found 43.
"It was a bad sight," Wright told The Times-News.
In a report, Wright said he and Ustick didn't see any hay, grain or straw where the cows were being held, and that the animals didn't appear to have been fed and that calves were lying in a manure pile.
Write also said that a manure pile was within 300 feet of a property line, a violation of the Jerome County Zoning Ordinance.
The sale of the cows put up for auction will be used to pay county expenses, said Jerome County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Sandra Bamburg.
"The county is going to be able to recoup all of the county's expenditures," she said.
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Information from: The Times-News
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