WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2017
HERMISTONHERALD.COM • A7
LOCAL NEWS
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
BMCC student Melanie Sederburg carries alfalfa over a fence
to give to cattle that were confiscated by the Umatilla County
Sheriff’s department outside of Hermiston.
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
BMCC students Trevor Meyer, left, and Jackson Wall sort out one of the smaller black angus cattle from a group of cattle
waiting for a veterinarian to check the animals on Wednesday east of Hermiston. The animals are part of a herd of more than
200 animals that were confiscated for animal neglect.
Community rallies to help neglected cattle
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Staff Writer
Dressed in wool overalls
and carrying a pitchfork,
Umatilla County Sheriff
Terry Rowan looked more
like a rancher than a law-
man Wednesday morning
while pacing the snow-cov-
ered pastures at Cedar
Creek Cattle Company in
Hermiston.
Two weeks earlier, Row-
an and deputies arrived at
this property on Columbia
Lane and South Edwards
Road to discover more
than a dozen dead cattle
and another 15 so mal-
nourished they couldn’t be
safely moved. Charges of
animal neglect will likely
be filed against the herd’s
owner, 55-year-old Mi-
chael Hockensmith, but in
the meantime daily care of
the animals has fallen to the
sheriff’s office.
On Wednesday, officers
recruited about 15 students
from Blue Mountain Com-
munity College to help
round up the cows for tag-
ging and immunizations. A
local veterinarian was also
on hand to assess each ani-
mal’s body condition.
By day’s end, Rowan
said they processed 185
cattle with another eight
still to go. The death toll,
which had been 14 animals,
is now 17, including a two-
year-old heifer found dead
early Wednesday morning.
A necropsy determined the
heifer, which was seven
and a half months pregnant,
had suffered from a bacte-
rial disease and congestive
heart failure.
“She had a rough life,”
said Brent Barton, veter-
inarian with the Oregon
Trail Veterinary Clinic in
Hermiston.
Upon
investigation,
Rowan said it appears the
cattle were neglected over
an extended period of time.
There was no hay when of-
ficers first showed up weeks
earlier, and water troughs
had frozen over with 6-8
inches of ice.
“We have some real-
ly malnourished animals
we’ve been contending
with,” Rowan said.
Rowan said they expect
to file multiple charges of
first- and second-degree
animal neglect against
Hockensmith in the coming
days. Jake Kamins, Ore-
gon’s deputy district attor-
ney dedicated solely to ani-
mal cases, has been brought
on as a special prosecutor.
The sheriff’s office has
already spent several thou-
sand dollars caring for the
cattle, Rowan said. It also
takes time and manpower
to make sure the animals
are properly fed, and to
break through ice in the wa-
ter troughs.
“It always stretches your
resources,” Rowan said.
“At the same time, it’s
worthwhile. You hate to see
the animals neglected.”
Their goal Wednesday
was to tag each of the cattle
and give them much-needed
vaccines, such as de-worm-
er and multi-mineral injec-
tion to boost their immune
system. To do that, students
from Matt Liscom’s beef
production class at BMCC
joined the team to round
up reluctant cattle and run
them through the loading
chutes.
From there, the animals
were ushered one by one
into a metal squeeze chute
designed to hold them still,
where Barton could per-
form his assessment. Some
cattle thrashed, struggled
and even fell down inside
the contraption, getting
themselves stuck in the
process.
“They’re not used to
people handling them,”
Barton said. “Essentially,
Simplot opens new, larger location
Hermiston Herald
Simplot Grower Solu-
tions has expanded its Or-
egon offerings with a new
facility in Hermiston.
The new location, at
79319 Simplot Road, is a
“state-of-the-art” 19,000 ton
dry fertilizer blending facil-
ity and the largest in eastern
Oregon, according to a news
release from Simplot.
It is already operational
and open for business.
At the new facility cus-
tomers can choose from a
“wide variety” of products
on site to create custom
blends of crop nutrient
products that will be mixed
and loaded on demand
“within minutes of arriv-
al,” according to the news
release.
“The new location en-
ables us the flexibility to
provide the same top-of-
the-line products our cus-
tomers desire, accurately
blended, much more quick-
ly,” said George DesBrisay,
Simplot area manager for
the Lower Columbia Ba-
sin and Willamette Valley,
in a statement. “We do ev-
erything we can to ensure
farmers maximize the suc-
cess in all their fields and
this is one more tool to help
in that effort.”
The entrance and load-
out for trucks is designed
so that drivers can remain
in their trucks while orders
are being loaded, increas-
ing safety.
Simplot previously op-
erated in Umatilla on Uma-
tilla River Road. The com-
pany will keep that facility
for organic fertilizer, while
much of its other business
has been transferred to the
new Hermiston facility
(located on Simplot Road
off Highway 207 near the
Space Age fuel station).
Dave Dufault, vice pres-
ident and general manager
of Simplot’s retail business,
said in a statement that
Oregon is “extremely im-
portant” to the Boise-based
company.
“We know our custom-
ers expect great products
with great service, and this
new facility will enable us
to handle more of those
products and deliver when
our customers need them,”
he said. “We are very proud
School Exclusion Day
Wednesday, Feb. 15 is
School Exclusion Day for
the Hermiston School Dis-
trict. If students are not
up-to-date on all state-re-
quired immunizations by
that date, they will not be
allowed to attend school
or child care until they are
immunized as required by
the state.
The Umatilla County
Public Health Department
in Hermiston, at 435 E.
Newport Ave., will provide
immunizations from 9 a.m.
to 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11.
No appointment is required.
The Public Health De-
partment Hermiston branch
is also open Thursdays and
Fridays from 8 a.m. to 5
p.m., and the Pendleton
branch Mondays through
Wednesdays from 8 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Children over
the age of seven can also
be immunized at Bi-Mart,
Safeway or Rite Aid.
For a list of immuniza-
tions required by the state,
visit the Oregon Health Au-
thority website, https://pub-
lic.health.oregon.gov.
of that capability.
For more information
call 541-922-5672 or visit
www.simplotgrowersolu-
tions.com.
they’re pretty tender crea-
tures right now. They’ve
already been through quite
a cold spell.”
Liscom, who works as
an agriculture science in-
structor at BMCC, said
they were contacted by the
sheriff’s office last week to
lend a hand, and he decided
it would be a valuable edu-
cational opportunity for his
beef production students.
“We had a lab day any-
way, so it worked out well
that we could help out the
county as well as learn,”
Liscom said.
Liscom said the class
was not there to pass any
judgment, or to determine
who is right and who is
wrong in the case.
“We’re just here to help
care for these animals as
best we can,” he said.
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