WORTHINGTON -- A Rushmore man is charged with one felony and 18 misdemeanor counts of overworking or mistreating animals, stemming from his alleged neglect of various livestock.
Larry Kenneth Ober, 35, faces up to two years in prison on the felony charge, and up to 90 days in jail for each misdemeanor charge.
The complaint states a Nobles County Investigator was contacted in November 2008 by a man who said there were several dead horses in the pens at Ober's farm. The investigator drove out to the farm and was able to see eight dead horses in various places on the property.
No one was at the house, so the investigator left a card asking Ober to call, which he did.
In early December, the investigator and a veterinarian met with Ober at the farm, and Ober agreed to allow them to look at the animals and their pens.
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Ober explained that he bought and sold horses, and that some of the animals were sick when he bought them. The last batch of horses he bought, Ober said, had distemper and all of them died during the first cold spell of the year. Then he allegedly admitted there were 11 dead calves behind the barn.
He couldn't give an exact date of when the first horse had died, and said he had been in and out of the hospital and was physically unable to remove the dead animals.
While the investigator was speaking with Ober, the vet had been going through the property making observations about the number and location of dead animals and the condition of the living animals on the farm.
In the first pen were three dead horses lying in with living horses. Inside a shelter building were three more dead horses, directly behind the building were three more, one of which was being eaten by dogs. In the next pen was a pile of 13 dead calves and a dead goat that had died attempting to give birth. The investigator saw 12 dead horses lying near a burn pile. Ober allegedly said he planned to push all of the dead animals into the burn pile and burn them once it snowed.
The vet then showed the investigator a live llama that was tangled up in rope and twine, and needed to be cut loose. Once the llama was free, the vet examined the animal's leg and found it had multiple fractures and needed to be put down. The vet said he had already untangled a horse that had been caught up the twine with the llama.
In the north pen, the vet said there were 12 live horses -- six in moderate condition and six in thin body condition. The south pen held seven live horses -- two in good condition and five in very thin condition -- and nine dead horses.
Based on observation, the vet thought the most likely cause of death for the horses was distemper, strangles and nutritional deficiency. In a written report he noted all of the dead horses were extremely thin and that the hay provided for the horses was of poor quality and fed on the ground. He found no evidence of bedding, nor did he find any corn, oats or other feed in either pen.
The vet also noted that although Ober had said the colts died of severe strangles, he saw no evidence of strangles except on one horse that had some hair loss under the chin.
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Ober's first court appearance is scheduled for 9 a.m. March 17 at the Prairie Justice Center.
