BRIGHTON, Wis. (AP) - Authorities are investigating potential animal abuse on two farms where over 80 dead calves were found amid deplorable conditions, the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department said Saturday.
Detectives and deputies found at least 52 dead calves in and around the barns on a farm in Brighton Township on Friday afternoon, the department said in a statement. Fifteen live calves were moved to a safe location.
Investigators later discovered at least 30 dead calves “in various states of decomposition” at a second farm in Paris Township owned by the same family, the department said. At least 100 live cattle there were put under a veterinarian’s care.
Volunteers standing by to help move the rescued animals were horrified by the smell of death in the air, the Kenosha News reported.
“This is a bit of a jaw-dropper,” said Robert Melby, director of Clawz and Pawz, which contracts with animal control to assist in rescue operations.
While Sheriff David Beth told the newspaper Friday evening that it sounded like the animals died of starvation and dehydration, the department’s statement on Saturday said the cause of the animal deaths had not been determined, and may have been due to disease.
But it added that investigators found “evidence of neglect in addition to readily apparent and long-term deplorable conditions.”
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NEENAH, Wis. (AP) - A mother who survived a shooting on the Trestle Trail Bridge in Menasha has gone home from the hospital.
Theda Clark Medical Center spokeswoman Megan Schuessler says Erin Stoffel was released from the Neenah hospital late Friday afternoon.
The 32-year-old was critically wounded in the random shooting on the bridge May 3. Her 33-year-old husband, Jon, and 11-year-old daughter, Olivia, lost their lives. Thirty-one-year-old Adam Bentdahl, of Appleton, was also killed.
Despite being shot three times, Stoffel was able to get two of her other children to safety. She was let out of the hospital briefly to attend the funeral of her husband and daughter.
The gunman, 27-year-old Sergio Daniel Valencia del Torro, killed himself. Authorities are finishing up an investigation into his background and mental health history.
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MILWAUKEE (AP) - An Army Reservist from Milwaukee who was killed in the 2009 Fort Hood shootings has been awarded the Purple Heart.
An overflow crowd of family, friends, veterans, service members, medical personnel and patients honored Russell Seager on Friday at the Milwaukee VA Medical Clinic as a three-star general presented the medal to his family.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (https://bit.ly/1PDhNJJhttps://bit.ly/1PDhNJJ ) Fort Hood victims originally did not qualify for the Purple Heart because the killings were deemed an act of workplace violence. But through the efforts of victims, families and others, Congress changed the eligibility rule this year.
The 51-year-old Seager was a Milwaukee VA nurse practitioner who was headed to Afghanistan with an Army Reserve combat stress unit. The captain was one of 13 people killed at the Texas base.
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Information from: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, https://www.jsonline.comhttps://www.jsonline.com
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MILWAUKEE (AP) - Milwaukee police are investigating a crash that killed two women in their 20s.
A police statement says it happened around 2:15 a.m. Saturday when a westbound car was struck by a northbound pickup truck.
The women in the car were killed. Their names have not been released.
The pickup driver, a 42-year0old Milwaukee man, was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. He was not injured.
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