Help Ensure Chronically Neglected Goats Go to Sanctuary

Update: On February 27, the operators of Grand Barr Dairy, Taunia Barr and Aaron Barr, were indicted by a Malheur County grand jury on 478 charges of felony animal neglect. The charges, in addition to 14 misdemeanors, follow two PETA undercover investigations (detailed below). On April 1, a Malheur County judge ordered that all the approximately 240 goats seized from the dairy are forfeited to the county. The goats are now free from the Barrs, and it’s up to Sheriff Travis Johnson to decide their fate. Please urge him to ensure that every single goat is sent to one of the reputable sanctuaries standing by to receive them so they can at long last receive the lifelong care and respect they deserve.

Original post:

When a whistleblower who worked at Grand Barr Dairy—an Oregon farm that uses approximately 250 goats for milk—contacted PETA to report that mothers and babies were confined in filth, emaciated, deprived of veterinary care for pneumonia and other infections, and dying in large numbers, we (and the whistleblower) reported this neglect to Malheur County Sheriff Travis Johnson. The sheriff and a deputy visited the farm in July but took no action to help the animals and just gave the owners a few “recommendations” meant to improve conditions.

Determined to expose the awful conditions at the dairy, PETA sent an undercover investigator to work at Grand Barr. The investigator confirmed the whistleblower’s horrific findings and more, including that the dairy owners left lame and crippled goats to limp in pain or crawl through waste, denied goats veterinary care for rupturing abscesses an owner attributed to a highly contagious bacterial infection, and left weak and coughing goats to die. On top of this egregious neglect, the owners were filmed punching and slapping goats as well as pulling their legs and tails.

PETA went back to Sheriff Johnson with the investigator’s fresh evidence of neglect in October. But his office took no real action to help the animals suffering at Grand Barr.

Just days after we submitted our investigator’s evidence to Sheriff Johnson, a second PETA investigator began working at the dairy. For two months, the new investigator documented that nothing had changed—even after the sheriff’s office cited one of the farm owners for neglect.

Thanks to the guidance of the Oregon Department of Justice, the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office finally executed a search warrant at Grand Barr Dairy and seized all the goats. Several goats were so bad off that they apparently had to be euthanized, and approximately 35 sick goats were apparently moved to a safe place where they could receive the veterinary care they so desperately needed. Malheur County Sheriff Travis Johnson has indicated that, once recovered, those goats will be sent to a reputable sanctuary.

But despite sanctuaries standing by to receive goats, Sheriff Johnson elected to cram more than 200 of these animals onto a triple-decker livestock trailer and haul them to another dairy, 10 hours away.

Johnson—who grew up on a cattle ranch and dairy farm, and whose family also operated a feedlot for cattle slaughtered for beef—is apparently blinded by agricultural bias. Sending hundreds of goats seized from one farm to another, even larger farm—when placement is available for them at sanctuaries—is like “rescuing” dogs from a puppy mill only to hand them over to another commercial breeder. These goats have endured chronic neglect and abuse, and they should enjoy a peaceful retirement—but at another dairy, they’ll continue to be impregnated, separated from their babies, and slaughtered when their milk production wanes.

Please urge Sheriff Johnson to do the right thing by taking up PETA’s and sanctuaries’ offers to place goats and give them the lifelong care and respect they deserve.

Send polite comments to:

Sheriff Travis Johnson
Malheur County Sheriff’s Office
[email protected]

Be sure to let him know if you live in Oregon.