Day: June 4, 2016

On the surface, the tragedy involving Craig Mosher and Jon Bellis has nothing to do with animal rights. It stemmed from a car colliding with a bull on a Vermont road last July. The bull had escaped – for at least the fourth time, according to police – and was hit by a car. The bull and Bellis, the driver of the car, were both killed.

Mosher, the owner of the bull, has now been indicted on criminal charges of involuntary manslaughter. While the animal rights community is not yet involved or tied to this awful happening, there is no doubt that the spirits and ghost of the movement hovers over the case and shapes our moral confusion and anguish over it.

The case, already important, became a study in animal ethics and morality yesterday when the Vermont State Police reported in that the bull had escaped many times and that Mosher was warned just before the accident that the bull was out and near the road and allegedly went to sleep. This was reported in the Rutland Herald newspaper.

Mosher has not  yet responded to these charges, he will be in court Monday afternoon.

Farmers and people who work with horses and many animal owners and lovers are so fearful and angry over the depredations of the animal rights movement – there are now so many victims of irrational and unjust persecutions – that this case just seemed another nail in the coffin for farmers and people who live with animals.

So there was a deep and angry response to the news that the owner of a pet bull could go to jail because the bull escaped and was hit by a car. Mosher has not yet defended himself, but it the case, which seemed so clear cut, is not. It is more complicated than that. It is now a morality play, and a criminal case. It will have to be resolved and defined by the courts, not by Facebook or anyone’s pre-conceived notions.

The courts is where an issue like this belongs. The stakes are very high for the animal world. If animals accidents become a crime, the lives of animals and the people who love and own them will change radically and for good. I am reminded once more that there are usually two sides to every story.

If this is an isolated case  shaped by extreme behavior or neglect, then it is just one case, sad and painful, without major implications.

One of the questions every animal owner is asking now is whether Mosher deserves to go to jail for his behavior leading up to the accident that killed Bellis, a 62-year-old part-time resident of Killington, Vt., Mosher’s home town.

Normally, accidents involving animals are treated in civil, not criminal courts. The prosecutor, whose name is Rose Kennedy, has a high bar to meet to justify so serious a charge. Many people feel that negligence, if it occurred, is justified by the death of a human being, even though that standard has rarely, if ever been applied to an animal escape. You don’t have to think too hard to wonder what the implications might be not only to hard-pressed farmers with miles of fences to tend, but dog and cat owners whose animals might – and often do – get out of the house and run into the road and are killed by cars.

How, exactly, is negligence defined when it comes to animals and why would this kind of case make it more and more difficult for anyone with animal to live and work with them or ever let them run or graze freely?

Manslaughter is a legal term for  homicide, the accused considered less culpable than people who deliberately murder. Involuntary manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice aforethought, either expressed or implied. It is distinguished from voluntary manslaughter by the absence of intention to cause serious harm. Criminally negligent manslaughter  – the charge here – occurs where death results from extreme negligence, or in some jurisdictions, serious  recklessness.

Criminally negligent manslaughter can occur where there is a failure to act when there is a duty to do so, or a failure to perform a duty that is required or expected, and when that failure leads to death. If the accusations against Mosher are true, the charge becomes more comprehensibe.

Although involuntary manslaughter has almost never been used in accidents involving animals – always considered an unavoidable and occasional act of nature, the prosecutor in the Mosher case and a grand jury that heard the case believes Mosher was criminally negligent, and that  his negligence led to a person’s death. A milk truck driver says he went to Mosher’s home shortly before the fatal accident  and told him his bull was out near the road, and Mosher failed to come outside and look for him.

So he called the police. A state trooper says police were repeatedly called to Mosher’s home because of escaped animals, and his fence was breached by an apple tree growing so close to it that it pulled it up off the ground. It takes a long time for a tree to do that.

Whether or not Mosher was guilty or is found guilty, the concern is that if these charges stand, anytime an animal escapes from a farm or a home, and causes an accident and death, there is the possibility the police will charge the animal’s owner with a felony crime punishable in jail. That door has now been opened. A human life is sacred,  and to me, more important than a bull, but it just and proper to weight the human-animal bond, throughout history a linchpin of human existence.

It is a terrifying and destructive thing to be investigated by the police and prosecutors for a felony crime. Expensive and often life-shattering. This should never be a routine or expected part of living with an animal.

Everything has consequences, especially expansions of government power, and they are often unintended and ill-considered.

Anyone who has ever dealt with the animal rights movement understands that this new kind of charge will bring many activists great satisfaction, a new tool, and a new avenue of intrusion and accusation, since they do not believe animals should be owned by farmers or people in the first place.  Many farmers are keeping their animals confined to barns, some say they will euthanize cows that often escape.

The animal rights movement generally believes that work for animals is abuse and torture. They have no credibility or trust among most farmers and many people who love animals and live and work with them.

Farmers need more support, not more legal pressure and threats.  Animals need help in remaining with people and in our world, not being ghettoized on rescue farms and preserves. And people need more support in owning and adopting animals and caring for them.

Whatever the outcome, this kind of case will not make it easier for anyone to live with an animal who could ever get through a fence. Insurance companies and neighbors and ambitious prosecutors read the news too.

That is the elephant in the room that hovers over the Mosher case.

Personally, I find the new evidence offered by the Vermont State Police to be damning.

If my donkeys or pony escaped five or six times, I would either build new fences and repair the old ones or find new homes for the animals.  And when someone called a few years to tell me my sheep were running up the road (a new fence had broken down) I was out the door and on the way in seconds.

I consider it a seminal moral responsibility – for the animals, for people – to keep my animals safely and securely within the boundaries of my farm. Having said that, I also understand that accidents and mishaps are inevitable. We have dealt  here with lightning strikes, cars crashing through fences, trees falling on them, underground water rotting them. It is a rare week when a cow is not wandering on a road somewhere.

We always rush to help.

It would damage our community severely if this was ever to be considered a crime

Life happens to all of us, and it would be another kind of tragedy if everyone with animal had to endure investigation and possible indictment, trial and jail when life happened to them. Farms are difficult and messy places, farmers are busy, overwhelmed with work and stretched for time and money.

So this is not a simple case to consider or resolve, at least not in my mind. I want to hear what Mosher, a much admired and respected man in his town, has to say. Many good lawyers believe this charge is an overreach, even under the circumstances. There are many lesser and more appropriate ways to punish Mosher if, in fact, he was negligent in the extreme and failed to do his reasonable duty.

I’m planning to go to Rutland on Monday and take a look for myself, the best way I know of to make a sound and moral judgment.  Facebook doesn’t work well for me in that regard.

According to Iroquois legend, corn, beans, and squash are three inseparable sisters who only grow and thrive together. This tradition of planting corn, beans and squash together in the same mounds was widespread among Native American farming cultures. In gardening terms, this is a sophisticated, sustainable system that provided long-term soil fertility and a healthy diet, feeding generations.

These gardens are also seen as a powerful feminist symbol, symbolizing women who come together feed and nurture the needy. Maria planted her Three Sisters Garden two weeks ago, and I am charged with watering it every day, a task I love. The nurturing part of me, I think.

The corn, beans and squash seeds are all beginning to sprout, the corn first, the beans next. This garden has become important to us and will be six or eight inches about the ground in just a few weeks. I love the idea of the Three Sisters, this idea of community and coming together sometimes seems lost in our fragmented and anxious and angry culture. We are all so busy being outraged and feeling victimized we forget sometimes what it means to be a  human being. The Three Sisters Garden reminds me.

Human beings can live and be  healthy on the produce from this garden, people have depended on them for thousands of years.

We have a new gallery at the farm, a spot under the apple tree near the pasture gate. Last year, our big old pine tree blew down, and there is no shade in the corner,  so we liberated our two rocking chairs from the barn cats on the porch and moved them under the beautiful old apple tree, which gives us beauty and shade. The bird bath moved to corner.

In our barn was a very old feed can, we aren’t certain but we think it’s at least 100 years old, maybe more. It is big and heavy and beautiful in its own way. I had the idea to free it and bring it into the house or out on the grass, where we could re-invent it as the perfect table. We often sit and eat out there and it is great space to put water and food, high enough to be out of reach of chickens.

Instantly, a small vase with some beautiful flowers appear – the genie/artist had struck. I often objectify old things, they seem to me to have so much more character than new things, which are thin and highly disposable. Our new garbage cans last a year or two, this one is going strong after at least a century.

It’s iron handles speak if a different time, I am happy for it to join our new gallery – a good place to take photographs in the summer – and for it to come out of the darkness and into the light. Are is where you see it and find it.

The last light in the deep woods often lands on a single leaf, I often feel there is a message meant for me. This time of year, the leaves are green, beautiful, untouched by sun, wind and insects. The forest looks fresh and inviting.

New information published by a Vermont newspaper suggests that the case against Craig Mosher is not as black-and-white as it first appeared. Mosher’s animals allegedly have a  history of wandering off of his property and a milk truck driver warned him just before the accident that his bull was on the road. Mosher says he went back to sleep, according to police.

For me, the issues in the case remain very serious for animal lovers: do we really want to criminalize accidents involving animals? Why can’t this issue be resolved in civil courts? Why aren’t lawsuits and fines sufficient to punish negligence? But the new information absolutely makes the case more complex, even more comprehensible.

Last July, Craig Mosher’s pet bull walked through a fence – not for the first time –  pried open by the branches of an apple tree. Out on a busy road, the bull was struck and killed by a car driven by Jon Bellis, 64, of Connecticut, who was also killed in the accident.  Last month, Mosher was indicted by a Rutland, Vt. grand jury on criminal charges of  involuntary manslaughter.

Such charges are brought when death results in extreme callousness or negligence, as in drunk driving.

The Vermont State Trooper’s Affidavit claims that Craig Mosher  was warned about his loose bull just before the accident and went back to sleep. And that his escaped animals were the subject of repeated calls to the authorities and visits by the State Police.

Trooper Robert Rider’s affidavit, sealed before this week, also says that Mosher’s animals had been out of their pastures and out on the road at least five times in the weeks before the accident that killed Bellis and injured his wife.

The information is troubling.

I have to think about it. So far, my feeling about it is that if true, it raises some serious questions about Mosher and his responses to repeated animal escapes on his property and obvious problems with his  fences. If the affidavit is correct, it suggests he had good reasons to know there  were problems with the fences. I am eager to hear his explanation.

For me, it does not rise to the level of criminal charges or jail time, but it does help explain why Rutland Prosecutor Rose Kennedy chose to indict Mosher on these serious charges, something she has not bothered to explain.

The larger issue – does this criminalize accidents that are an inevitable part of farm life and living with animals – remains and is important. It is not clear to me why these issues could not be raised and resolved in a civil proceeding – this is what lawsuits are for – or that Mosher deserves a possible jail sentence of up to 15 years. But read the affidavit and make up your own mind. I’ll surely be writing about it.

And the authorities need to explain why this case is so different it calls out for this kind of response. So far, they have failed to even try to do so.

I wrote several columns about this case earlier this week and I did not have this information.  We need to know more than this.

Mosher’s court hearing is at 3 p.m. Monday at Rutland Criminal court. Here is the affidavit, published this morning in the Rutland Herald of Vermont:

Shortly before a Connecticut driver hit Craig Mosher’s bull in a fatal crash, a milk truck driver blew his air horn outside Mosher’s Killington home to warn Mosher his bull was loose, according to court documents filed in Rutland criminal court on Friday afternoon.

In a notice of intent to offer evidence of other crimes, wrongs and acts filed by Rutland County State’s Attorney Rose Kennedy, the details surrounding Craig Mosher’s grand jury indictment were revealed:

At 9:58 p.m., July 31, 2015, after Mosher did not come out of his house, the milk truck driver called Vermont State Police to say he almost hit a bull on Route 4 in Killington.

At 10:13 p.m., while on route to respond to the loose bull call, the state trooper received a report that a vehicle had struck the bull and there were injuries.

At 10:21 p.m. State Police arrived on scene.

At 10:37 p.m., Mosher arrived on scene and told State Police that after the milk truck driver warned him, he went to look for the bull on his property, couldn’t find him and went home and fell asleep.

At 10:40 p.m., Jon Bellis, 62, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedic Gideion Yeager. The bull was killed in the crash.

On April 4, following a grand jury investigation, Mosher was indicted and charged with involuntary manslaughter in Bellis’ death. According to court records, Mosher failed to heed a warning about the loose bull the night of the fatal crash. Additionally, there were repeated calls to State Police about the bull being loose on Route 4 on several occasions in the weeks leading up to the crash, according to police.

Mosher pleaded innocent to the manslaughter charge in Rutland criminal court at the time he was given his indictment.

Prior to Friday’s filing, the details surrounding the escaped bull and Mosher’s alleged actions were not available because grand jury proceedings are secret. But the State Police affidavit became part of the public court record with Kennedy’s filing on Friday.

“The defendant admitted that the milk truck driver woke him up and told him that his bull had been in the roadway and was down on the lawn of the Val Roc Motel,” Kennedy wrote in her notice to the court. “Defendant said that he did not look for his bull there, but rather only on his property, assuming the milk truck driver was wrong. Defendant said he did not see his bull so he went back inside his house and fell asleep.”

Mosher’s attorney, Paul Volk, could not be reached for comment, following phone and email attempts on Friday afternoon and evening.

According to Kennedy’s filing, the milk truck driver, Jeffrey Herrick, said he had to stand on his brakes in order to avoid hitting the bull and that he left skid marks on the roadway. Herrick told State Police he saw the bull walk across the roadway and onto the lawn of the Val Roc Motel on Route 4. Because Herrick knew the 1,800-pound Scottish Highlander bull belonged to Mosher, he drove to his home, banged on his door and blew his truck’s air horn to alert the defendant, Kennedy wrote.

“Eventually defendant opened an upstairs window and the milk truck driver told defendant that his bull was at the Val Roc Motel, that he had just almost hit the bull on Route 4,” Kennedy wrote. “Defendant told the milk truck driver that he would come out and get his bull. The milk truck driver waited a couple of minutes and did not see the defendant come out of his house so he drove further on Route 4 until he had cell service and called State Police.”

In Trooper Robert Rider’s affidavit, there were three witnesses to the actual crash. Jason Sasbon, who lives at the Val Roc Motel, said he was outside walking when the crash occurred. He told Rider that the bull was in the middle of the road and when Bellis’ vehicle hit the bull it went on top of the vehicle for a short time and the car veered to the left, went off the road and struck a tree. According to Rider, Sasbon said he never saw the car brake and after it struck the tree, he ran over to try to help.

Bellis’ wife, Kathryn Barry Bellis, was able to get out of the vehicle, but Bellis was gasping for air, according to the affidavit. Another witness said that he estimated Bellis was traveling about 35 to 40 miles per hour, according to the affidavit.

In the early morning hours after the crash, State Police walked with Mosher along the pasture fence line and a section of the electric fence was lifted about six feet off the ground.

Rider explained in his affidavit that the wire was being held up by a small apple tree. “It appeared that the tree was pushed/bent over and went between the top and bottom wires,” he wrote. “When the force that bent the tree stopped, the tree returned to its natural upright position catching the top wire and lifting it approximately six feet off the ground.”

According to Rider’s affidavit, State Police have been called several times regarding Mosher’s animals being out of the pasture. On May 19, a cow was reported loose on Route 4; on June 20, a bull was reported in the roadway; on June 23, a bull was reported in the roadway; on July 26, the bull was reported out of the pasture; on July 30, the bull was reported out of the pasture; and on July 31, the bull was out on Route 4.

Mosher has a hearing in Rutland criminal court on Monday at 3 p.m.

The Vermont Farm Bureau has urged members to attend the hearing in support of Mosher.