February 2, 2012

A Hutterite colony in Montana has been ordered to pay $US90,274 in restitution in a case involving illegal pesticide use, which resulted in the deaths of two horses.

The Seville Hutterite Colony was sentenced in a federal court in Missoula on Monday by District Judge Donald Molloy to one year of unsupervised probation and was ordered to pay the restitution on a charge of illegal use of pesticide.

Hutterites are a communal branch of Anabaptists who, like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century. Nearly extinct by the 18th and 19th centuries, the Hutterites found a new home in North America. Over 125 years their population grew from 400 to around 42,000.

The secretary of the colony, named as Waldner, was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation to an admitted charge of making false statements. He was ordered to to pay $US1000 in restitution.

Another man, named as Wipf, who admitted misapplication of pesticides, was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation and was also ordered to pay $US1000 in restitution.

"The needless death of two horses is a sad reminder that pesticides need to be used safely and legally," said Lori Hanson, special agent-in-charge of the Environmental Protection Agency's criminal enforcement program in Denver.

"Individuals who misuse these products and endanger wildlife will be prosecuted."

US Attorney for the District of Montana, Michael Cotter, said violators of environmental laws will be prosecuted.

"Here, Seville Colony used strychnine laced oats without regard for the health and safety of other livestock that did encounter the poison."

In an offer of proof filed in the case by Assistant US Attorneys Kris McLean and Laura Weiss, the government said that on April 15 last year a Cut Bank area resident found his horse lying dead about 75 yards from the fence line his pasture shared with the Seville Colony on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

He observed blood coming from the horse's eyes, nose, mouth, and anus.

He called a local veterinarian and described his horse's condition. The vet said the horse had likely ingested poison.

The horse's owner walked the fence line and collected oats that had been spread around gopher holes. He also took a blood sample from his dead horse and provided the sample and oats he had collected to the local veterinarian.

Testing of the oats revealed they contained strychnine.

After collecting the poison oats, he confronted Waldner about the oats.

Initially, Waldner denied knowledge of poison oats, but later said the colony had used poison oats containing strychnine to control gophers by placing the poison oats around gopher holes on the fence line earlier that day.

Three days after the discovery of the first dead horse, another neighbor to the colony found one of his horses dead in a field next to property controlled by the colony.

The horse had blood coming from its eyes, nose, mouth, and anus.

He confronted Waldner, who told him he wanted to keep this matter just between the two of them.

The next day, an Environmental Protection Agency pesticide inspector went to the Blackfeet Reservation to carry out an inspection over the matter.

The inspector met Waldner, who told him that he was unaware of the pesticides the colony used to control gophers and informed him that he would need to speak with the colony farm boss, Wipf.

Waldner told the inspector Wipf was not available at that time.

The inspector asked Waldner about the type of pesticide and application method the colony used. Waldner said he did not know the type, but knew it was a grain or oat-based pesticide and it was applied with a spoon and bucket.

The inspector asked Waldner if they had any pesticide left and was told, "no".

He then asked Waldner if the colony had any empty chemical bags left and he again replied "no". The inspector was unable to complete his inspection at that time.

The next day, the inspector visited Hi Line Chemical of Santa Rita. Its records showed it had sold 10 bags of oats containing strychnine to the Seville Colony in late March, 2011.

On April 21, agents with the Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division agents went to the colony and interviewed Wipf.

Wipf explained he had become farm boss a few months prior and had recently received his pesticide applicator's license. He said he had bought about 15 bags of poison oats about three weeks earlier.

He said the oats were to kill gophers and that he had applied about five bags of oats so far. He described his application process as "every individual hole, I put some down the hole." Wipf took the agents to the shed where the colony stored the poison oats.

In it, agents found eight bags of Peterson's Pocket Gopher Killer III.

Agents collected a label from one of the bags which specifically directs the application of the pesticide in a specially designed device placed underground unavailable to animals on the land surface. Agents also found an open bag of the pesticide about two-thirds full.

During the interview of Wipf, Waldner arrived at WIPF's home. Waldner agreed to be interviewed by the agents.

Waldner said he was aware that Wipf had purchased pesticide, but initially told the agents he was not aware what was in the oats.

Waldner clarified that he did not know the oats contained strychnine until after the horses had died. He then admitted that he went to the storage shed at about 3pm on April 19 and found several bags of the oat pesticide in the shed. He admitted that he read the label on one of the bags and learned it contained strychnine. He admitted he made these observations and learned this information before speaking with the agency's inspector some days earlier.

When agents asked why he did not tell the inspector the truth when asked about remaining bags of pesticide, Walder told agents he did not want him to know the information.

On May 12 and 13, the agency cleaned up the illegally applied pesticide that encompassed about 300 acres. It resulted in the removal of eight 55-gallon drums of poisoned oats and entrained soils. These drums were removed on June 23, 2011, and sent to a hazardous waste disposal facility.