Deputies still feeding cattle near Butler

Sheriff Kenneth Tidwell said Friday his department was still in the cattle business, but not by choice.
At a hearing held last Friday, March 8, animal cruelty suspect Marvin May did not appear but it was indicated that First National Bank and Trust of Chickasha was willing to take possession of nearly 100 head of Red Angus cattle the sheriff’s office had seized.
District Judge Jill Weedon at that time continued the seizure for seven days or until the bank took possession of the cattle. She reserved a decision on the issue of reimbursement for care and feeding of the cattle to a later date.
A follow-up hearing was scheduled for 3 p.m. yesterday, Friday, March 15, but that was after this edition of the Clinton Daily News had gone to press so the results were unknown.
However, Sheriff Tidwell said that after the first hearing the Chickasha bank was supposed to hire someone to feed the cows and take over their care. “As of today, that has not happened,” he said, “so we’re still in the cow business.”
He said the cattle probably would not be physically moved, but someone just hired to look after them and make sure they were fed and watered.
Tidwell said last week his department was doing that after seizing 92 head. The seizure followed complaints from neighbors that the cattle were starving and dying in a pasture northeast of Butler. Tidwell said a veterinarian he asked to look at them also said they were in poor condition.
The sheriff said yesterday his office had provided the Chickasha bank with names of people in this area who might hire out to feed and water the cattle.
“The bank had stated at the hearing last week they would find somebody to take care of them with our help,” he said. “For whatever reason, those people weren’t interested.”
But he did have an interesting comment about the 71-year-old May’s failure to see himself that they were taken care of properly. May was charged in Custer County District Court with one felony count of cruelty to animals and arrested Sunday.
Asked Friday if he was still in jail, Tidwell said no and added, “He bonded out within hours of being arrested. He pulled $500 out of his pocket, but he can’t buy feed.”
The sheriff had told the Daily News last week that besides the 92 head in the one pasture, his deputies were keeping eyes on probably 200 others in other pastures belonging to May.
Asked yesterday about them, he said those in the first pasture the neighbors had complained about were the only ones seized so far.
“There are others I understand that are not in great condition, but they were not as poor as the ones we have so we haven’t seized them yet,” he said.