Hundreds of dead animals stun family

Owen Sound farm yields grim discoveries

OWEN SOUND, ONT .• Melissa Brown says she’s lived on farms her entire life, but has never seen anything like it.

Since moving a month ago to a property near Durham, about 165 kilometres northwest of Toronto, the 28- year- old mother says she and her family have discovered the remains of 150 to 200 animals, including horses, calves and goats.

“The death count is going up day by day by day,” she said Wednesday.

Brown has notified the West Grey Police Service, which has launched a joint investigation with the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Investigators f rom both agencies have already visited the property.

Brown said she, her husband and their two children, aged five and three, moved to the farm on Feb. 13, with their five horses.

Recently, after some snow had melted, “that’s when I discovered all the bones, the remains of the animals that are back there, and that’s how it started,” she said.

Later, while working on some electric fencing, Brown said she and her brother discovered a dead baby goat.

“My hubby went to try to bury the baby goat and that’s when he discovered more baby goats,” she said.

Brown said she has found piles of bones as well as two dead calves under a barn door that was lying on the ground and the remains of a horse in a pen without a gate.

She said she and her husband also removed the remains of about 50 small animals — chickens, rabbits and cats — that were in manure piles in the barn.

“It’s just been discovery after discovery after discovery.”

Brown, who i s renting the property, said her landlord is just as horrified by what has been found.

Alison Cross, director of marketing and communications for the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the agency has just started its investigation.

No live animals are involved in their probe.

“It’s too early to share any details because it’s just too early in the investigation,” she said.

THE DEATH COUNT IS GOING UP DAY BY DAY BY DAY.