MAN CHARGED WITH STARVING FLOCK OF SHEEP

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 18, 1992                   TAG: 9201180318
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
MAN CHARGED WITH STARVING FLOCK OF SHEEP
The owner of a Roanoke pancake house has been charged with cruelty to animals in Botetourt County and accused of allowing 27 sheep to die from starvation and neglect in a pasture he was leasing in Blue Ridge.
He also was cited for not properly burying the animals. Instead, they were found dumped off an old logging road a few miles away, according to Botetourt animal control officer Gary Johnson.
The man charged was Joseph Abbott, 53, owner of Valley View Pancake House on Williamson Road. The sheep died over a month's time beginning in early December.
"He just didn't bother checking on them very often," said Johnson, who called it the worst case of neglect he has seen in nine years as an animal control officer.
Abbott is out of jail on his personal recognizance and could not be reached for comment. A phone call to a listed number for the pancake house produced a message saying the number had been disconnected.
Johnson said Abbott brought about 175 sheep and several goats to the three-acre pasture located on U.S. 460 just past the Blue Ridge Parkway in Blue Ridge in September.
In December, Johnson received an anonymous telephone call alerting him that there were several dead sheep in the pasture.
Johnson said initial efforts to contact Abbott failed, and over several weeks, more sheep died. Some straw had been left in the pasture, but he said straw provides no nutritional value to sheep.
He also said there was no grass left on the land after two months of grazing by the sheep. "That was one of the problems. He had too many sheep on too little pasture," Johnson said.
Most of the sheep died either from starvation or from complications, such as disease or parasites due to malnutrition. "When they get into a weakened condition, it's hard to tell," Johnson said.
Around Christmas, Abbott was ordered to remove the dead sheep and bury them, as required under county law. Johnson said Abbott agreed, but another week elapsed before Abbott began to remove both the sheep carcasses and the living sheep from the pasture.
The night the sheep were moved, a call came in to the county dispatchers from a resident of the Blue Ridge Heights subdivision reporting that a truckload of dead sheep had just been driven past his home.
"I guess [when] you see a load of dead sheep go up through the neighborhood, you want to know what's going on," Johnson said.
Johnson responded, but by the time he reached the neighborhood, the hauler was gone, he said. The next day, sheep carcasses were found only a few miles from the pasture, dumped off a logging road near the Botetourt-Bedford boundary.
The sheep were taken by county workers to the county landfill and buried.
Failing to properly bury dead animals in Botetourt carries a $100 fine, plus reimbursement to the county for its cost to dispose of the carcasses.
Cruelty to animals carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine. Johnson estimated that it would have cost about $500 in hay and grain supplies to have kept the sheep healthy from September through December.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB