Bison loaded for transport

QUILCENE — The first step in relocating the bison at the center of an animal cruelty case is nearly complete.

Five of the seven animals were loaded onto a trailer Thursday night at Center Valley Animal Rescue (CVAR) in Quilcene. They were destined for a facility in Faith, S.D., a 1,260-mile trip that will find them — at least initially — near the Cheyenne River Reservation.

Ultimately, CVAR Director Sara Penhallegon wants to send them to the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison, Texas, southeast of Dallas.

But a few roadblocks remain, including ownership of the animals, Penhallegon said.

Volunteers worked well past darkness Thursday, even though they were forced to stop when flashlights were no longer effective and one of the animals burst through the makeshift corral, Penhallegon said.

“Both went through the corral panels that I was holding,” she said. “We kept going for a while after that. We put things back together and got flashlights, but as the flashlight batteries got dim and it got more dangerous, we had to stop for the night.”

The bison, which were said to be diseased and malnourished, were seized in April 2018 from the Chimacum farm of Denver Lee Shoop, 73, who is facing eight counts of animal cruelty. The Class C felony charges each are punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.

Shoop’s two-week trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 7. The first trial ended with a hung jury in February.

Shoop appeared in a pre-trial hearing Friday before Judge Keith Harper in Jefferson County Superior Court, where it was determined between 100-120 jurors would be summoned for the trial.

Deputy prosecuting attorney Chris Ashcraft and defense attorney Jack Range from Jefferson Associated Counsel discussed juror logistics, such as where to keep all of them and how to handle a lengthy questionnaire.

“The number of jurors will be about 110, double what we’ve been calling,” Harper said.

Harper ruled Sept. 6 that the animals no longer had to be held at CVAR after Penhallegon and others provided testimony about how dangerous they’ve become. Penhallegon estimated they had caused between $60,000 and $70,000 in damages and begun to charge her and CVAR volunteers.

Penhallegon worked with Megan Titus, a natural horsemanship trainer and cattle farmer from across the street, to build an alleyway around a barn with plywood attached to fencing and weed cloth above.

Through a series of swinging gates, they enticed the animals into the corral with feed and attempted to encourage them to move forward into the trailer.

Outside of the first three, which dashed through the alleyway and quickly loaded up, the rest weren’t as cooperative.

“The first ones, it went how it went,” Penhallegon said. “You don’t really know how it’s going to go. Because they’re so much healthier now then they were before, it’s much more difficult each time.”

The largest animal, a male, weighs about 1,500 pounds, she said. He was the fourth to load and the one set in the middle of the three compartments in the trailer.

But the evening wasn’t without its stressful moments.

As Titus attempted to direct one of the animals by waving a small flag above her head, the bison started to charge and Titus scrambled for the nearest fence. She jumped like a cat to a scratching post and hung on with all fours as the metal fencing bent backward.

Titus hung on nearly parallel to the ground but didn’t fall. The bison stopped in its tracks.

“Both of us had near-misses,” Penhallegon said. “It’s dangerous working with these animals, there’s just no way around that.”

Penhallegon said the trailer carrying the bison left about 9:30 p.m., and the two-person crew planned to drive all night. The trip is expected to take about 20 hours, according to Google maps.

CVAR started a GoFundMe drive earlier this month. As of Saturday, more than $7,735 of the $12,000 had been raised. The public can donate at tinyurl.com/PDN-BisonFunds.

The South Dakota crew originally wanted to pick up the bison Friday morning, but a snowstorm predicted through Montana forced them to accelerate their timeline, Penhallegon said.

The two remaining bison will be loaded early this week onto Titus’ horse trailer, and Penhallegon will haul them to South Dakota with two volunteers.

They’ll have a short window due to another snowstorm expected in Montana the middle of the week, Penhallegon said.

“We would be driving all night until we get them there,” she said. “You just can’t stop with them. It would freak out the trailer.

“When you’re moving, that’s not a problem. We just need to take as few breaks as possible.”

Penhallegon also hopes CVAR has ownership of the bison transferred to the organization this week.

She put a lien on the animals in early September and foreclosed on it to have a public auction for the bison. While that’s scheduled to take place this Friday, Jefferson County officials can sign a forfeiture agreement and transfer ownership to CVAR, allowing them to permanently transfer the animals, Penhallegon said.

“We needed to get ownership of these animals so we could get them out of here, because they’re so dangerous and destructive,” she said.

At the same time, Penhallegon has grown to love the animals.

“I’m not saying they aren’t difficult, but they’re bison, and that’s what they’re supposed to be,” she said.

“The fact that they are difficult now is incredible. Seeing the before and after is incredible.”

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Jefferson County Managing Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 6, or at bmclean@peninsuladailynews.com.