WEBVTT

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assaulted and someone being killed and doesn't get much attention and that

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just is it is where it is but yeah seems out of work sometimes yes no I hear

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what you're saying

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La Crosse County Attorney Tim Grinky joins us now and thanks very much for being here

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no problem so why did you seek this resolution with Ridgeland farms

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well the conclusion I came to was that I could charge one of the types of things that I was

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referred to by the judge in Dane County and I was going to charge that but charging that would

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only have started a process that probably would have taken six months to year to get the trial

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there were some issues that could have been appealed so charging it would have just been the start

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of a process when the farm offered to close down in exchange of charging I thought that was a

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good outcome because even if I had charged and convicted them I still had no authority to

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pose them down and the fines that they had been charged with as well they could have just paid

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and kept on running so I thought them ending the business is what most people wanted

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and it's more than I could do by charging and it would happen much quicker than me charging

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so I thought that was a good resolution to have them agree to end their business in exchange for

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not charging a crime so the resolution effectively closes down the operation because I thought that

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under the deal they'd still be able to maintain their own research on remaining animals

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correct there's two parts of the business the part where they do their own research I was never

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part of I had no authority over them the judge didn't involve that in the appointment of my

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special prosecution so that was an issue I had no controller from the start so whether they

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continue on or don't is up to them and I had no control over it the only control I had was on

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the breeding part which is the part they agreed to shut down and that's as far as my authority

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could take me do you have any idea how many dogs are still at Richland Farms and and Wood

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Wisconsin statutes render Richland immune from any future prosecution based on what they're

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doing they're being researched well the first question I don't know how many dogs are there

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currently I'm not keeping up to date with them on a daily basis I'm relying on the state agencies

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to confirm at some point before July 1st that they're uh surrounding their license and they're

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out of their business so if they did anything after that they'd be doing it without a license and

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could be prosecuted um the federal law and the state law exempt research facilities and research

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on animals from the animal cruelty law so if they are doing research on dogs under the federal

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grant of authority under the USDA uh the state statutes exempt that from prosecution so that's why

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I never had any authority over them and wouldn't in the future if they continued testing on animals

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it did this week's sale and release of 1500 of the Beagles there come as a surprise to you

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no uh when we negotiated this last fall the idea always was that they would be closing down and as

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that process went on they would be uh getting rid of their Beagles by selling them off or if

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they couldn't sell them putting them up for adoption and they had kind of estimated a time range and

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this was kind of the end of that time range that they thought they would be doing that we picked

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July 1st just so they wouldn't be able to delay and I need to kind of renegotiate things but we

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always I was always told that about April or May they would be hopefully winding down and getting

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rid of all their dogs so it it wasn't a surprise to me that this is how they did it that was always

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their intent getting back to the specifics of your investigation you did find that you could

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support charging on one procedure conducted on these Beagles uh can you describe what that was

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it's called a cherry eye procedure it's basically uh an eye gland that is

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swollen or prolapse that has to be removed if you were doing it with a patch it would be an

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expensive procedure and you'd want to have a licensed veterinarian doing it they were doing it

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the way they'd been doing it in decades past which is kind of outdated which was removing the gland

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without general anesthesia and without having a licensed veterinarian do it so when the veterinary

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board decided that they would revoke the main veterinarian's license because it didn't meet their

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standard of care that's what I thought if they're violating that standard of care that allows me

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to charge the case honestly if they had found that it did not fall below the veterinary standards

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I'm not sure I would have had a legal authority to go forward um but basically they were performing

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a surgery without proper veterinary methods required by the state of Wisconsin what one thing that

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you talked about in your charging decision was the prospect of euthanasia of the Beagles why did you

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consider that the I'm sorry the prospect of euthanasia yeah or euthanasia

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being familiar with a lot of farmers growing up and farmers in lacrosse area that I

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talk to you know and they have animals that are injured or need some help they have the right to

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euthanize them as long as it's done humanely um and if you had a dairy farm or a pig farm

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where an animal had some injuries if it costs more than the cost that animal is to you most farmers

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would would put it down and so in this case if the original farms are required to go to such an

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extent to uh you know surgery on the dogs they could just euthanize them um and so that was a

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factor of my charging decision that it's it's not a place that was breeding dogs for sale for pets

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it's a farm like a turkey farm or a pig farm where you bring them for food or for in this case

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testing so it's not looked at the same under the veterinary standards or under the law

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and so that just reality of the economics of farms that are doing business

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as a DA who prosecutes homicides and uh you're currently in the midst of a of a homicide uh case

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still did it pull on your heartstrings to pour over evidence in this case especially as we know

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that you are a beagle owner and a fan of beagles actually have a painting of one in your office

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yes i uh like most people like dogs and like beagles are some in my opinion some of the cuter dogs

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um it's heartbreaking to see them in cages and heartbreaking to see them um you know not being

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socialized properly not being able to run free and do what dogs do um but the law allows for this

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behavior on a farm um you know i've been to farms before with friends of mine that grew up on farms

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and the way the cows were treated i didn't like but you know when you've got a hundred two hundred

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cattle or cows they're not gonna be treated the same as a pet um and saying goes for other types

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of animals so if you don't think of this as your pet or think of it as raising dogs to be pets but

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think of it as a farm it's a little bit different and uh the standard are different the way they're

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gonna be treated is different and the reasons are should be obvious that they're not going to get

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pets uh they're not going to be considered pets so as long as you're following the usda regulations

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and the dad cap regulations the fact that i don't like it or we don't like it doesn't mean that

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we could charge a crime so i was relying mostly on the state regulator's inspectors that are

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experts in this area and going by their advice on what they normally see on farms uh dog readers

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and uh that's why one of the reasons i came with the decision i came to about this behavior

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we leave it there d.a. tim greenkey thanks very much thank you

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good luck with your criminal case good luck to you and say hi to gary

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hi well i will thank you bye