A Grand Rapids, Minn., man has been charged with 20 counts of animal mistreatment in Itasca County after piles of dead goats and ailing live ones were found on a property where he was supposed to be living.
Jacob James Langeslag, 42, is facing charges ranging from animal torture to mistreatment and improper burial. Of the 140 goats he moved to a property in Bovey, Minn., to help manage shrubs and brush, 92 died, according to the criminal complaint.
Langeslag has two misdemeanor charges from 2023 in Rice County tied to the mistreatment of a horse that had been in his care.
According to the recent criminal complaint: A woman and her children stopped by her father’s land in Bovey and found many dead goats alongside living goats in a pen. The property owner told law enforcement officials that Langeslag had moved his goats to the land and was supposed to be living on-site in a camper and tending to them.
At the time, the property owner had a broken leg and hadn’t been able to check on the goats — or get ahold of Langeslag, who didn’t seem to have ever moved into the camper. Later, Langeslag told the man he had been sick and unable to care for the goats, but law enforcement saw a Snapchat video of him at Zorbaz in Grand Rapids during this time period.
Officers found three piles of dead goats on the property — and some of the dead goats had been there long enough to be cleaned to the bone.
There was a single bucket half-full of dirty water in the goat’s enclosure. A veterinarian at the scene said the animals were standing in their own excrement and didn’t have clean bedding. The goats were underweight, had tough, dull coats and were seriously dehydrated and malnourished. Fecal samples showed they had parasites.
A necropsy performed on one of the goats at the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Lab showed atrophy to its heart, kidneys, renal capsule, bone marrow and lymph nodes. It had rib injuries.
