Recent Alpaca Deaths in Ohio and ongoing trial information with respect to Magical Farms vs. Land O' Lakes

Organized in reverse chronological order - scroll to the bottom for the history

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Tuesday, February 09, 2010 -- The Land O' Lakes Petition for re-hearing is denied

The petition was circulated to all active judges of the court and then referred to the original panel. Upon review, the original panel concluded that the issues included in the petition were fully considered in the original decision, and accordingly, denied a rehearing.

This means the December 8th REVERSAL and REMAND for a new trial, based on errors during the trial at the District Court, stands as decided.

Land O' Lakes now has the option to file a "Petition for Writ of Certiorari" with United States Supreme Court.

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Tuesday, December 22, 2009 -- Land O' Lakes files for the Dec. 8th opinion to be re-heard

Land O' Lakes file a petition asking that the Court's December 8th Opinion and Decision be reheard, either by the three judges who signed the Opinion or by the entire 6th Circuit (all 20+ judges) sitting "en banc."

The rules governing this process allow certain timelines for the court to decide on the rehearing, so it can be up to 40 days before we'll know a decision whether their petition is granted or denied.

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Tuesday, December 8, 2009 -- REVERSAL by the United States 6th Circuit Court of Appeals!

Today, in a 19 page document, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit REVERSED and REMANDED the case for a new trial based on errors during the trial at the District Court that were substantive enough to affect the outcome. The most telling paragraph in the document prepared by Judges Batchelder, Daughtrey, and Van Tatenhove reads as follows:

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WARNING - images and video are graphic due to their subject matter. There are depictions of dead or dying alpacas taken on Magical Farms in March of 2003.

CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO

It will suffice to say that 118 dead alpacas turned over in their grave today, as unfortunately, justice was not served.

After a day and a half of deliberations, the Jury found for Magical Farms and Majestic Meadows, but chose to assign the numbers provided by Land O' Lakes. By the time all of the rules of evidence and other legal intricacies had taken their toll, the Jury was only allowed to consider less than 70 of the 118 dead. To this number, they applied the average number that Stephen Buffo, the economist retained by Land O' Lakes, had come to for the sale of a Magical Farms alpaca which was just over $14,000 - a number that our attorneys had made clear was incorrect and based on incomplete information. Additionally, the Jury agreed that the plaintiff's preponderance of the evidence proved the poison had damaged the animals that ate the feed, yet the compensation they assigned for those animals was $0, which quite frankly is a conclusion that is incomprehensible. I wish there were better news to share. There are 12 Jurors that may now have the opportunity to learn a little bit more about these wonderful animals and the alpaca industry in America, and when they do they will have to come to terms with their conscience. I don't envy them that.

This morning started with the Judge's instructions of Law to the Jury, during which he detailed the applicable law in this case. Following the Jury instructions, the closing arguments began.

The plaintiff's closing arguments were delivered first, consisting first of a thank-you to the Jury for their time and attention over the last three weeks, a summary of the evidence and the witnesses that had been presented, and finally some visual aids to assist them in the Jury room as they go through their deliberations.

In the defense's closing arguments, in my opinion, Land O' Lakes took the low road. Land O' Lakes accused Dr. David Anderson, Dr. Denise Stoll, Mike Safley, Faye Farley, Jeff Farley, Libby Forstner, and Jerry Forstner of all being nothing but liars. The Land O' Lakes expert, who has no experience in the alpaca industry, incorrectly characterized the alpaca industry as nothing more than a tax-shelter.

Because the burden of proof is on the plaintiffs, our attorney is afforded the opportunity of a second closing argument following the defense. In response to the defense's tactics, our attorney simply asked the Jury to consider the evidence and the character that they observed in the witnesses. He asked the Jury to consider the depth of knowledge and experience that they all had with alpacas themselves and also within the alpaca industry. He asked them to contrast that to their sole expert who had never stepped foot on an alpaca farm prior to this case, and the only alpaca farm he visited while making his report was Anthony Stachowski's. Mr. Buffo was their 'expert' who admittedly had no knowledge of how to value an individual alpaca. Instead, he lumped them all together into one average price instead of considering the individual merits of each animal that the poisoned feed killed or affected.

Following closing arguments, the Judge "charged" the jury with the case and they retired to the Jury room for deliberations at approximately 2:00. They had not reached a decision by 5:00, so tomorrow morning they will reconvene and continue deliberations.

Tomorrow, Monday April 2nd, the plan is for the Judge to give the Jury instructions on the applicable law, and what information they are to consider when deliberating this case. These instructions will be followed by closing arguments from the attorneys -- the attorneys for Magical Farms, Majestic Meadows, and the 19 other farms involved will go first, followed by the attorneys for Land O' Lakes, and then since the burden of proof is on the plaintiffs, the plaintiff's attorneys get to "wrap up" one more time. After that the Judge will "charge" the Jury with the case, and hand it over to them for deliberations.

Interestingly, just yesterday on Saturday the 31st, Land O' Lakes filed their Annual Report with the SEC where they stated, on page 7 in their overview of their feed operations,

Their "ability to maintain quality control", or lack thereof, is why over 100 alpacas were poisoned and killed, over 1000 were poisoned and living affected, and why this trial is happening in the first place.

Court is not officially in session today (the jury is not present), but the attorneys and Judge Boyko are working on the Jury Instructions and other legal matters before they resume with the Jury on Monday.

Today seemed a bit of a whirlwind. Land O' Lakes began their defense with Mr. Buffo, an economist from Ernst & Young, whose task was to pick apart Mr. Safley's method of evaluating the dead and affected animals. On his cross examination Mr. Buffo admitted to knowing nothing about the individual valuation of any alpaca and relied only on numbers gleaned from the internet and from tax returns. As far as experience with a working alpaca farm or alpaca farmers, he admitted having only visited the farm of Anthony Stachowski, LOL's other expert witness. Additionally, it became evident that Mr. Buffo used unsubstantiated numbers as well as flawed tactics and incomplete information to arrive at his conclusions and his so-called "average price" for an alpaca sold by Magical Farms for the years 1997-2004.

Following Mr. Buffo, Anthony Stachowski was NOT called to testify. Land O' Lakes chose to not use their own valuation expert -- possibly because his values on some of our hedsire males would validate the values arrived at by Mr. Safley. Or possibly because it looked bad that Anthony Stachowski was paid by Land O' Lakes, without any litigation necessary, for his female that ate the poisoned Land O' Lakes feed but died of a broken neck or back shortly after she was shorn later that year.

Land O' Lakes rested their case immediately after Mr. Buffo was finished, and the plan at this point is to hash out all of the legal matters including Jury Instructions over the next two days with the court 'out of session', and then present the Jury instructions, closing arguments, and turn over the case to the jury so they can begin deliberations on Monday.

Today Magical Farms and Majestic finished presenting their case. The day began finishing up the cross-examination of Libby Forstner, followed by the testimony of Gary Haunstein (the person in charge of quality assurance for Land O' Lakes Massillon Plant). Mr. Haunstein made it clear that even though the label on the bag states "Guaranteed Analysis" that neither the Land O' Lakes Massillon Ohio plant nor Land O' Lakes actually does an analysis on any given batch of feed that they mix. Finally, the last witness for the plaintiff's case was Jerry Forstner. Jerry gave testimony with respect to the Magical Farms marketing plan, the Magical Farms financial statements and tax returns, as well as his experiences helping collect the dead animal out of the fields during March of 2003.

In one of the more heated exchanges of the trial so far, the Land O' Lakes defense attorney insinuated that Dr. David Anderson would have somehow skewed his testimony towards Magical Farms and Majestic Meadows because Dr. Anderson had testified the he considered Jerry Forstner his friend. In his deposition testimony, as well as on the stand, Jerry stated that you can certainly consider someone your friend without having a social relationship, and that would in no way affect the medical opinions of one of the worlds most respected camelid veterinarians.

Today continued the plaintiffs case and began with Jeff Farley, Majestic Meadows Alpacas. Jeff was asked to recount his experiences with the animals and the symptoms they displayed in March of 2003, as well as some questions regarding the logistics of Majestic Meadows (how the animals are fed, how he knew that his animals had eaten the feed, etc.).

Jeff was followed by Dr. Denise Stoll, the veterinarian that was most involved with the dead, dying, and affected animals at both Magical Farms and Majestic Meadows. Many necropsy reports, histopathology reports, and medical records were reviewed.

Finally, after Dr. Stoll, Libby Forstner was called to testify. Among other questions, she was asked when and why Magical Farms chose to switch to the Land O' Lakes feed, and if she had relied on their sales-persons representations of the quality of Land O' Lakes as well as the label stamped "Guaranteed Analysis".

Court is not in session over the weekend, so there will not be any witnesses called and the jury gets a (much needed) long weekend.

Today Land O' Lakes finished their cross-examination of Mr. Safley. Following Mr. Safley, Tripp Forstner was re-called to the stand. His testimony included his recollection of the timeline of events, the symptoms noted in the dead, dying, and affected alpacas during March of 2003, and some general farm operations questions.

After Tripp, Jeffrey Workman, the Land O' Lakes Quality Assurance Supervisor and Plant Superintendent for the Massillon Ohio plant, was called to the stand.

Expert witness Mike Safley continued on the stand today, going through each and every animal and the valuation process he applied when coming up with his appraisal amounts.

Mr. Safley's testimony was briefly interrupted by Dr. John Pinkowski, an orthopedic surgeon and alpaca owner who's animals ate the poisoned feed while they were boarded at Magical Farms. Dr. Pinkowski testified to the fact that six of his animals were killed by the feed, and that he could not sell the remaining tainted animals that ate the feed and lived, so rather than continue paying boarding bills on un-saleable animals, he had to give them away for free.

Expert witness Mike Safley continued on the stand today which took the entire day. The bulk of the day was spent going animal-by-animal through his expert valuation report, asking him about the information he relied upon to come up with the assigned value of each individual animal.

Matthew Best began the day on the witness stand, and testified to his knowledge of the farm feeding during 2003. Following Matt, Mike Safley took the stand. Mr. Safley is an expert witness who created a valuation report for Magical Farms, Majestic Meadows, and many other farms who had sick or dead animals as a result of the poisoned Land O' Lakes Feed.

It appears that Land O' Lakes is taking a defense strategy of: "You cannot prove that the alpacas who ate the feed and did not die immediately are damaged because there are no studies of the long term effects of salinomycin in alpacas." Interestingly, when the death outbreak was occurring in 2003, Dr. Anderson requested funding from Land O' Lakes to do that exact study, and they refused. It appears that the Land O' Lakes defense was positioning from the very beginning and is banking on the fact that they killed a huge number of alpacas in a way that nobody else ever has, so they are insinuating that lack of prior scientific studies means that nothing has happened to these animals who were poisoned but are still living.

Magical Farms and Majestic Meadows have evidence of many animals who ate the poisoned feed in 2003 and have died more recently whose hearts, upon necropsy, show significant scar tissue.

Doctor Anderson resumed the stand today in his capacity as an expert veterinarian witness, and finished up shortly after noon. At the end of his cross-examination the jury was allowed to ask him questions as well. The afternoon began with Tripp Forstner, farm manager for Magical Farms, taking the stand. Tripp narrated a short video of the farm taking the jury though elements of a regular day's activities on the farm, giving an overview of the pasture layout, and some general information on the alpacas at Magical Farms.

Doctor David Anderson, formerly of the Ohio State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital and International Camelid Institute and currently Section Head of Agricultural Practices at Kansas State University, was on the witness stand today. His examination began with his long list of achievements as well some commentary on his direct involvement with the dying or dead alpacas during the March of 2003 'death outbreak'. He personally examined and treated an enormous number of alpacas from many different farms across Ohio.

Much of the afternoon testimony was focused on specific animals in this case, their symptoms, their treatment, and their autopsy/necropsy reports.

Today continued the examination of Faye Farley and wrapped up with Land O' Lakes completing their cross examination. Much of the testimony on direct examination was going animal-by-animal through the Majestic Meadows herd and Faye describing the symptoms that the animal displayed after eating the feed, whether the animal died immediately, died sometime later, or is still alive.

The Land O' Lakes cross-examination asked repeatedly whether or not Jeff and Faye Farley had tried to sell any of the animals that had eaten the poisonous feed even though their veterinarian would not certify them as healthy animals for sale.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer published an article in this morning's paper detailing some of yesterday's opening statements. The courtroom is proceeding today with the cross-examination of Faye Farley, 1/2 owner of Majestic Meadows Alpacas, who is also involved in this lawsuit.

Today the seated jury heard opening statements from both sides. The Land O' Lakes attorneys took the position that they had admitted negligence in mixing the feed and that they admitted that the feed had killed 73 of the alpacas in the lawsuit. What they did not tell the jury was that they filed those admissions almost 4 years after the deaths, after the affected farms spent years and enormous amounts of money in attorneys fees proving that Land O' Lakes had mixed and sold a batch of poisonous alpaca feed that killed and damaged our animals.

Land O' Lakes also took the position that the affected farms were just being greedy. What they didn't say is that Magical Farms is only asking for the replacement value of the animals that were killed and for the loss in market value of the animals poisoned by the feed but still alive. We are also asking for reimbursement for vet bills, attorneys fees, and other expenses that they have made necessary by forcing us to take this to court. Our suit does not encompass loss of business compensation or recompense for pain and suffering.

The full day was taken by jury selection. The pool of potential jurors was large and came from a very wide geographic area. The Judge and the attorneys from both sides went through the 'voir dire' process of asking the potential jurors questions, and by the end of the day the court sat a final group of twelve jurors.

Friday, March 9, 2007 -- The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a Front Page Story on alpacas and the upcoming trial. Story by Alison Grant. Also, click here for a PDF of the actual front page. WEWS TV Channel 5 ran the story.

Brief History: On a Tuesday morning, March 18th 2003, Magical Farms was confronted with tragedy. In the early hours of the morning we found 12 of our male alpacas dead with no apparent outward signs of trauma or obvious cause of death. Many others were extremely lethargic, refusing to eat, drink, or stand, and displaying some shaking primarily in their front legs and their heads. The problem was linked directly to a batch of feed mixed by Land O' Lakes that was heavily tainted with a substance poisonous to alpacas. This somehow slipped through their quality control measures, and the tainted alpaca feed was distributed widely across northern Ohio (click here for an example of a label from this batch) . Many farms were affected.

The total number of alpacas killed here at Magical Farms due to this poisonous feed is now over 100, with over 250 additional alpacas affected.