LAFAYETTE COUNTY, Wis. — A couple has been charged with dozens of criminal counts after around 200 goats were found dead at a farm in Lafayette County, Wisconsin in March.
Stephanie Lincicum, 30, and Kyle Lincicum, 30, have each been charged with 20 counts of mistreatment of animals, 20 counts of failure to provide proper food and drink to confined animals, five counts of failure to timely dispose of a carcass, a count of theft, and a count of transferring personal property over $10,000, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The goats were found on a farm in Seymour Township in March, the newspaper reported.
Deputies contacted Kyle Lincicum about the deceased goats, and he reportedly told them that they started dying over the last month they had contacted a veterinarian but did not see any change, according to the Journal Sentinel.
The deputies contacted their veterinarian, Elizabeth Holcomb, who said she hadn’t been to the farm in 2023. She said she went there in February 2021 for goats who were dying from pneumonia and September 2022 for a goat that had a parasite, the newspaper said.
Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office said that the Farm Service Agency contacted them to report that a number of goats were found dead at a house, according to WKOW. Deputies learned that there were nearly 200 deceased goats on the farm, and there were two still alive.
“By tracking records through feed companies and things like that, it had been quite some time since they’ve actually purchased any feed,” Sheriff Reg Gill told the news outlet.
Stephanie Lincicum was asked by deputies at the farm if she was feeding the goats enough, the Journal Sentinel reported.
“I honestly couldn’t tell you, because the amount that I was supposed to feed them was always different, so probably not,” she said, according to the newspaper.
Kyle Lincicum reportedly told investigators during an interview in April that the goats did have grain all year, the Journal Sentinel reported.
Investigators brought a veterinarian to the farm to see the deceased goats and she found that there were signs of starvation and no water source for weeks, according to a criminal complaint obtained by WKOW. The decision came to euthanize the two goats that were left because they were too weak.
Investigators also learned that the Lincicums started working on a farm in 2020, the Journal Sentinel reported. They reportedly sold dozens of goats for a net profit of about $35,907, per Fennimore Livestock Exchange’s records according to the criminal complaint. It was determined that about 265 goats were found from December 2020 to March 2023.
If Stephanie Lincicum and Kyle Lincicum are convicted, they could face multiple years in prison, the newspaper reported. Stephanie Lincicum is expected to be arraigned on July 10 and Kyle Lincicum has a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 14.