Comment on Animals seized from Sidney farmer with past animal offenses

Veterinarians are caring for 28 malnourished and sick animals that state officials seized from a Sidney farmer who has been cited in the past for animal-related offenses. The 23 goats, four calves and a chicken were taken from Mark Gould’s Drummond Avenue property on Tuesday after four state humane agents, with help from state police and Animal Control Officer Chris Martinez, searched the farm, said Liam Hughes, director of the Animal Welfare Program in the Department of Agriculture Conservation and Forestry. “Most of them were malnourished or had physical ailments that needed to be seen by veterinarians,” Hughes said Thursday. Gould has a history of animal-related offenses, including being investigated in April for reports that he left dead livestock where they lay on the farm grounds. In 2011 and again last summer, he was charged with animal trespassing for allowing his goats to wander onto neighbors’ land and Interstate 95.