Reward offered in shooting of 14 cattle in ND

HANKINSON, N.D. (AP) — The North Dakota Stockmen's Association is offering a $1,000 reward for information that helps authorities track down the person or people who shot and killed 14 cattle in a pasture in the southeastern part of the state.

The state's largest rancher group can't recall a similar case involving the killing of so many cattle at once, Stockmen's Executive Vice President Julie Ellingson told The Forum newspaper.

“Livestock producers devote their lives, their livelihoods to the cattle; they work hard to care for the animals,” she said. “It's heartbreaking anytime you lose even one. It's hard to imagine how they must feel when something of this magnitude happens.”

The 13 cows and a calf belonging to David Kluge, of Hankinson, were killed late last week, according to authorities. The animals were valued at about $30,000, and Kluge said the loss goes beyond money.

“We've got more than 120 years of breeding here,” he said. “You can't buy that, and we've lost them.”

Authorities are investigating the case as criminal mischief but say it might not have been a random incident. They are looking into a possible link between the shooting of the cattle and the shooting last December of a donkey owned by Kluge, Richland County Sheriff Larry Leshovsky said.

On Monday night, Kluge was working to keep the calves of the cows that died healthy.

“It's been chaotic,” he said. “I'm just trying to keep myself together and keep up with them.”

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