Seth Daniel Snook, 35, owner of Snook Brook Farms, entered into an agreement – technically not a plea – Tuesday that dismisses three counts of felony animal cruelty, and reduces two other counts to misdemeanors that will be dismissed if he keeps a clean record.
Prosecutors charged Snook in April with starving livestock at the family farm at 6804 Kickerville Road, northwest of Ferndale. He told an animal control officer from the Whatcom Humane Society that he didn’t have the money to feed his cows. His family had fallen on hard times when Snook’s wife underwent a craniotomy in 2016, according to the defense.
At least 28 animals were starved or starving to death at Snook’s farm, according to the reports from animal control. One officer noted carcasses of cows littered the farm, and she saw “shallow mass graves everywhere she walked.”
Snook was charged with felony animal cruelty toward the pig and four specific cows. The cows were described as skeletal and sickly, emaciated and lethargic, with dull eyes. A veterinarian examined the five animals and graded each as the worst possible condition on a 1 to 5 scale: It appeared they had been neglected for about six months.
Snook’s defense has countered that the humane society’s reports were highly misleading; that the pig and one cow didn’t belong to him; and the cows were not being starved, but were at a point in the so-called “drying” period when dairy cows look slimmest. Snook’s attorney has filed a claim of damages against Whatcom County and the humane society for defamation, among other alleged injustices.
Charging papers say other farmers offered to help Snook sell the cows, and he accepted, but did not follow through. However, text messages reprinted in court filings by the defense show Snook made a deal with animal control on April 17 to take his “girls,” as he called the cows, to the dairy auction in two days, not to the beef auction where they would become “fast food.” A warrant to remove the cows was carried out at Snook’s farm April 18. Two cows were euthanized by gunshot at the farm that night at the humane society’s direction, according to a defense motion filed in court last week.
Snook, whose family makes artisan cheese under the brand Pleasant Valley Dairy, was booked into jail May 12. He was released minutes later with no bail required, jail records show. As he awaited trial many of the cows were euthanized.
As it turned out the six cows were alive. Snook will get those cows back, in the deal he entered into Tuesday afternoon.
Puff piece on Pleasant Valley Dairy before we found out they starve their animals to death
Making cheese at Pleasant Valley Dairy is a family affair. Joyce Snook makes the cheese, her son, Seth, oversees the dairy and her daughter, Mattie, runs the farm store. Over the years, they’ve all taken their turns at making cheese, Mattie said, so not a day of production is missed if someone is ill.
Joyce first learned how to make cheese from her father, who started the dairy farm in 1963 and began making cheese about ten years after that.
“They made the first batch in the kitchen,” Joyce said.
The farm has since grown to include 60 cows that produce enough milk to sell to Darigold and make about 130 pounds of cheese a day. And the farm now produces eight different cheeses: six varieties of gouda, a farmstead cheese, and mutschli, which is similar to Swiss cheese.
From the beginning, the goal has been to make wholesome cheese from the highest quality milk, Joyce said. For that reason, Pleasant Valley uses raw milk – meaning it hasn’t been pasteurized – to make its cheese, he said.
So his excuse is that his wife had medical issues. So where was his mother Joyce Snook? Where was his sister Mattie Snook? Why didn't they take control and sell off these animals instead of slowly starving them to death?
Remaining small and family-operated is another important goal for the dairy, Snook said. Pleasant Valley cheese is only available locally, and much of it is sold through its farm store.
“We don’t want to send a whole batch of cheese to California just because a few people down there want it,” Snook said, referencing to the amount of fuel it takes to deliver a few pounds of cheese.
Basically, her motto is that cheese produced here should be enjoyed here.
(The Bellingham Herald - July 12, 2017)
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