Animals Killed In Feud Between Neighbors Man Accused Of Forcing Livestock To Forage

A feud is brewing in Elk, Wash.

The neighbor vs. neighbor accusations are straight from a B-grade horror film. Bloody animal carcasses dumped inside homes. Goats eaten alive by dogs. Dead kittens left at the end of driveways.

Some neighbors accuse another of not feeding his animals, causing them to run wild in search of food, damaging property and attacking other animals.

The animal owner says his neighbors are killing the livestock to force his family to move.

“Practically everything you can name that makes neighbors not like neighbors is going on up there,” said Bob Franzen, a Spokane County animal control officer.

The feud began about three years ago, just after Alfred Patrick Lee Libby, 24, and his family moved in at N40319 Madison Road.

Authorities became involved in August last year, when neighbor Renee Barry called animal control to Libby’s home. She said that Libby’s goats hadn’t been fed or watered in days.

Libby said his animals might have gone for a short time without food because he got a bad load of hay that wasn’t fit to feed them. But he insisted he’s never mistreated his animals.

Officers found three emaciated baby goats in a pen, said Marianne Niemczyk, county animal control director.

“I held one in my arms and it was like a skeleton, just skin over bones,” she said. “It couldn’t stand up.”

One kid was “filled with parasites,” Niemczyk said. She called a veterinarian and the baby goat was sent to an animal hospital.

Animal control officers found seven other starving goats in a small pen. The goats had stripped the bark from all trees within reach, Niemczyk said.

“(The goats) just screamed when we came,” she said. “You know how they cry out?”

Animal control officers cited Libby for confining his animals without food and water for a 24-hour period.

The case will be dismissed in November if Libby commits no similar offenses, court documents show.

Two months later, neighbor Jeff Olstad shot and killed one of Libby’s pigs. It was running wild, Olstad said, and damaged heating ducts and phone lines beneath his mobile home.

After Olstad shot the pig, the Libbys tried to press charges. They said the pig, which was a household pet, was killed while inside the house, hurting no one.

No charges were filed. Evidence showed that Olstad was protecting his property, not maliciously attacking the pig, said sheriff’s Lt. Dick Lovejoy.

Neighbors fear Libby’s animals, which they claimed have stolen grain and killed pets - including two kittens.

On July 26, one of the goats was being eaten alive by Libby’s dogs, neighbors and animal control officers said.

Brenda Olstad heard a commotion about 4:45 a.m. and saw the dogs attacking a goat. The dogs had chewed off portions of the goat’s hind legs before deputies advised her, over the telephone, to shoot the dogs, she said.

The dogs ran when the Olstads approached with a gun, Jeff Olstad said. He shot the goat to “put it out of its misery.”

“Jeff was the one with the gun at the time, but I would have done the same thing,” said neighbor Boyd Barry.

Said animal control’s Franzen: “It’s good that they killed the goat. (The dogs) were having a meal.”

Paula White, a friend of the Libbys, accused the Olstads and Barrys of killing animals maliciously, not out of necessity. She said someone cut off the head of one Libby dog and left the carcass in the Libbys’ trailer.

Boyd and Renee Barry live across the street and own a 40-acre exotic animal farm. They sell rheas and emus, both flightless birds, and hedgehogs and sugar gliders, a type of flying squirrel.

Renee Barry accused the Libby dogs of killing two of their birds, worth $40,000.

To protect their property and animals, the Barrys have killed four or five of the Libbys’ dogs, they said.

“If you had a business and someone tried to trash it, wouldn’t you do something to protect it?” Renee Barry said. The Barrys said every time they kill one of the Libbys’ dogs, the Libbys bring home new ones.

Renee Barry fears retaliation and now stays home “24 hours a day,” or makes sure someone is there to protect their animals.

White insisted people are terrorizing the Libbys because “the upkeep of the property is not up to their standards.” There are old cars, auto parts and kids’ toys scattered about, she said.

The Barrys said they just want to be left alone.

“It’s a fiasco,” said Lt. Lovejoy.

Four civil infractions - two for having a dog at large and two for unlicensed dogs - were filed against Libby on July 26, after the goat was shot.

Zoning inspectors have been to the Libby home five times since June last year. Health officials have been there at least twice in the past year. Animal control officers have received numerous complaints and visited repeatedly, as have sheriff’s deputies.

The Libbys violated zoning regulations by having used cars and household items on their property in June last year. After a warning, they corrected the problem, inspectors said.

But the file was reopened in March this year when new complaints were filed, said planner Louis Webster.

Libby said he is a mechanic and insisted he’s never had more than 10 or 15 used cars on his property.

Webster found old cars and “used household items” strewn about when he inspected the property on July 19. But he’s given the Libbys extensions because they’ve been “making progress” toward compliance with zoning laws.

“We’re winning,” Webster said. “We’re getting what we need to have.”

Neighbors disagree. They don’t understand why they have to live near the disarray of the Libbys’ property.

“It stinks to high heaven,” said Brenda Olstad.

Animal Control’s Franzen said the neighbors have legitimate complaints, but officials can do only so much.

“I can only charge Libby with what I have grounds to charge him with, and the people want more than that,” he said. “They want us to get him out of the neighborhood. We can’t.”