My husband and I have a dilemna and we are looking for some advice/opinions. Here is the situation:
We were boarding an 8-month-old brahma cross bull calf for a friend until two weeks ago when he picked him up. The calf was in fine condition when he left.
We received an email tonight that the calf was taken care of poorly while he was here and was so weak that he couldn't even stand when they got him off the trailer and he died two days later. They say this is a direct result of the care we provided (or didn't provide, they say). They are saying the following:
-The calf was in 18 inches of mud
- Not true. We keep about ten head of bulls in our roping arena and the pen off the side of the arena where the waterer is does get muddy, not 18 inches deep though, and they're not forced to stand in it by any means, they have a whole arena.
-The calf was in poor condition
- We saw no signs that the calf was sick or malnutritioned or anything. If we had, we would have done something about it.
-We lost another calf due to neglect
- We did lose a calf that same day. However, neglect certainly played no role in this. We raise rodeo bulls and one of our bulls must have hooked our calf because he had a big gash on his side and some broken ribs. We were guessing punctured lung, not mud.... That's not a result of neglect, it's just something that happens with these kind of cattle. Five years in the business and this is the first one we've lost to fighting and that's a pretty good track record.
Now here is what I saw that I believe could have contributed to the calf's death and this is the part I need the opinions on.
- The calf was loaded in the early morning hours of a very cold day. It was well below freezing and the single axle horse trailer they hauled him in had open slots at the top and no bedding was provided.
- He was hauled by himself so he had no other animal to huddle with for body heat. No bedding, no body heat......
- Since he had been in the pen with mud on him he was probably wet. Not soaked, but wet enough that it decreased his natural insulation.
- Ever drive a single axle trailer? I bet that sucker was bouncy as all get out with only one 400 pound calf in it.
- The calf had never been trailered before in his life (except from the cow pasture to the arena at weaning) and rodeo cattle are pretty high strung and stress quite easily.
Four hours later, the calf is unloaded and unable to stand. Two days later he dies....... Any thoughts on what might have caused this?
My question is, are we really to blame for this? Our friend is upset and is wanting money or cattle in exchange for this calf he lost and we don't feel that is necessary. We had already cut him a huge break on boarding his cattle here for over a year and although we try to help friends out as much as possible, we struggle to pay the feed bill for our own animals sometimes, let alone someone else's. We feel bad that he lost his calf and we don't want to jeopardize our friendship over cattle but we also don't feel obligated to compensate him for his loss.
Thoughts much appreciated
Thank you.
We were boarding an 8-month-old brahma cross bull calf for a friend until two weeks ago when he picked him up. The calf was in fine condition when he left.
We received an email tonight that the calf was taken care of poorly while he was here and was so weak that he couldn't even stand when they got him off the trailer and he died two days later. They say this is a direct result of the care we provided (or didn't provide, they say). They are saying the following:
-The calf was in 18 inches of mud
- Not true. We keep about ten head of bulls in our roping arena and the pen off the side of the arena where the waterer is does get muddy, not 18 inches deep though, and they're not forced to stand in it by any means, they have a whole arena.
-The calf was in poor condition
- We saw no signs that the calf was sick or malnutritioned or anything. If we had, we would have done something about it.
-We lost another calf due to neglect
- We did lose a calf that same day. However, neglect certainly played no role in this. We raise rodeo bulls and one of our bulls must have hooked our calf because he had a big gash on his side and some broken ribs. We were guessing punctured lung, not mud.... That's not a result of neglect, it's just something that happens with these kind of cattle. Five years in the business and this is the first one we've lost to fighting and that's a pretty good track record.
Now here is what I saw that I believe could have contributed to the calf's death and this is the part I need the opinions on.
- The calf was loaded in the early morning hours of a very cold day. It was well below freezing and the single axle horse trailer they hauled him in had open slots at the top and no bedding was provided.
- He was hauled by himself so he had no other animal to huddle with for body heat. No bedding, no body heat......
- Since he had been in the pen with mud on him he was probably wet. Not soaked, but wet enough that it decreased his natural insulation.
- Ever drive a single axle trailer? I bet that sucker was bouncy as all get out with only one 400 pound calf in it.
- The calf had never been trailered before in his life (except from the cow pasture to the arena at weaning) and rodeo cattle are pretty high strung and stress quite easily.
Four hours later, the calf is unloaded and unable to stand. Two days later he dies....... Any thoughts on what might have caused this?
My question is, are we really to blame for this? Our friend is upset and is wanting money or cattle in exchange for this calf he lost and we don't feel that is necessary. We had already cut him a huge break on boarding his cattle here for over a year and although we try to help friends out as much as possible, we struggle to pay the feed bill for our own animals sometimes, let alone someone else's. We feel bad that he lost his calf and we don't want to jeopardize our friendship over cattle but we also don't feel obligated to compensate him for his loss.
Thoughts much appreciated
Thank you.
