Suspicious lesions and syringe marks alone were enough to disqualify 18 lambs at January’s National Western Stock Show, officials said Friday.
Subsequent tests showed the lambs were injected with a form of irritant that caused the muscles in the back and the hind legs to bulk up.
“Those marks alone were enough for disqualification,” said Andrew Low, the stock show’s attorney. “There was an irritating substance injected, and (it) caused the tissues to swell due to inflammation.”
The injection marks on the lambs were made one to three weeks before the stock show, Low said.
“Some had additional injections that were clearly older,” he said. Tests conducted at Colorado State University have not determined what substances were injected, and lab officials said they may never be able to pinpoint which drugs were used.
While the lambs’ muscle tissues have been preserved at CSU, the animals’ carcasses were burned because of a shortage of freezer space, according to James Goodrich, a pathologist for the stock show.
The 18 lambs sold at the stock show auction for a total of $101,500, but were disqualified after stock show officials began investigating rumors of livestock tampering in February.
The Denver district attorney’s office is investigating charges including tampering, animal cruelty and theft.
The exhibitors under investigation range in age from 9 to 19, and the minors would face juvenile charges, said DA spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough.
Thirteen of the disqualified exhibitors are Oklahomans, and rumors have swirled that there was a conspiracy among a tightknit group of lamb breeders who share illegal drugging techniques – a process known in the lamb-showing world as “needling.”
A week after the show, officials received a tip from someone in Texas, angry about the use of drugs in livestock competition, who suggested the carcasses be examined for injection marks, said Kati Anderson, spokeswoman for the stock show.
Tommy Sims, an attorney representing one of the exhibitors whose animal was disqualified – 17-year-old Kaylee Turner of Elgin, Okla.- said he was upset that the carcasses were no longer available for inspection.
Turner’s lamb won reserve champion and fetched $21,000 at the show’s auction. Turner, who could not be reached for comment, comes from a family of champion-lamb exhibitors and maintains that her prize winner was clean before the stock show, Sims said. Sims said a campaign is underway among Oklahoma exhibitors to boycott next year’s stock show.
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
