Stillwater, Okla. – At least three exhibitors disqualified by the National Western Stock Show for allegedly injecting lambs with an unknown substance have been wrongly accused, according to an Oklahoma veterinary expert.
Dr. Bill Johnson, director of the Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Oklahoma State University, reviewed pathology reports on the disqualified lambs and determined that needle marks in some lambs were found in areas where vaccinations are given or antibiotics injected, such as the neck and hindquarters.
“I’d like to stress that so far, what I’ve seen, some of these lambs did not belong with a negative label,” Johnson said.
The stock show announced last week that 18 lambs from 17 competitors – 13 from Oklahoma – had been injected with a substance that caused inflammation and swelling of tissue, making the animals appear more muscular. Needle marks were found along the animals’ spines and on the hind legs.
Veterinarians at Colorado State University in Fort Collins conducted tests after stock-show officials were tipped to possible tampering.
Pat Grant, president and chief executive of the stock show, said he would talk with CSU and stock-show veterinarians about Johnson’s conclusion.
“We want to be clear and correct in the animals that we have disqualified,” Grant said. “We have acted on the basis of the pathology reports and the technical expertise we’ve heard and that we’ve received.”
The disqualifications were made after veterinarians concluded “no good normal veterinary purpose was served by these injections,” Grant said.
“We have a lot of confidence in the CSU people, but I don’t want to say that we will not look at whatever additional information or insight that somebody has. … We want to reach the right conclusion about this, and we believe we have.”
The stock show provided pathology reports to exhibitors who requested copies. Johnson reviewed the reports at the request of Oklahoma families.
Johnson said CSU “did a very good job,” but he believes that when the words “injection site” appeared in the reports, they may have been “over-interpreted” by stock-show officials.
Some reports do support the cheating finding, Johnson said.
Needle marks on the carcasses of some lambs were in places “that would be very difficult for a realistic person to understand why those puncture sites are there,” he said.
Asked whether the reports, which he would not release, precisely state the location of needle marks, Johnson said: “Not fully. The material that we have, they do not, and that would be critical.”
Dr. Barb Powers, director of the diagnostic lab at CSU, said the injection sites were documented in all the cases, and “it is up to the stock show to decide who they want to disqualify or not.”
She said that pathologists commonly document their work with video and digital images, which would not routinely be attached to the report, but said addenda to the report may be added should additional information become available.
CSU pathologists have not yet determined what type of substance was allegedly injected into the animals.
Blake Newcomb, whose sons Baylor, 17, and Cooper, 14, were disqualified, said he received the pathology reports for his sons’ animals and thinks it’s possible some exhibitors were wrongly accused. “Baylor’s, his is pretty questionable, but Cooper’s is not.”
Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney’s office, said an investigation that could result in charges of tampering with livestock, cruelty to animals, theft and conspiracy is still underway.
Stock-show officials have withheld money paid for the lambs auctioned at this year’s competition, Grant said.
In Oklahoma, state Rep. Dale DeWitt, chairman of the House Agriculture & Rural Development Committee, said a committee has been formed to review the reports from the stock show and to re-evaluate procedures in place in Oklahoma.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
