Jury finds alpaca ranch owner guilty of neglect

A Falls City alpaca ranch owner was found guilty Thursday on two felony and 16 misdemeanor charges of animal neglect that came to light in an investigation that began a year ago.

The jury verdict ended the three-day trial against Robert Silver, co-owner of Jocelyn's Alpaca Ranch, a 20-acre property on Parry Road where authorities seized 175 malnourished and dying alpacas.

Silver and his wife Jocelyn, co-owner of the ranch, were cited for animal neglect charges after Polk County deputies responded to complaints from neighbors about the herd's living conditions on the property.

Deputies and veterinarians visited the ranch twice in December 2013 and found that the entire herd had not received basic care. Jake Kamins, animal cruelty deputy district attorney for the state of Oregon, said the first time they went, they hauled away 17 dead alpacas. The second time they went, they took 41 dead alpacas off the property. The rest were sent to the College of Veterinary Medicine at Oregon State University for emergency care.

Kamins, who was brought on as a prosecutor in the case through a grant for the Polk County District Attorney's Office, accompanied the deputies when they served the warrants at Jocelyn's Alpaca Ranch.

"This is about as bad as it gets," Kamins said after the hearing. "I saw it firsthand. It's really the first time I've seen these kind of conditions.

"It was shocking. It was jaw-dropping."

The court heard from a number of witnesses over the course of two days, including deputies and veterinarians. As made clear when Polk County Circuit Judge Norman Hill polled them, the 13 people on the jury were unanimous in their decision to convict Silver, who was taken into custody in handcuffs after the verdict was read.

Jocelyn Silver was present in court but declined to answer questions. She pleaded guilty and was convicted of one count of first-degree neglect and one count of second-degree neglect in June. She received three years of supervised probation along with restitution fees of more than $15,000, according to online court records.

Robert Silver is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 23 and will remain in custody until then. Kamins said that to his knowledge, this is the first felony animal neglect case that has gone to trial since the legislature enacted Senate Bill 6 in August 2013. The bill increased punishment for first-degree animal neglect.

"They made it a felony to commit neglect on a certain amount of animals," Kamins said.

Polk County District Attorney Aaron Felton said the public should not be surprised by cases like this, now that offenders are being punished more seriously.

"We're holding offenders strongly accountable in this fashion," Felton said.

Silver's defense attorney Timothy Park said he wasn't surprised by the verdict.

"It's a tragic situation for the animals," Park said. "Regardless of whether he was found guilty, that wouldn't change."

"I'm very grateful to the jury for their thorough consideration of the evidence," Kamins said. "At the end of the day it was overwhelming evidence of neglect."

jdewitt@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6714 or follow on Twitter.com @Joce_DeWitt

What's next

Robert Silver is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 23 at 9:15 a.m.