WASHINGTON, D.C. – February 6, 2009 – (RealEstateRama) – U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate reports of animal neglect and abuse at a ranch in North Dakota that is owned by a millionaire real estate developer from Florida.
Dorgan sent a letter today to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asking for an investigation of the incident. Press reports have indicated that hundreds of bison – many of them bearing evidence of starvation and illness – escaped from a sprawling ranch in south-central North Dakota and north-central South Dakota. The ranch is owned by Maurice Wilder, a resident of Clearwater, Fla., who owns hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural land and has collected more than $3 million in farm subsidies.
Dorgan has also asked USDA to have its Animal Plant Health Inspection Service Animal Care division look into the matter.
