Dead livestock reported floating down Michigan river, prompting investigation

VAN BUREN COUNTY, MI -- The Paw Paw River is usually a scenic float, where paddlers can see large birds soaring and nesting above.

“That stretch is beautiful because it’s a place where all the blue herons gather together,” kayaker Brian Hartman told MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette. “It’s like ‘Jurassic Park.’”

But while going down the river Sunday, April 14, the picturesque scene turned grotesque, he said, as the group came upon floating dead animals.

Two dead calves and a dead goat were floating in the river, hung up on branches on the side of the water, Hartman said.

The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office received a report of the dead animals in the river on Monday and sent deputies to look for them twice, Lt. Tony Evans said, but they found nothing as of Tuesday afternoon.

MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette has been unable to independently verify the sighting outside of Hartman’s account. Hartman said he is confident in his identification of the dead animals, noting the paddlers saw the face of a calf as they looked at it to try to identify it.

“It’s disturbing in all sorts of manners to see that,” Hartman said. An 8-year-old was among those who saw the scene.

The dead animals were observed near the bridge at 48th Avenue, Hartman said, where he and a few others got into the river on their kayaks Sunday.

He wonders if someone could have dumped them off from the bridge. Though the paddlers did not have contact with the water, Hartman said they are concerned with the possibility the animals could have had some disease.

“Calves are not cheap. They’re worth a lot of money,” he said. “Cows and goats are usually very robust animals. They usually don’t just die.

“Who in the heck would have the nerve enough to throw them off a bridge into the river?”

After coming upon the dead animals, it dampened the mood of the float, which is usually a “great escape,” Hartman said.

He reported the incident to the sheriff’s office and other local officials, he said, and he has spoken to officials from the sheriff’s office about it.

Gabriel Francisco of the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service and the Van Buren County Conservation District said he received a photograph from a concerned citizen that appears to be legitimate, he said. It appeared the animals had been in the river for some time, Francisco said.

There is a farmer with calves in that area, and the county agency checked with the farmer while looking into reports from citizens. The farm confirmed the animals were not theirs, Francisco said.

“They went out there and tried to find them,” Francisco said, and they were unsuccessful.

“They definitely had floated down the river from somewhere else,” he said. Francisco also received two phone calls reporting the dead animals in the water, he said.

Paw Paw River aerial view — An overhead view of the Paw Paw River near 48th Avenue in Van Buren County, where dead animals were found, according to a kayaker.(Google Maps)

Monday, the day after the disturbing find, Hartman and the same group of paddlers were out again, but this time on a different waterway.

He spoke with a reporter by phone while sitting in his kayak on the water Monday afternoon.

Another kayaker told him there was one additional dead calf observed floating on the Paw Paw River Sunday, Hartman said, though he did not see it himself.

He was working to help police find the exact location and plans to revisit the spot.

MLive has reached out to the Van Buren County Health and Community Services Department, the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE), the county drain commissioner and other agencies seeking information. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Department of Agriculture and Rural Development referred questions to local authorities.

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