'How could you not feed them?': Couple charged in deaths of 200 goats in Lafayette County
A Lafayette County couple has been charged with dozens of criminal counts including the mistreatment of animals after authorities discovered roughly 200 dead goats on a farm.
Kyle Lincicum, 30, and Stephanie Lincicum, 33, who live in South Wayne, have each been charged with 20 felony counts of mistreatment of animals, 20 misdemeanor counts of failure to provide proper food and drink to confined animals, five counts of failure to timely dispose a carcass, one count of theft and one count transferring personal property exceeding $10,000.
If convicted, they each face several years in prison.
According to the criminal complaint filed in May, Lafayette County Sheriff's Office got a call from the Farm Service Agency in March about nearly 200 dead goats on a farm in Seymour Township.
Deputies were initially dispatched to the property and found multiple dead goats, but no one was home.
Deputies then called Kyle Lincicum and asked about the dead goats. He told them "I have no idea what it was."
According to the complaint, Kyle Lincicum said the goats started dying the previous month and they had called a veterinarian in the past but not much changed.
Deputies talked to the Elizabeth Holcomb, the veterinarian who had been called by the Lincicums, who told them she went to the farm in February 2021 for goats dying from pneumonia and in September 2022 because a goat had parasites.
She had not been called to the farm during 2023.
Witnesses told deputies there was no hay or feed on the farm and there were three pens, each with dozens of dead goats in them.
Eventually deputies were able to get onto the property with a veterinarian, where they encountered more dead goats. While on the property, deputies talked with Stephanie Lincicum and when asked if she was feeding the goats enough, she responded:
"I honestly couldn't tell you, because the amount that I was supposed to feed them was always different, so probably not."
Stephanie Lincicum took deputies to where they stored the hay and there were only a few slices of a big square bale. Deputies noticed the hay had large amounts of mold and snow around it.
In an interview with deputies in April, Kyle Lincicum told them the goats had not had any grain all year.
The farm was not originally owned by the Lincicums and was owned by a different person referred to in the complaint as "Victim 1" who knew them from working on a different farm.
According to interviews done by deputies, Victim 1 told law enforcement they were supposed to split the costs of the farm with the Lincicums and eventually the Lincicums would buy the farm from Victim 1.
But that didn't happen.
From the time the Lincicums started working on the farm in 2020, they sold dozens of goats for a net profit of $35,907, according to records from the Fennimore Livestock Exchange mentioned in the complaint.
About 265 goats had been sold between December 2020 and March 2023. None of the profits were shared with Victim 1.
"How can you not feed them when you have almost $40,000?" Victim 1 told deputies. "Here I am with $16 to my name and they just ... clean house."
On Monday, Stephanie Lincicums waived her right to a preliminary hearing. She is scheduled to be arraigned on July 10.
Also on Monday, Kyle Lincicum made his initial appearance from the Lafayette County Jail. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for July 14.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Couple charged in deaths of goats on farm in Darlington, Wisconsin
