Attorney General William Tong announced on Friday that the state has moved for permanent custody of 65 injured and neglected goats seized from a Redding property earlier this month.

News 12 reported on March 10 that the Department of Agriculture executed a search and seizure warrant at 147 Cross Highway.

Nancy Burton, who owns the property, was arrested and charged with animal cruelty. Her case is ongoing in Danbury Superior Court.

According to the attorney general, authorities discovered “between 40-50 dead goats in multiple locations of the property in various stages of decomposition in plastic bags, piled underneath a tarp, inside trash containers, and partially buried.” 

“One recently deceased goat was found in a shelter, with straw around its hooves and displaced in a semi-circle pattern carved into the ground, indicating that the animal had been struggling for a significant amount of time before expiring.”

In October 2020, the Department of Agriculture says it received a complaint about injured goats and general care issues on the property. Previous complaints about the same property date back to 2017 regarding roaming goats and the number of goats on the property.

State Animal Control and Redding Animal Control officers made numerous visits to the property and met with the property owner to further assess and resolve the situation, officials say.

Based on citizen complaints and surveillance that allegedly revealed animal welfare concerns, including mobility issues due to untrimmed hooves, excessive manure, lack of sufficient water and structures in poor condition that did not provide adequate protection from the weather, the Department of Agriculture was granted a search and seizure warrant for the goats.

Neighbors told News 12 that Burton has been keeping dozens of goats for over five years. Burton's neighbors say the goats roam freely on Burton's property and sometimes also go on to other people's property to eat and defecate.