Man faces 7 years jail term for starving cows

A Wisconsin man Joshua Litza is likely to serve up to seven and a
half years in prison if convicted on animal cruelty charges after police
found four dead cows on his farm and other emaciated animals with bones
jutting from their flanks.

Joshua Litza abandoned the family farm

Litza, 19, is set to appear in court on April 8 after he was arrested
on Friday and charged with two counts of intentionally failing to
provide food to animals and four counts of failing to timely dispose of
an animal carcass after officials say he neglected his father’s cattle
that he was supposed to be tending to.

According to The Wausau Daily Herald, a Marathon County sheriff’s
deputy was responding to a call of cattle blocking a roadway in the town
of Norrie.

Once there, the officer reportedly noticed that some of the cows were so thin that their bones were protruding.

He also discovered four carcasses of dead cows.

Authorities eventually found out that the animals belonged to Litza,
who was supposed to be caring for them while his father, 57-year-old
John Litza, was away.

The complaint stated that Litza told officers he fed the cows but an
investigation of the farm did not show “any recent signs of feeding or
watering.”

Litza had been charged in September with three counts of possession
of child pornography and three counts of exposing a child to harmful
materials.