OCEANSIDE – When Nan DiGiovanni arrived at her Oceanside tool company yesterday morning, she discovered a mess of blood and flesh under a thick plastic sheet on the sidewalk.
“My biggest fear was that it was a person,” DiGiovanni said.
She called the police.
Her husband, Scotty Penn, spotted an animal tail and the couple realized they had discovered the skin and some remains of a cow or steer.
“Where would you get a cow around here?” said DiGiovanni, general manager of Proline Concrete Tools in the city's industrial center, a warren of manufacturing plants, warehouses and other businesses between Oceanside Boulevard and the Sprinter railroad tracks.
Oceanside police turned the case over to the North County Humane Society to investigate.
Julie Bank, the Humane Society's executive director, said there was no carcass, just skin and a trash bag full of intestines. There was also an empty box that once held a stone for sharpening a knife, she said.
“We've never dealt with dead cows,” said Bank, noting Oceanside has a law against owning cows.
The Humane Society investigates animal cruelty cases, and Bank said yesterday she's not sure yet what crime, if any, was committed.
“You have to determine who the person is who killed the cow, and was he authorized to kill the cow,” Bank said. “If someone stole it and killed it, that could be theft and cruelty.”
Bank said that if the owner slaughtered the animal, “it has to be slaughtered humanely and quickly. I'd like to know if that occurred.”
She said it's not clear how the animal was killed, and the remains appear to have been dumped.
DiGiovanni theorized that someone brought the remains to the industrial park hoping to find a large Dumpster. But the Dumpsters are locked behind gates, though, so the person just left the remains on the sidewalk, she surmised.
Bank said she's working with the state Department of Agriculture to establish the animal's owner. The skin included an ear tag, she said, but she needs the animal's brand and she hasn't found that. She says it may have been cut away intentionally.
She's pretty sure the animal didn't start out in Oceanside's industrial center.
“It's not normal for a cow to be wandering in a parking lot in Oceanside,” she said.
Most crimes involving livestock and agriculture are handled by the Sheriff's Department, which has jurisdiction in many of the county's rural areas.
Sheriff's Lt. Mike Munsey said he didn't have statistics, but he's worked for the department for more than 20 years and this was a first.
“I have not heard of that,” Munsey said. “I've never heard of cattle rustling.”
Bank asks that anyone with more information about the incident contact the humane society at (760) 757-4357.
Lola Sherman: (760) 476-8241; lola.sherman@uniontrib.com
