IMNAHA — The Bob Dean Oregon Ranch in Imnaha is no longer in the cattle business, nor is it even a property of Bob Dean’s, according to a local livestock industry official.

Cynthia Warnock, treasurer of the Wallowa County Stockgrowers, said Thursday, Oct. 3, that Dean sold his cattle about two years ago and sold the ranch last winter.

The sale helps fulfill an agreement the Georgia businessman signed in April to avoid prosecution for second-degree animal neglect — failing to provide minimum care — a felony, said Jake Kamins, an animal cruelty resource prosecutor with the state Attorney General’s Office.

Kamins said Sept. 17 that the state became involved in the case after then-Wallowa County Sheriff Joel Fish began an investigation into complaints lodged when Dean cattle and calves were caught in a heavy snowstorm in late 2021 after not being brought in from summer pasture in time. Many cattle and their calves died, either by freezing or falling prey to wolves; Kamins was uncertain about the precise number.

Fish launched the investigation along with District Attorney Rebecca Frolander. The district attorney referred the case to Kamins, who said animal cruelty can be charged as a misdemeanor with a two-year statute of limitations or as a felony with a three-year statute of limitations.

In the agreement, Bob Dean and his wife, Karen, waived the statute of limitations unless other provisions of the agreement were not met.

The agreement also required Dean to issue a letter of apology for the incident. Dean’s health issues delayed the release of the letter, which the Chieftain obtained on Monday, Oct. 6.

“I write today to give my apology to — and seek forgiveness from — the Wallowa Community for acts/or omissions relating to animals in the custody of Dean Oregon Ranches, LLC, which I formerly owned,” Dean wrote in the letter, dated Oct. 2.

“I have learned a great deal from this experience,” Dean wrote. “The primary lesson I learned is that, as an absentee landowner, I and my business had a non-delegable duty to monitor the conduct of employees and other to ensure that animals were handled in accordance with the law.”

The full text of the letter is attached to the online version of this story.

Dean’s attorney, Stephen Katz of Atlanta, declined to comment on the settlement on Dean’s behalf.

“Mr. Dean is not well and, accordingly, must decline your invitation to respond to your list of questions or provide a statement to you,” Katz said in an email Sept. 26.

The same day, Joseph Law Firm in La Grande, which Dean had retained to handle the case about his ranch locally, gave much the same answer.

“I have no information to provide you,” a spokeswoman said several times.

Kamins said he was unsure if Dean’s ranch was still in operation.

“If it is, per our agreement, Bob Dean is to have no involvement in animal-care decision-making,” he said.

In the letter, Dean confirmed that he has sold his Oregon ranch, “and neither I nor any of my businesses purchase, sell, raise, breed or care for livestock, nor will we do so in the future.”

Other provisions of the agreement include a donation of $5,000 to Wallowa Resources, a local nonprofit agency, and to make any restitution required. Kamins said those provisions have been met. The donation to Wallowa Resources has not been directed toward any specific purpose, he said.

At the time of the alleged cattle neglect, local ranchers helped with the Dean cattle, taking feed to them on snowmobiles or rescuing calves and caring for them at their ranches.

Tom Birkmaier, who was then president of the Wallowa County Stockgrowers, said in January 2022 that some of the mother cows “literally milked themselves to death in an attempt to provide for their calves.”

Birkmaier has said that he and other Wallowa County stockgrowers have considered that winter’s problems with snowbound cattle a “wake-up call” and are making sure their cattle safely cared for. He said they don’t want a reputation for not caring for their cattle.