By JOEL ELLIOTT
Staff Writer

SIDNEY — State trespass law allows Mark Gould 12 hours to track down a wayward cow when it leaves the shelter of the fold in search of greener pastures on the other side of Drummond Road.

But it’s the times when Gould’s remaining ninety-and-nine start heading for I-95 that stress animal-control officer Kathleen Ross.

“My scariest moment was having about a dozen cows on the interstate at about 12 at night, and just trying to keep them off,” she said. “It’s a scary thought to envision a family driving down the interstate in a van and hitting them.”

That was in the summer of 2006, and it was hardly an isolated incident.

Neighbors and motorists have complained about Gould’s escaping cows for years, but in recent months Ross has begun receiving calls on a weekly basis.

Found milking his cows just after noon one day earlier this week, Gould, wearing manure-caked rubber boots and with wild gray hair spilling around his collar, remarked on the complaints with a blend of gregariousness and suspicion. The state’s concerns about public safety are a ruse to conceal its true motive, which, according to Gould, is to shut him down because of his unsightly buildings.

“Mrs. Baldacci said she wanted to get rid of every ugly building on the interstate. Well — ?” he said, gesturing toward the far end of the barn.

Three-quarters of the barn’s roof has caved in, and piles of plywood and stacks of pallets cover his yard. And that’s not all that’s piled in the yard. Cow manure speckles the grass, the driveway, and even the floor of Gould’s garage that he uses for an entryway to his house. Rising costs of fuel and feed make it impossible for him to repair the structures, Gould said.

Two visitors exited the dairy barn to see a large sedan bounding up the rutted driveway. A cloud of dust caught up to the vehicle as the driver nosed up to box in their car.

“Are you with the state?” he thundered.

When assured that they weren’t, he introduced himself as George Gould, father of the dairy farmer.

Munching on a sandwich and taking an occasional swig from a mostly empty bottle of Miller Genuine Draft that rested in his center console cup holder, the elder Gould said his son has had a tough run of it.

“After the divorce, he pretty much got cleaned out,” he said. He works hard to keep up, he said, “but the state has it in for him.”

Economic challenges face all farms in the country, especially small ones in Maine like Gould’s, according to Julie-Marie Bickford, executive director of the Maine Dairy Industry Association.

“The small farmer is not getting enough to cover costs,” she said. “It used to be, we had milk delivered every day to your door, but now, you have these giant national and international corporations.”

Bickford said she is familiar with the complaints against Gould, who she described as being “very knowledgeable, very well-read, but also a very unique individual,” she was reluctant to comment on the situation.

“While I think that all farms are struggling, I think some farms have been more adept at juggling and making decisions that put them in a stronger position to weather the changes,” she said.

Rather than purchase and install his own fence, Gould relies on a state-owned metal fence to keep his cows off of the interstate. Trees have fallen across the fence, and, from I-95 itself, it appeared that one had flattened the barrier nearly to the ground.

“It’s not designed to contain livestock,” Maine Department of Transportation Spokesman Mark Latti said of the fence. “If trees fall on it, they can cause holes, but we do repair them as they are reported.”

Latti said it is not the state’s responsibility to corral Gould’s cows. Regardless, state police, Kennebec Sheriff’s deputies and even neighbors have all had to help in order to prevent collisions on the road.

“I feel bad, because he had some young heifers out on the road, and, had we not seen them, we would have hit and killed them,” neighbor Debbie Patterson said.
Patterson, who drives a massive pickup truck, said that on one occasion she left her young child at her house in the middle of the night in order to help sheriff’s deputies round up four cows near her house. Even more concerning to her is the fact that cows must cross an overpass to get to her house, Patterson said.

Another resident who drives past Gould’s farm every day said cows in the road present a serious hazard.

“They were out just this morning,” Diane White said. “It could be me hitting those cows and getting killed, or it could be my son.”

Gould denies that his cows have gotten onto the highway more recently than a decade ago, and then only because a moose was chasing them, while Ross said that Gould’s cows have gotten onto the highway “too many times to count.”

Maine Attorney General’s Office, State Veterinarian Don Hoenig and local animal control officers are trying to come up with a way to prod Gould into keeping his animals on the right side of the fence.

State law regarding trespass gives Gould and other farmers 12 hours to retrieve errant animals. Specifically because of complaints surrounding Gould’s farms, the various offices successfully lobbied for the law to be amended to include a clause that required immediate action from the owner if an animal appeared to present an imminent threat to public safety, Ross said.

That change went into effect last year, but there seems to be no way to force Gould to repair his fences to prevent escapes before they happen, Hoenig said.
“We’re kind of in a difficult place,” he said. “The frustration from our side is that he continues to let it happen.”

Joel Elliott — 861-9252
jelliott@centralmaine.com