WALLOWA COUNTY — A ranching couple who left their cattle out in a snowstorm to die has agreed to no longer operate a livestock business in Oregon in a deal with the state justice department.

Jacob Kamins, animal cruelty resource prosecutor with the Criminal Justice Division of the Oregon Department of Justice, said Tuesday that Bob Dean has signed an agreement to avoid felony prosecution for second-degree animal neglect — failing to provide minimum care.

The case stems from an incident in December 2021 and January 2022 when cattle from the Bob Dean Oregon Ranch of Imnaha were caught in a particularly heavy snowstorm after not being brought in from summer pasture in time. A number of cattle and their calves died, either by freezing or falling prey to wolves, though Kamins was unsure just how many.

“It’s a kind of animal cruelty,” Kamins said. “This struck me as a kind of animal neglect.”

Kamins said the state got Dean and his wife, Karen, to sign an agreement that they will no longer be in the livestock business in Oregon. In exchange, the Deans will not be prosecuted.

“We reached an agreement with Mr. Dean and his wife that they have stipulated that they failed to provide minimum care for 11 or more animals,” Kamins said.

Animal neglect usually is a misdemeanor, but it can be a felony in Oregon if 11 or more animals are involved.

The Deans also agreed to make a donation of $5,000 to Wallowa Resources, a local nonprofit agency, and to make any restitution required, which already has been done. The donation to Wallowa Resources has not been directed toward any specific purpose, Kamins said.

The Deans also are to submit a letter of apology to the community for publication in a local newspaper.

The Deans live in Louisiana, the prosecutor said.

After complaints from area ranchers were received at the Wallowa County Sheriff’s Office, then-Sheriff Joel Fish launched an 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.

The Deans’ attorney, Stephen Katz of Georgia, was unavailable for comment Tuesday and Wednesday.

Local ranchers helped with the Dean cattle, taking feed to them on snowmobiles or rescuing calves and caring for them at their ranches.

The ranchers believed the problems with the Dean cattle were something that concerned them all.

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 ranchers have considered that winter’s problems with snowbound cattle a “wake-up call” and are making sure their cattle are brought in from summer pasture in a timely fashion and safely cared for.