A 17-year-old Texas cheerleader has been arrested on felony charges for allegedly poisoning her classmate’s prized show goat. Audrey Vanlandingham is accused of poisoning the goat at Vista Ridge High School in Cedar Park, Texas.
The school has a barn facility where students keep their livestock for 4H, FFA, and other agriculture-related clubs and classes. Back in October, a show goat named Willie started having convulsions. The goat then went into respiratory distress and died.
A toxicology report on the goat (which is apparently a thing in Texas—who knew?) showed that Willie died from organophosphate poisoning from a pesticide. A review of security footage showed Vanlandingham pumping the goat’s stomach full of pesticide the night before he died. The chemical that she used was phosmet, a moderately toxic compound normally used for external parasite control on livestock.
Police say Vanlandingham used a drench gun to administer the pesticide. For those who don’t know, a drench gun is a livestock tool used to administer liquid medicines to animals. Vanlandingham is accused of filling the drench gun with pesticide and then pumping it into the goat.
Vanlandingham confessed to police that she had poisoned the goat because she believed its owner was a “cheater.” We don’t have any additional context to explain what that means. The cheerleader also confessed that this was the second time that she had tried to poison Willie.
When Vanlandingham was taken into custody, police found searches in her phone’s history for how to poison livestock, as well as a search for “how to clear search history.” The girl was arrested in late November. She’s been charged with felony cruelty to animals and was released on $5,000 bond.
