Dad accused of using cattle prod on 9-year-old daughter (Albuquerque, New Mexico)

Notice that the mother has lost custody though there is no suggestion in this article that she used a cattle prod on any of the children, approved of its usage on the children, or even knew of its usage on the children. Yet another example of how mothers are punished and made responsible for the crimes of fathers. Dad is identified as ELDEN C. BEGAY.

http://www.abqjournal.com/468329/abqnewsseeker/man-accused-of-using-cattle-prod-on-9-year-old-daughter.html

Man accused of using cattle prod on 9-year-old daughter

ABQnews Seeker
By Rosalie Rayburn / Journal Staff Writer

PUBLISHED: Thursday, September 25, 2014 at 8:27 pm

Albuquerque police have arrested a man whose young daughters say he shocked or threatened them and their small dogs with a device he used on horses and bulls and which the manufacturers say is never supposed to be used on humans.

Elden C. Begay faces a charge of child abuse without great bodily harm and a felony charge of extreme cruelty to animals, according to a criminal complaint.

One of the girls, aged 9, told a staffer at Kirtland Elementary School that her father woke her on Aug. 20 with what she called a “horse shocking thing” when she failed to get up, and complained that it still hurt.

A report filed by the state Children, Youth and Families Department identified the father as Elden Begay. An officer with the police Crimes Against Children Unit reviewed the report and interviewed the girl at the school.

The girl told the officer that her father shocked her on the torso after she begged him not to. The girl showed the area where she had been shocked and said it “hurts so freaking bad”, although there was no mark.

Based on the girl’s description the officer thought the device might be a cattle prod.

The officer then talked to the girl’s siblings, aged 8 years and 6 years old, who said they’d seen Begay use the device on their sister. They said he also used it to scare them and other children in the home.

The 8-year-old told the officer that her father and mother used the device on “uncooperative bulls” in Gallup.

A 13-year old sibling told the officer that their father had also shocked the family’s three dogs. “They’re like very tiny … they just cry,” one of the girls said in an interview, according to the complaint.

After speaking with the girls at the school, the officer signed an emergency order placing all of the children in the family into the temporary custody of CYFD. The order included four more he found at the family home in Southeast Albuquerque.

Executing a search warrant, police searched the home on Aug. 22 and found a “Hot Shot” electric livestock prod in the garage. The device was marked with warnings saying “use on livestock only” and “keep away from children.”

The officer contacted the device manufacturer, Miller Manufacturing who informed him that it generates about 9,000 volts. A Miller Manufacturing representative told the officer by email that “Hot Shot” prods should “never be used on a human,” the complaint said.