Severed cattle heads left out to dry by side of road cause concern for some residents

Multiple severed cattle heads, propped upon a road barricade in Warren, Oregon, have some local residents concerned. The heads are located on St. Helens Commissioner Colleen DeShazer’s property, said Columbia County Sheriff Jeff Dickerson.



Dickerson said the apparent display of the severed heads violates no law or ordinance. “It’s not illegal to have a cow head on your property,” he said. “There’s no state law or county ordinance to prohibit that.” The heads are viewable from the road, behind a barbed-wire fence that stretches parallel to the road.

DeShazer said the heads of her cattle were propped up to dry in order to be sold. “Those are my cows. We legally butchered them,” she said. “We save the heads, we dry them out, we sell them. If you don’t like it, don’t live in the [expletive] country next to a farm,” she said. Some locals in DeShazer’s area were taken by surprise upon seeing the heads.



Warren resident Cici Lires said: “In the past [eight years] that I have been driving past, I have never seen anything like this before... why out towards the road, facing the road where wild animals can get to them, Where everyone can see them?” Another Warren resident who asked to remain unnamed said they had initially seen the heads while jogging by the property. “I thought, ‘holy cow that is the most disgusting thing,’” they said, “And they stink now.”