Glenville

I'll make my opinion clear right at the start of this one: Joshua Rockwood never should have been charged or arrested.

What happened to him is a clear example of government overreach — even if well intentioned. And though the charges have largely been dismissed, the stink of this case will linger.

Rockwood, as many of you know, is the Glenville farmer who was arrested last March and charged with 13 counts of animal neglect. Mostly, his supposed crime was frozen water on bitterly cold days — described by police as a "failure to provide proper sustenance."

OK, nobody is going to argue that the sheep, cows, pigs, horses and dogs at Rockwood's farm, West Wind Acres, don't deserve fresh water. But as Rockwood's attorney noted, there was never evidence that the Rockwood's animals were dehydrated or otherwise malnourished. The farmer was simply struggling on days when the temperature was well below zero.

Two big ironies jump to mind.

The first is that at the time Rockwood was arrested, I was writing columns about frozen pipes that denied running water to a cancer patient in Lansingburgh — and the city's refusal to do anything about it. Frozen drinking water was a widespread problem last March, and it wasn't just animals that suffered.

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The second is that the animals raised by Rockwood and his wife, Stefanie, are treated much more humanely than those that spend their short, grim lives in "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations" before being packaged for sale in your local supermarket. The Rockwoods are pasture-raising their animals under God's great sky, and they have committed to treating them ethically.

But small farmers like Rockwood lack the political muscle to write law in their favor. And so it was Rockwood, not the multinational corporations that operate the worst factory farms, that faced neglect charges.

Farmers are a tight-knit group, and they rallied to Rockwood's defense, donating more than $70,000 to an online legal defense fund. Farmers said few small farms could stand up to the scrutiny that West Wind Acres faced, not in the bitter cold of last winter.

"Josh wants to protect his animals more than anyone," said Andrew Safranko, who is Rockwood's attorney. "This was not a case of animal cruelty."

What if news of Rockwood's arrest hadn't terrified farmers and spread across social media? What if he hadn't received the financial support that allowed him to fully defend himself? Would he still be farming?

Those are questions that will remain unanswered. All but one of the charges was dismissed entirely this week, and that remaining charge was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal — meaning it will also be dismissed if Rockwood is not arrested for six months.

Under the agreement with prosecutors, which does not include any admission of guilt, two confiscated horses and a pony have been returned to Rockwood, and he will pay $5,000 for vet costs and $4,000 to Peaceful Acres, a horse rescue that cared for the animals.

The vet costs, by the way, are largely related to the birth of a foal. Three animals were taken from Rockwood — but four came back.

I talked to Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney about the case on Wednesday. He said he agreed to drop the charges after a visit to West Wind Acres revealed improvements that will benefit the animals, including freshly dug wells and water-storage tanks.

"There was no point in continuing to prosecute the case once he made the changes that would prevent similar charges in the future," Carney said. "I'm not going to criticize Glenville police for the arrest. But it's not my intention to put Mr. Rockwood out of business."

The good news is that common sense ultimately prevailed. If only the police who initially visited Rockwood had seen the bigger picture and realized that frozen water didn't justify turning a life upside down. If only Rockwood could have been spared the nightmare of the last 10 months.

"This is a case that never should have been brought in the first place," Safranko said.

Rockwood, 37, didn't return my phone calls Wednesday, and knocks on the door of his home went unanswered.

I don't fault Rockwood for avoiding the spotlight. People don't go into farming because they want attention, and from the very beginning of this case, Rockwood has seemed like a man who just wanted his life back, who just wanted to raise his children and animals in the peace of rural Glenville.

Instead, he became a symbol.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5442 • @chris_churchill