Preface: How To Interpret Incidents Like These
All organizations, fraternal or not, have a few knuckleheads or even bad apples from time to time (look no further than the U.S. Congress).
Please realize that in situations like these, the local fraternity chapters involved, their alumni groups, the University, the University Fraternity & Sorority Affairs office, and the national fraternity organizations are all committed to seeing that potential criminal behavior is dealt with appropriately.
The actions of a few misguided individuals should not be used as an excuse to demonize a broader organization. The majority are usually not involved, and the facts are still coming out.
What Happened?
On Friday, December 1st, the day before the Big XII Championship football game against the Texas Longhorns, Stillwater Police responded to a report of a dead longhorn steer on the lawn of FarmHouse Fraternity (FH) at Oklahoma State University. The perpetrators inscribed the words “F*** FH” on the longhorn.
FarmHouse released the following statement around noon on the day of the incident:
“This morning it was discovered that a deceased carcass of a Longhorn cow had been discarded in the front yard of our chapter house, branded with a phrase referencing our chapter in an inappropriate manner. We immediately reported the incident to local authorities and are working with them as they continue their investigation. As a chapter founded on principles driven by our agricultural roots, we’re just as sickened and surprised by this incident as our peers on campus. It is disheartening to see the disregard for proper animal welfare and treatment displayed by this situation. To our knowledge, no Farm House member was involved in this incident and we do not condone cruelty or defacing of livestock in any manner.”
OSU Animal Disease and Diagnostic Laboratory performed a necropsy report on the dead longhorn. It indicated that “the animal was suffering from a natural disease process.” A final report will be available soon and will include the time/cause of death as well as if there was evidence of animal cruelty.
OSU President Kayse Shrum had this to say:
“While we do not yet know who is responsible, a criminal investigation is underway into a shocking and deeply disturbing act of animal cruelty that was reported this morning near the OSU campus. We expect that authorities will prosecute this case to the full extent of the law, and we stand with the Stillwater community in condemning this reprehensible act, which in no way represents the values of our institution,”
The story spread quickly to local, regional, and national media outlets such as ESPN, FOX, New York Post, San Antonio, ABC-Dallas, ABC- Oklahoma City, The Oklahoman, TMZ, People, CBS Sports, CNN, Sports Illustrated, NBC, Tulsa World, Bleacher Report, HuffPost, Forbes, and others.
The Stillwater PD reported on December 2nd that an investigation indicated that members of the Alpha Gamma Rho (AGR) fraternity had “imperative information about the acquisition, transportation, and dumping,” of the animal.
AGR issued this statement the same day:
On December 4th, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers posted about the situation after the Longhorn’s win over the Cowboys in the Championship game. He posted a photo on Instagram of himself with the Big XII trophy with the caption “for Bevo’s cousin.” (Bevo is the Longhorn mascot for UT).
Background
Investigators as well as students believe that this was intended to be the latest prank in a long rivalry. FarmHouse and Alpha Gamma Rho are both predominantly agriculture-focused fraternities. They regularly compete for the top spot in OSU’s annual Homecoming Walkaround “house dec” competition, among other things.
What’s Happening Now?
December 6th, the Stillwater PD executed a search warrant at the Alpha Gamma Rho house in Stillwater. They posted the following image to their X account:
This is a developing story…
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