This week a new director for the Ohio Department of Agriculture was selected by Governor-Elect Kasich.  His agenda since last year: "to prevent "out-of-state radical interest groups" from getting involved in livestock regulation."  His agenda now: "...to get Grand Lake St. Marys back to normalcy along with 20 other lakes in this state."  Remember, the lake was closed to boaters, swimmers and fishermen for much of the summer because of toxic algae caused by farm runoff as mentioned in the above article as well as nearly every story published.  This may get interesting and I wonder if it doesn't present a conflict of interest rather than "experience".

One of the saddest stories I read about this year was the dairy farmer who committed suicide and took 51 milking cows with him. This story was printed a few days after his death but from the beginning those that farm or know just a little about it all knew why he shot the cows before he turned the gun on himself.  He wanted to spare them the pain of not being milked when he was gone. The cows would have been in pain if one milking was missed and would have started to suffer terribly after missing just two. Doing the humane thing 51 times didn't change his mind regarding his own life but was something he thought about until the very end. That is sad.

This soul was a man who was passionate about his farm, thought about the welfare of his cows, and didn't want to bother his family, neighbors or fellow farmers with his burden as have others. Farming is hard, the pay ain't that great and it is different than CAFO's run like an assembly line with most of the work being done by machines. Any fluctuations in pricing is detrimental to the family farmer.  It's even harder when you have to compete with CAFO's.

I might have mentioned before I look at the HSUS as nothing but a lobbyist group.  They have a history of being shysters and misleading the public about what they do when they flash those tear-jerking commercials.  But as with any lobbyist group they have the big money and the power to raise awareness nationwide rather than keeping it in a community that is appalled by say, a puppy mill that was finally raided and flashing sad pictures across the local news.  Again, the livestock industry isn't something most want to think about but the HSUS does bring to light the suffering livestock go through so we can eat.

If we were to judge the standards of mass hauling to slaughter or auction this group would rival what the HSUS does.  I'm quite familiar with the group and two of its investigators.  The industry would have you believe they are an animal rights group when in reality the are only concerned about the welfare of the meat we eat.  They don't lobby, they don't preach an end to eating meat, they just provide the documentation of the inhumane behavior.

Lobbying groups from poultry, beef, and pork and the Farm Bureau have spent millions to promote commercial farming while offering little support to the family farmer.  I know first hand unless you offer grass-fed beef or are certified organic you have been backed into the wall and forced to go more commercial or lose the farm. Anything that has to do with healthier food with no pesticides or grass-fed beef is going to be punished by permit costs, certification costs, and land taxes.  The strongest support a family farmer has is the consumer.  We can feed our country without starving our generational families who have literally worked their fingers to the bone.  Next spring give CSA's a try if you can or better yet plant a garden of  your own.  Without trying it you'll never know how good close to home really is and you will have made a difference to the suffering of your meat products and support a neighbor as well.

Disclaimer:  This is a student project.  Sinclair Community College or its affiliates are not held liable for the contents of this blog.

Back to antibiotics.  This paper is from the year 2000 and Ohio is included int the study.  I find paragraph 2 interesting on a couple of levels.  First, the amount of antibiotics produced and second, the amount is nearly equal for man and beast. This article gives the numbers an even bigger boost.

This is a nice website that explains a bit about the effects of antibiotics but does it in a polite, gentle, not in your face be a vegan or else, way.

There's no need to bring up Grand Lake St. Mary's this week when we've got issues in NE and Central Ohio competing in the "which waterway has the most contaminants" game being played.  This was all over state news in October.

The NY Times published this article earlier this year regarding the ban on antibiotics for food animals in Europe..  The use of antibiotics has been a concern for many people and just to throw horse meat back into the mix they've put a ban on the use of antibiotics regarding this meat also. Yay for the horses.  If done legally they get to linger in feed lots for up to 6 months while the drugs clear their system. 

Just another day in the corporate world of drugs and CAFO's.

*Disclaimer: the words written are mine and do not reflect the views of Sinclair Community College and surely not the CAFO's.

One more week of horse slaughter (I think!) and then we'll move on.  This is a letter written by the former mayor of Kaufman, TX.  She had the guts to stand up to foreign corporations.  I have family in CAFO counties in Ohio and their very livelihood is dependent on farming.  They know no other life. They will defend their way and I can't blame them but I have to ask...what is fair about foreign-owned companies getting away with this?

Some of our biggest CAFO's in Ohio are owned by the Dutch.  I ask you to imagine the implications of the pollution if this were in your backyard.  We can only begin to understand by scratching the surface with Grand Lake St. Mary's.  We, as taxpayers, will be responsible for cleaning up the mess.  I'm not sure I'm OK  with that.  I want to support those that work their fingers to the bone, they truly are the salt of the earth but the business of big Ag needs to be examined.  Would we all truly starve if they were made to abide by the rules and pay fines to clean up their messes? 
 

Sunday, April 11, 2010
Letter to Legislators from Former Mayor Paula Bacon

Dear State Legislator:

...You will soon be asked to vote on … legislation regarding the commercial slaughter of American horses of which you probably have very little firsthand knowledge. No doubt you have heard from lobbyists and organizations who want you to support the practice, but before you do, you should ask yourself why the residents of Texas and Illinois worked so hard to rid their states of their horse slaughter plants. The answer may surprise you.

As a mayor who lived with this plague in her town for many years, who knows what the horse slaughter industry really is and what it does to a community,”… please allow me to tell you what we experienced. The industry caused significant and long term hardship to my community which was home to Dallas Crown, one of the last three horse slaughter plants in the United States.

All three plants were foreign-owned, and since the market for horsemeat is entirely foreign, the industry will always be dominated by these foreign interests. The corporations involved in this industry have consistently proven themselves to be the worst possible corporate citizens.

The Dallas Crown horse slaughtering facility had been in operation in Kaufman since the late 70’s and from the beginning had caused problems both economically and environmentally. I have listed some of the specific issues below.

I will gladly provide you with detailed reports from my former City Manager, Police Chief, and Public Works Director regarding odor and wastewater effluence violations at the Dallas Crown horse slaughter plant in the City of Kaufman. The reports reference “decaying meat [which] provides a foul odor and is an attraction for vermin and carrion,” containers conveyed “uncovered and leaking liquids,” there are “significant foul odors during the daily monitoring of the area,” and “Dallas Crown continually neglects to perform within the standards required of them.”

Therefore, in August of 2005, our City Council decided by unanimous decision to send the Dallas Crown issue to the Board of Adjustments for termination of their non-conforming use status. In March of 2006, the Board of Adjustments voted to order Dallas Crown closed, but the plant was able to tie the enforcement up in the courts until they were finally closed under state law in February of 2007.

Dallas Crown repeatedly described itself as a “good corporate citizen.” I will be straightforward in asserting that they are the very antithesis of such.

o Dallas Crown had a very long history of violations to their industrial waste permit, ‘loading’ the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant.

o Dallas Crown denied the City access to their property for wastewater testing beginning October 1, 2004 until July 6, 2005, despite requirement by city ordinance, city permit agreement, and court order.

o City staff reported that a $6 million upgrade to our wastewater treatment plant would be required even though the plant was planned and financed to last through 2015.

o Odor problems resulting from the outside storage of offal and hides over several days persisted not only in traditionally African-American neighborhood known as “Boggy Bottom”, but at the nearby Presbyterian Hospital, the daycare center, and surrounding areas.

o Transport of offal and fresh hides on City and state thoroughfares is conducted in leaking containers without covers.

o City documents reveal an extended history of efforts to have Dallas Crown address various environmental issues. Reports include descriptive language including such as “blood flowing east and west in the ditches from your plant,” “It has been over 45 days [it had been 59 days] and no apparent cleanup has occurred,” “Your system has not improved and subsequently it has gotten a lot worse,” “Words cannot express the seriousness” of recent violations and the “adverse effects on the wastewater treatment plant,” and “Please be sure trailers are secured before leaving your premises to prevent spills,” noting also “bones and blood laying in front of the facility,” problems with bones and parts in neighboring yards and the attraction of “dogs and other animals.”

o In response to 29 citations for wastewater violations, each accompanied by a potential fine of $2,000, Dallas Crown requested 29 separate jury trials, potentially causing yet another economic strain to the City’s budget. We could, of course, not afford to litigate in order to extract the fines.

o Dallas Crown took 11 months to submit a mandatory “sludge control plan” to assist efficient operation of the wastewater treatment plant though City staff requested it orally and in writing many times.
o The City Manager advised me that the City would have to spend $70,000 in legal fees because of Dallas Crown problems, which was the entire legal budget for the fiscal year.

o During this period, Dallas Crown paid property taxes that were less than half of what the City spent on legal fees directly related to Dallas Crown violations.

o Generally, Dallas Crown has the economic ability to prevail, to exceed the constraints of the City’s budget.

Dallas Crown had a negative effect on the development of surrounding properties, and a horse slaughter plant is a stigma to the development of our city generally.

I have since learned that these problems were mirrored at the other two plants. Fort Worth’s Beltex horse slaughter plant also violated Ft. Worth’s wastewater regulations several times, clogged sewer lines, and both spilled and pumped blood... into a nearby creek (San Antonio Current, June 19, 2003 ). Texas State Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, whose district includes Beltex, and Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, fought hard against legislation that would have legalized horse slaughter in Texas in 2003.

The horse slaughter plant in DeKalb, IL had a similar pattern. It was destroyed by fire in 2002, and rebuilt in 2004. It was charged and fined by the DeKalb Sanitary District almost every month from the reopening until its closing in 2007 under a new state law for consistently exceeding wastewater discharge guidelines. I can provide you with the documentation of those violations. Like Dallas Crown, Cavel refused to pay their fines for years.

During this time, I learned that an estimated $5 million in Federal funding was being spent annually to support three foreign-owned horse slaughter plants! And when the Dallas Crown tax records were exposed in the city’s legal struggle, we found that they had paid only $5 in federal taxes on a gross income of over $12,000,000!

Moreover, the parent company of Cavel has since moved its operations to Canada and continued to slaughter American horses. In Canada they have apparently become even more blatant, dumping huge untreated piles of entrails onto open ground and even using a tanker truck to discharge blood and refuse into a local river.

I have mentioned only the pollution issue, but this is but one negative aspect of horse slaughter. I have subsequently learned of a USDA document containing 900 pages of graphic photos that show the horrors that the horses were subject to. Behind the privacy fences of these plants, trucks arrived continuously and on those trucks was every form of inhumane violation one can imagine from mares birthing foals to horses with eyes dangling from their sockets and legs ripped from their bodies.

The more I learn about horse slaughter, the more certain I am: There is no justification for horse slaughter in this country. My city was little more than a door mat for a foreign-owned business that drained our resources, thwarted economic development and stigmatized our community. Americans don’t eat horses, and we don’t raise them for human consumption. There is no justification for spending American tax dollars to support this industry at the expense of Americans and our horses.

Sincerely,
Former Mayor Paula Bacon
City of Kaufman
Kaufman, TX 75142

*Disclaimer: This blog is part of an assignment.  It in no way represents the opinions of Sinclair Community College or the Paralegal Department.