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This morning, the enclosed SHOCKING letter was posted to my guestbook.
Not all dairy farms are as bad as the one so described, but if you continue to consume milk and dairy products, you should be aware of what's going down at the farm.
Shari from Cheney, Washington wrote:
I have been living near a dairy, whose horrific processing practices have caused the surrounding neighbors to band together and fight this guy. At first glance, the dairy is dirty, unkept, and very smelly.
Before anyone goes off on a tangent, I raise livestock and eat my own meat because of meat processing practices. I am very used to manure and other farm smells (I have a billy goat, and he stinks to high heaven at times) This odor is pure methane and decay. The odor emits from a holding pond which is a purple color, and the plot (300' x 300') which holds approximately 80 - 100 cows. The cows are forced to live, eat, and sleep in their own feces. I have lived here four years and have yet to see a stall cleaned.
Needless to say, the cows teats are caked in manure. The people the dairy employs are either drunk or high the majority of the time. One is under investigation for meth lab/stolen property. At one point, my neighbor, the milker, got so drunk he left the cows hooked to the machines and went home and passed out. This man and others can't keep themselves clean, so you know the teats are not washed prior to milking.
The owner of the dairy is no better. As we all know, it is necessary to freshen a cow yearly. If done properly, the cow can provide milk for 20 years. However, I've yet to see a calf on the property. The owner actually ripped a calf from the womb because the purchaser of the dairy calves wanted two. Again, I have never seen a calf, male or female, on the property. On with the tale: this spring and summer, several cows slipped on concrete covered in manure and split their pelvis'. One cow was drug out to the side of a county road and left without food and water for five days. Her milk bag filled to an ungodly size. She never moved. The neighbors and other travelers along our road stopped to inquire and complain. It wasn't until Spokane County Animal Control was called and they contacted the dairy by phone three days later. The cow disappeared.
Not three weeks later and another cow in the same condition was left again, but had some hay and water. Again, this poor creature was left at the roadside (now remember Kids are riding the school bus and going by this dairy and assuming this is what a dairy should be) At the same time this live cow is suffering next to the road, a dead cow, bloated all four legs sticking straight up is left by the road also. So now the flies have started, thick as thieves. So we (the neighbors and I) start calling. We went through Washington State Department of Ecology, Water Protection, the USDA, and the health department.
No one wants to touch this guy. He lives right on the edge of the law and he is such a jerk he frightens the neighbors. So the neighbor is out walking her dogs and what does she come across but a literal bone yard, but not just bones but whole cows lying there rotting. She comes home in a tizzy, and off we go with the camera crossing the field to take pictures. (Charlie's Angels - Watch out) The cow that laid by the road had been drug ALIVE to die in this back field, while I am no forensic scientist, the cow was lying on her belly, hollowed out by maggots. (the coyotes and cougars, which we have in abundance, imagine that, had not tore this creature to bits) Next to her is another cow, with the hide still on, hollowed out. These cows were laying among other carcasses.
So off we go to the Spokane County Health Department and we get a hold of Mr. Joe Pallelo. Now Mr. Pallelo is a piece of work, he calls and tells the dairy owner that he needs to deal with the dead cows (that was over four weeks ago) He calls the dairy everytime we call him and says, "Shucky darn, but the guy won't let me on the property and he says their not his" Well, we did get his dander up when we called the vet. So far, the cows still lay there and rot.
Now, the cows in the field across from the dairy are starting to die (these are meat cattle on a huge pasture) And we watched them haul another dead cow into the field today. I noticed a man's response to your efforts and how apalled he is at the whole idea and cows are mindless creatures living in 5-star conditions. Sir, I beg to differ. These cattle know their miserable, that is why the eat their own crud and females try to have sex with each other. These animals are fed, but they are sick and tired (literally).
I have goats, and when one goat had her babies taken (they died in the womb) she sulked and wandered looking for these babies. When I take one goat to the vet, the others know she's gone and pitch a fit, running up and down the fence line. One beef I had, Sarah, knew the moment she saw me she was going to get a brushing (with a horse comb) and ran from the back of the pasture, leaning all 900 lbs on me while I combed her. I still did not have a problem cooking a roast that winter. The methods by which this dairy and many others is inhumane and I beg society to contemplate our reasonings of mistreating animals and the disposability of livestock. Worse yet, these unkept barns are a host of trouble waiting to happen. If one thinks Anthrax is just a band, remember this type of treatment will eventually leak into the surrounding community and children.
This man cannot sell his milk locally. He must haul it to Moses Lake, to the Safeway processor there (160 miles away). (I contacted Safeway, with no response) I know hormones, antibiotics, and pus come out of those poor cow udders. Believe me when I say, I enjoy milk and milk products, but I really don't want to be forced to milk a cow twice a day because we can not govern and/or regulate dairy practices. Any suggestions on who can stop this 'beast' from harming any other defenseless animals.
__________________________________________________
Robert Cohen
www.notmilk.com
This information courtesy of Robert Cohen
Executive Director - Dairy Education Board (DEB)
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