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Alabama
November 11, 2001
Dear Editor,
COMPASSION FOR THE YOUNG, THE SENIOR CITIZENS, THE INNOCENT:
In our community, human beings are being abused. We live around
8,000 finishing hogs.
My son's bedroom was covered with huge buzzing flies on the inside
of his windows. According to a reporter, these are the flies you see when
looking for a dead body.
A couple in our community had just returned from a trip, and went inside
their home and found it had been invaded with these same pest. The elderly
man is a retired WWII Vet and I will never forget the look on his face.
He starred at the floor and although he fought in the War in his younger
years. He was not able to fight the war of flies. His wife stood crying.
This lady's physician in Georgia took one look at the flies and told her,
"Those are flies that hatch from dead carcasses."
The people who created the problems for our community have family members
who have complained about one neighbor having a few hogs and some complained
a neighbor with a few hogs were too close to their church.
The few hogs didn't stop children from playing outside whenever they
wanted. They didn't smell for two plus miles. They didn't leave a trail
of pig poop up the road when they were hauled to market. They didn't cause
neighbors property values to plummet. They didn't require tons and tons
of hog waste to be spread on land over an entire community, Spring, Summer
and Fall. With a few hogs, we don't remember Senior Citizens on the other
end of a phone line crying, not knowing how to handle the STENCH and FLIES.
Yet we are expected to keep our mouth shut.
I am no match with ALFA controlled government agencies, so my Prayer
is God have mercy on the innocent and bring justice to the guilty.
Brenda Ivey
XXXXX, Alabama
(XXX) XXX-XXX
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November 6, 2001
Alabama,
Dear Editor
11/6/01
Sunday, Nov. 4, I received a call to help a friend that lives within
½ mile of two 4,000 head Gold Kist contracted Hog Factories. The
elderly couple, an 81 yr WW ll Veteran and his wife, were overwhelmed by
100's of large flies inside their home. We caught samples to show the Health
Dept. and ADEM.
Monday I took live flies to the Health Dept. I explained and showed
him the flies. He said he would get someone to investigate as soon as possible.
I felt it was urgent, so I ask if it would be today. He said "Oh no, it
may not be this week, we will get to it as soon as we can". ADEM did not
respond. Nine of this couples neighbor's including 3 WW ll Vets, also had
flies. Seeing those flies all over the kitchen table, counters, cabinets,
ceilings, walls, and lights and the helpless look on my friend's faces
was not a pleasant sight
The 8,000 hogs are capable of generating waste equal to the waste of
more than 32,000 people. Thanks, I believe, to the strong lobbing and influence
from ALFA, ADEM did not require a permit to construct and operate these
Factories that flush the waste into an open pond. A city generating that
much waste would be required to install a waste treatment system. Thanks
to ALFA and ADEM, the Corp Hog Factories can flush their waste into an
open pond and then spread or spray it on fields.
These Hog Factories were built in 1998 in an established, densely populated
community, where 239 families live within 2 miles. When the people complained
about the odor and insects, a Gold Kist representative told them " If you
don't like it move".
I suggest you convince your Elected Officials that they owe their allegiance
to you not ALFA.
Willard Jones
xxxxx, Alabama
(xxx) xxx-xxxx
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Houseflies
"The U.S. Agriculture Department says houseflies may spread diseases
such as conjunctivitis, poliomyelitis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, anthrax,
leprosy, cholera, diarrhea and dysentery. They also serve as intermediate
hosts for parasitic tapeworms on poultry or parasitic roundworms in animals."
http://dailynews.philly.com/content/daily_news/2001/08/30/national/WIRF30W.htm
Thursday, August 30, 2001
Philadelphia Dailey News
Link seen between houseflies, meningitis
Pests tied to several bacterial infections
Scripps Howard News Service
Those pesky houseflies are more than just a nuisance.
Jerry Butler, an entomologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, said his research using genetic coding has found that common houseflies carry bacteria linked to meningitis and other pathogens that cause food poisoning.
"They are very dirty little fellows," Butler said. "These kinds of organisms are a major concern."
He said the discovery on houseflies of acinetobacter baumannii, a penicillin-resistant bacteria that has been linked to meningitis, could help explain U.S. outbreaks of meningitis that have mystified disease detectives.
Meningitis is an infection of fluid in the spinal chord and the fluid surrounding the brain. It can be a viral or bacterial infection. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the bacterial form is more dangerous and can cause brain damage, hearing loss or learning disability.
Butler's study of houseflies also detected for the first time two other pathogens - bacillus pumilus and enterobacter sakazakii - both of which cause serious food poisoning. The study, like earlier research, found other pathogens, including e-coli and shigella bacteria, which are a major cause of food-borne illnesses.
Butler said the research, sponsored by the Orkin Exterminating Co., reinforces the need for proper sanitary procedures when preparing food, and taking extra precautions on picnics. He said it takes only a few hours for bacteria on food to multiply to levels that can sicken people, and noted that flies can transfer bacteria to food both by walking across it or by regurgitating on the food as they eat.
"You are going to have flies wherever you go," he said.
Houseflies have long been known to carry bacteria, and are a cause for half the cases of dysentery in Africa. The U.S. Agriculture Department says houseflies may spread diseases such as conjunctivitis, poliomyelitis, typhoid fever, tuberculosis, anthrax, leprosy, cholera, diarrhea and dysentery. They also serve as intermediate hosts for parasitic tapeworms on poultry or parasitic roundworms in animals.
"Houseflies have carried a lot of diseases to humans," said Lee Townshend of the University of Kentucky's extension service. "When they walk through food, there's a lot of bristles on their legs which makes it easy to mechanically transport any bacteria."
Butler said his research used wild houseflies, which he caught outside four restaurant trash containers in Gainesville. He said it did not matter if the containers were cleaned and washed because the same levels of bacteria were found on the flies. *
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September 26, 1996
North Carolina
Excerpts from North Carolina newspaper, Wallace Enterprise, 9-26-96.
Germ-Carrying Flies, Another Problem of Hog Operations
The hog industry's problems extend beyond that of odor control and
drinking water safety-more to the point FLIES are chief carriers of germs.
The flies in this community of northern Duplin County are so thick
they invade our houses whenever a door is opened. A cook out meal
is out of the question. We are constantly fighting the fly population.
This was not so in the past thirty or more years (thanks to enforced
health department methods and regulations). However, we have now
been inundated with hog industries, hog excreta and hog waste products
in our water supplies. Hog waste lagoons provide a breeding media
for flies.
Manure has always been the fly haven for production of maggots and
flies. Water, flies and insects carried through wind and air have
always been known as the chief carrier of infectious disease and germs.
One has only to read the history of past and fatal epidemics like tuberculosis,
typhoid fever, influenza, colitis, encephalitis and other contagious diseases
to be reminded of the danger of health problems resultant of the prevalence
of flies.
We are now in a fly epidemic!! We have not had the magnitude
of flies since the days of open back houses [sic] till now. This
problem is further evidenced by recent water quality tests revealing appreciable
levels of coliforms and nitrates.
Prior to the abundance of hog pens and hog waste run off in water supplies
this was not evidenced at current levels. Yet, the hog lobbyists
would have us believe it is from farm fertilizers.
...Driven by greed, the hog owners can attempt to justify why they
choose to compromise the "quality of life" in our community and neighborhoods,
our clean water sources, the environmental fate of our children and the
eventual decline of real estate and private property values for long time
farming families.
Who would want to live next to a smelly hog parlor? Obviously
the politicians have a different agenda and it does not include community
health and quality of life.
Louise Carter Bullock
R.N., B.S., M.A.Ed.
Public Health, Retired
Duplin County Resident
Note: Ms. Bullock is a former health nurse and public health
specialist with appreciable experience in public health and disease prevention
issues. In addition, Bullock is a former faculty member, East Carolina
University, School of Nursing, Professor of Public Health.
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