Editor:
As a Farm Bureau member, the victim of one of the six Park Farms broiler grow-out operations now unable to sell my home for its market value, I do hope that Farm Bureau realizes it must treat all its members the same.
For years, I called attention to the plight of our situation by attending meetings in Columbus on this issue, but to no avail.
Perhaps now with the entrance of the Humane Society of the United States, Ohio will wake up and declare a two-tier system of animal industry: those requiring permits being called commercial, and prohibited from enjoying zoning abatements.
There are serious medical issues near confinement operations. In 2002, my husband was recuperating after having cataract surgery, when the barns owned by Park Farms located directly across from our home were cleaned out. As a result, the fungi and viruses came our way. My husband became ill, was taken to the hospital and died Dec. 2, 2002.
You would think this was coincidental, except for the following year when the same exact thing happened. This time, it was my neighbor to the north that was taken ill.
I was in Galena for Thanksgiving and when I got home, I received a call from a worried son in Kentucky asking me to check on his mother. I found her very ill, called the rescue squad and she was taken to the hospital, where she remained for close to three months with some type of bacterial infection.
I am delighted that some organization with some clout will come into Ohio and protect the existing homes from this mass invasion of confinement operations. I contend we would be better off subsidizing small- and medium-sized farms and creating a two tier system of animal industry. This would protect the personal property rights for everyone, as Farm Bureau claims they do, but which they failed to do in my case.
Our home will be auctioned off June 25. I am living with my daughter while recuperating from two surgeries. I am hopeful that someone will step up to the plate of responsibility on the issue of my home and property.
Perhaps a pipe dream, but with the entrance of the Humane Society of the United States, perhaps not.
Mary G. Gibson
Galena, Ohio
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Learn the truth about H$U$
http://www.vidoosh.tv/play.php?vid=4360
Joe is 100% right on, everyone should see the video. The last orgainzation you want or need with it’s talons in Ohio agriculture is H$U$ and unfortunately for the pork producers and now chicken producers it’s probably too late. H$U$ real agenda is hidden behind their ‘good works’ which are window dressing. They are nothing more than PeTA in expensive suits. Their ultimate goal is a vegan society where there are no food animals and not even so much as a dog is bred or kept as a pet. They dazzle politicians with their ‘goodness’ and once they have their foot in the door the rights of everyone else go out the window. I feel for anyone who has gone through what you went through but they will not be of any help to anyone living in proximity to chicken farms, that should be an issue for the State of Ohio to oversee – and I never expect much from them, either. H$U$ will not spend a dime of their millions if it doesn’t net them camera time. I am not involved in agriculture at all but I am part of a rapidly growing number of people across the country who are scared to death of the power these animal rights nut cases are gaining. If allowed to continue H$U$, PeTA, ALF et al will assure that we all go to the grocery store and pick out a nice slab of tofu to throw on the grill while we sit around and recall the good old days when we had meat to eat and a good dog laying at our feet. The State of Ohio EPA needs to step up here and take steps to oversee the conditions at commercial facilities that produce the kind of bacteria problems that chickens cause but the last people anyone needs involved are the animal rights loonies.
The Farm Bureau and large animal producers are currently launching a campaign to make the HSUS look like the bad guys. The HSUS website states – “We confront national and global cruelties through major campaigns targeting…the worst cruelties of factory farming in modern agribusiness such as confinement of animals in crates and cages.” The HSUS requires that all farm animals, “for all or the majority of any day, not be confined or tethered in a manner that prevents an animal from lying down, standing up, turning around or extending its limbs.” In other words, all they ask is that farm animals be given enough space for natural movements.
Please don’t allow large agribusiness proponents to frighten you with their scare tactics. The HSUS and other animal protection organizations have always spoken up for animals that are being used for profit and thank goodness they do. When someone tells you the HSUS wants everyone to become a vegan and that all our meat and eggs will have to come from foreign countries – don’t believe it, it’s simply not true. Ohio’s “family farmers” produce meat, milk, and produce in abundance with integrity and care.
Mahatma Gandhi said it very well – The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
“Their ultimate goal is a vegan society where there are no food animals and not even so much as a dog is bred or kept as a pet.” I notice no references are provided for this ludicrous assertion. HSUS is mainstream. PETA and ALF aren’t. Anyone having a problem with HSUS, needs to consider the possibility that he or she is NOT mainstream. When my grandmother was a kid, one of her jobs on the farm was to drown excess kittens. That was mainstream practice then. What is mainstream CHANGES.
HSUS was a major force behind the ban on Horse slaughter and when the leader of HSUS was asked what should be done with all the unwanted horses that have been turned loose in the countryside, his answer. Shot them. If that is Mainstream, then I don’t want to be mainstream. HSUS was started by the same people involved with ALF which was a subgroup of PETA. If HSUS is such a mainstream group, then why does most of the money not go to local humane societies? Less than 5% of their budget goes to local humane societies.
The hsus is Ohio’s worst enemy, if they get their way, pork, poultry and veal will move to another state, thousands of jobs will be lost and a lot of families lives will be ruined, but no one in the hsus will lose their job, and why are they doing this, not because animals are treated bad by farms, i am sure you can find some remote examples, but to justify their existence, please see them for what they are, basically emotion based snowball artist.