I knew a man once,
lived a long and prosperous life,
tending his own business.
– Joe Chinowith
Vegans, no more than vandals cutting fences.
Thin black cows onto a mountain road at night
to graze a narrow shoulder headlights miss
on the curves. Children, juvenile delinquents
out to save cows to kill someone coming home
late from work, blinded by their ignorant
self-righteousness. Everyday, five months now,
feeding cows without their help in this drought,
they’ve just arrived like Mighty Mouse.
We’ve heard the rumors: thin cows, fences cut up the canyon. Inquiring phone calls we’ve been unable to address because we’ve been busy feeding our own cows since the middle of August and haven’t been up the road to know, but we do see pickup loads of hay, everyday, headed in that direction, gooseneck loads of cows coming down. It’s a drought.
Yesterday, I went up the road with a reporter from the Fresno Bee at his request. With over a hundred complaints to the District Attorney’s office and inquiries at every level of the State, this is now news—most all of which has been generated from Facebook.
What cows we saw we’re cleaning up alfalfa hay, about 40 head in a five-mile stretch, half of which had calves. They were thin like most cows in Tulare County, but obviously not neglected, most with too much belly to have not been fed on a regular basis.
Without looking too hard, we found at least half-a-dozen places where fences had been cut and recently repaired, and as many unlocked wire gates that were reportedly thrown open last week, putting human lives in jeopardy. It’s tough enough to take care of cows in a historic drought, but having to deal with vandalism and bad press has made this an irresponsible and emotional issue.
The Dry Creek canyon is on the alert, taking license plate numbers of all suspicious vehicles.
LINKS:
Last Chance for Animals – facebook
drycrikjournal 
OMG! This made me so mad I had to go respond.
“try getting some actual facts! If one is not obese is he starving? Has anyone offered hay to a rancher? You cannot see what is a mile or 2 away from the road. Idiots.”
They turn a cow loose to get hit by a car so they can stumble off into the brush to suffer and be eaten alive by starving coyotes. Imagine lying on the ground in extreme pain, broken on the inside, then watching your internals being ripped out and consumed by hungry predators and praying for a fast death to end this agony. You may be a cow or a hapless driver that got out of your car and fell to the ground after hitting a cow..
Now that is “their” idea of animal welfare and the ending of “cruelty”. If they had a brain in their head they’d take it out and play with it.
LikeLike
Richard, we tend to forget these people exist, but ag crimes in this county come with fairly stiff penalties. It may even be a felony under the Homeland Security Act to cut fences to, or part of, a livestock operation.
LikeLike
I hope they are caught and sentenced to work on a ranch or farm and find out what work is all about. What a blister turning to callus is like. Let them try to live off the land. I apologize if my rant was out of line. Feel free to delete if you wish. I wish you health, peace and water.
LikeLike
That’s the last thing you need right now – meddling by the clue-less
LikeLike
I know, Sharon, they just don’t know, tending to jump to irrational conclusions to promote their agendas, apparently ignorant to all the possible impacts of their irresponsible actions.
But on a happy note, we’ve managed to squeeze .20+” out of the clouds thus far today, maybe a little more coming our way. With the storm door opening, now half-way through our grass season, maybe we’ll get enough to finally germinate some seed. Thanks for your condolences.
LikeLike
We got some too, but our snow-pack is way below average.
LikeLike