Editor:
It is very easy to claim neglect (“Police find 24 dead cows in Pa.,” Feb. 26, 2004).
There have been documented cases of vitamin K deficiency, for example, leading to animals dying without a visible reason. So it was blamed on neglect, when they were actually bleeding to death internally because of a simple little mold that nobody even gave a second thought to.
When something starts to go wrong and the animals get sick, there is the paranoia that sets in “that you don’t want the neighbors to think that things are not perfect.”
The word “neglect” is a catch-all phrase that people who don’t know what they are looking at use so that they can punish someone. In this world today, someone must be punished so that “the good people” don’t look so bad in what they want to be their perfect little worlds.
Whatever happened to neighbor helping neighbor and farmer helping farmer?
A farmer makes his or her contribution to society by providing a product that he must show a profit on in order to stay in business. When an animal dies, it is a complete financial loss to the owner, and they cannot stay in business when this happens.
Must we place additional financial demands through lawyer fees and fines on these individuals who have already lost it all?
Deborah A. Brown
New Philadelphia, Ohio
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