2nd animal neglect Case within a month

[wr]

I'm absolutely shocked. I came home and turned on the news tonight to hear about another big case of animal neglect and we had another in the northern part of the province less than a month ago. In each case, over 60 head are dead (the one reported tonight involves a mix of bison and beef cattle) and others in such poor condition that more had to be put down. I just can't grasp it, hay in the province is cheaper this year than it has been for many years, winter was no more severe than others and in fact, we had a fairly mild winter and while our cattle prices aren't as great as they were before BSE, they aren't that bad. I don't understand how these people can not see the condition of their livestock eroding and do something before it turns dire. I watched a brief segment on the first incident and the man was protesting loudly that he was told his cattle were hungry and they weren't because he took a bale out, right in front of the SPCA and the cattle never even bothered to move. Good lord, they were too weak to move. I was raised to feed the stock you have and if feed prices are crazy then you will simply have to sell off to the point where you can afford to feed what you have. In both cases were only found because of calls to the SPCA but it kind of makes a person wonder how many more herds are in distress that haven't been found yet. I'd love to provide links but the shocking thing is that these issues barely make the news anymore, just a brief blurb and that's the end of it. We never even hear if they've been convicted and what penalties they receive. Thanks for letting me vent.

[Tango]

As long as animals are considered property or commodities, they will continue to suffer and die in cases like this. The cases you mention sound particularly ignorant since selling off at the right time would have reduced the suffering AND recovered some of the investment. I hope it is not something more insipid that would have needed medical intervention or could be highly contagious. I've been doing specific searches on google for some of my concerns, since I don't get news at all, and what I find that is not on nightly news is deeply disturbing.

[Donna from Mo]

I don't understand how people can sleep at night when their animals are suffering. I've gone to bed in the past and happened to realize one animal or another was low on water earlier in the day, and I'd get up, put on my clothes, and go check.

[wr]

The strange thing in this latter case is that the animals actually belonged to a progressive reservation and did not belong to an individual owner. I'm really confused as to how the band and band administration managed to overlook their care because each band in our province that I deal with has an actual ranching division within the band offices and they also hire a certain amount of ranch employees. It strikes me as even odder because the band itself would have no financial problems and feed would not be a problem. Used to be that ranchers fed their stock first and their stock came before luxuries and often essentials for themselves.

[Tango]

That's very odd