rockridgecattle
Well-known member
Ok, I consider myself to be a good cattle producer. I am keen on keeping these animals healthy which intern usually make me a bit of $ to continue to farm. I met a person or rather a family who will give us all...all us good cattle producers a bad name. And, I am unsure of what to do. I have sent an email to the people who put on the fair to get the contact info of this family. Do i call the SPCA (humane society) the police? I am leaning towards the local vet of the family's area and let them take it from there. I would rather do this under the radar of PETA and such because if this got out it would give them more amunition against us good guys/gals. If i do nothing, what is to stop them from treating the animals this way again...
...here's what happened and honestly I saw the calf towards the end of the event. How 1000's of people missed this and did not report it I have no idea.
...
I was at a fair yesterday vending my products. It was close to closing time and my father in law (FIL) who made the trip with mother in law to catch all the events came to me very upset. FIL was into cows as long as he has been alive. He's 78 years old. He's seen it all, made the hard calls, done what is needed to be done.
I asked him what was wrong, and he said he needed a vet...huh? He had no animals with him. So he told me of this calf in the petting zoo with a halter on to tight and it was festering abit. He said if he had his pocket knife on him, he would have cut the halter. He also could not get his finger between the head and the halter.
So, I left hubby incharge of the booth and i went to check this out. The calf was laying close to the fence in a corner. I could pet his head without him running away. On first glance you could see the halter digging into the bridge of his nose, actually straining on the bone and tight on the side of the face. When I moved my hand to the top of his head, the top of the head and 2/3 of his right ear (facing the calf) had been cut away by the halter. It was dried, so it was not a recent cut. It was about 2-4 inches across the scalp...literally scalping him. The ear is definitely mostly dislodge from his head. I think the halter is holding it up. I was apalled. So i went to the young ladies at the desk accepting $ for an icecream cone of pellets to feed the animals. I quietly leaned over out of ear shot of the crowd and asked if they were incharge. And they were. They were about 17 or so in age. I mentioned the calf is really sick and should be removed from the petting zoo. I explained the halter was to tight and cutting in. I mentioned that my FIL was very upset at this, being he has been in cattle for so long. So they crawl into the pen and as they do this they mention their dad said the calf's halter was to tight. She crawls in and checks and yells "oh gross".
Okay like they did not know. So now they are willing to leave it like that until the end of the show, which was about three - four hours or so. I asked them if they could not loosen the halter. By this time the calf was up and it was here i realized the extent of the injuries. This calf which was 6-8 months old had it's hips showing like an old holstien cow. The legs were long and the belly was quite severely shrunk...and yet round from not having enough nourishment. There was no flesh on this calf. It was then i realized forsure that the halter had been placed on when it was young and not made larger as the calf grew. The buckle was stiff when she tried to loosen it. It would not move. I thought as much that the halter had not been adjusted for a while when i saw the ear but ya know when you don't want to judge to harshly until you have all the facts...
The father comes up, and does not say a word. Just watches as his daughters go and get the lead.
What happened after that I do not know. I left and FIL left with me. He was so angry he did not want to say something to this farmer he would regret infront of all these city slickers in the tent. It disgusted me so much i wanted to call someone. But who...I really did not want this bad apple tainting the rest of the us in the media. But it is bad apples like this that give ranchers like us a bad name.
Like i said, I have emailed the promoters to get the information. What do i do with it? How do i handle this in the right way?
I am not 100% sure, but i think these people were the same who had a petting zoo at another event i was at. And there that calf looked to have pnemonia. Heavy labourd breathing, ears down, off in the farthest darkest corner...etc. You know the signs when you see a calf that you suspect with pnemonia...that is what i saw. But is neither here nor there cause i have no proof it was the same group, and it was back in July.
What would you do?
Most of you know me on the board for a while now, so you know i would not ask this lightly or that i would make such a thing up. It really bothers me that there are people out there like this
...here's what happened and honestly I saw the calf towards the end of the event. How 1000's of people missed this and did not report it I have no idea.
...
I was at a fair yesterday vending my products. It was close to closing time and my father in law (FIL) who made the trip with mother in law to catch all the events came to me very upset. FIL was into cows as long as he has been alive. He's 78 years old. He's seen it all, made the hard calls, done what is needed to be done.
I asked him what was wrong, and he said he needed a vet...huh? He had no animals with him. So he told me of this calf in the petting zoo with a halter on to tight and it was festering abit. He said if he had his pocket knife on him, he would have cut the halter. He also could not get his finger between the head and the halter.
So, I left hubby incharge of the booth and i went to check this out. The calf was laying close to the fence in a corner. I could pet his head without him running away. On first glance you could see the halter digging into the bridge of his nose, actually straining on the bone and tight on the side of the face. When I moved my hand to the top of his head, the top of the head and 2/3 of his right ear (facing the calf) had been cut away by the halter. It was dried, so it was not a recent cut. It was about 2-4 inches across the scalp...literally scalping him. The ear is definitely mostly dislodge from his head. I think the halter is holding it up. I was apalled. So i went to the young ladies at the desk accepting $ for an icecream cone of pellets to feed the animals. I quietly leaned over out of ear shot of the crowd and asked if they were incharge. And they were. They were about 17 or so in age. I mentioned the calf is really sick and should be removed from the petting zoo. I explained the halter was to tight and cutting in. I mentioned that my FIL was very upset at this, being he has been in cattle for so long. So they crawl into the pen and as they do this they mention their dad said the calf's halter was to tight. She crawls in and checks and yells "oh gross".
Okay like they did not know. So now they are willing to leave it like that until the end of the show, which was about three - four hours or so. I asked them if they could not loosen the halter. By this time the calf was up and it was here i realized the extent of the injuries. This calf which was 6-8 months old had it's hips showing like an old holstien cow. The legs were long and the belly was quite severely shrunk...and yet round from not having enough nourishment. There was no flesh on this calf. It was then i realized forsure that the halter had been placed on when it was young and not made larger as the calf grew. The buckle was stiff when she tried to loosen it. It would not move. I thought as much that the halter had not been adjusted for a while when i saw the ear but ya know when you don't want to judge to harshly until you have all the facts...
The father comes up, and does not say a word. Just watches as his daughters go and get the lead.
What happened after that I do not know. I left and FIL left with me. He was so angry he did not want to say something to this farmer he would regret infront of all these city slickers in the tent. It disgusted me so much i wanted to call someone. But who...I really did not want this bad apple tainting the rest of the us in the media. But it is bad apples like this that give ranchers like us a bad name.
Like i said, I have emailed the promoters to get the information. What do i do with it? How do i handle this in the right way?
I am not 100% sure, but i think these people were the same who had a petting zoo at another event i was at. And there that calf looked to have pnemonia. Heavy labourd breathing, ears down, off in the farthest darkest corner...etc. You know the signs when you see a calf that you suspect with pnemonia...that is what i saw. But is neither here nor there cause i have no proof it was the same group, and it was back in July.
What would you do?
Most of you know me on the board for a while now, so you know i would not ask this lightly or that i would make such a thing up. It really bothers me that there are people out there like this
