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Davison County Squelching Anti-CAFO Speech
Note: A concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), as defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is an animal feeding operation (AFO) in which over 1000 animal units are confined for over 45 days a year.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_animal_feeding_operation
The Davison County Commission clearly prefers the smell of money to free speech. Gail Hahne, who runs Purr ‘N Ruff Rescue in Mitchell, asked the Davison County Sheriff to host her September seminar on investigating animal cruelty. The Sheriff’s office said sure, fine… but the cops and the county commission are warning her not to say anything bad about Davison County’s factory feedlots:
Davison County Commission Chairwoman Brenda Bode said she was skeptical about the county endorsing the event without knowing what would be discussed, and said she didn’t want to have an event that was attacking local livestock agricultural producers. Bode said a number of local producers called her concerned about the event.
“This is an agricultural county. We are fortunate and we have good animal caretakers and we want to make this is something that wouldn’t do something negative to that industry,” she said.
…“The sheriff and I talked about this and it’s going to be a strictly dogs and cats seminar, and if it’s not, I’m going to personally put a stop to it,” Harr said.
“As long as people know our agricultural producers are off limits,” added Commissioner Denny Kiner [Marcus Traxler, “Animal Cruelty Event Hits Nerve with County Officials,” Mitchell Daily Republic, 2019.06.25].
“This is an agricultural county. We are fortunate and we have good animal caretakers and we want to make this is something that wouldn’t do something negative to that industry,” she said.
…“The sheriff and I talked about this and it’s going to be a strictly dogs and cats seminar, and if it’s not, I’m going to personally put a stop to it,” Harr said.
“As long as people know our agricultural producers are off limits,” added Commissioner Denny Kiner [Marcus Traxler, “Animal Cruelty Event Hits Nerve with County Officials,” Mitchell Daily Republic, 2019.06.25].
CAFOs pollute our air and water, make people sick, produce inferior meat, hurt economic growth in rural South Dakota, and crowd small family farms out of the market, all with the support of state tax dollars. And animal cruelty happens in some agricultural production facilities as surely as it happens in some pet production facilities.
Read more: http://dakotafreepress.com/2019/06/29/davison-county-squelching-anti-cafo-speech/