Whether you believe in the hygiene hypothesis or not, one this is certain. The world is “cleaner” now than it was 40 years ago. By “cleaner”, I mean we use all sorts of chemicals to kill off the natural things that bother us. We scrub and bleach and sweep and on and on. We’ve almost all become more than a little germaphobic. Those who are still functioning in a more natural environment understand that sanitation is important but that a mere “ick” factor does not necessarily indicate a health problem.
Recently, the SPCA in Erie County, NY, seized 73 horses from Eden Farms owned by Beth Hoskins. “Gina Browning, SPCA public relations director, said following the raid that found more than 100 animals living in what authorities claimed were filthy conditions... ‘None of them [the horses] look emaciated, none of them look dehydrated, a few of them are underweight, and some have minor injuries on their legs or other parts of their bodies,’ she said.” Apparently, their major gripe is “feces everywhere, it stinks” and they tossed in a gripe about the building being in questionable condition.
Ms. Hoskins, through counsel, disagrees and thinks the horses appear healthy. Interestingly, “Town of Aurora building inspector Patrick Blizniak gave a similar description of conditions at the farm. ‘This actually does surprise me, because it's always been up to snuff every time I've been out there,’ Blizniak said. He called the animals top-notch, highly valuable animals.”
In the video, Browning mentions “30 cats” and “4-5 dogs”. The print story says “50 cats, dogs. THAT’S IT on the cats and dogs. Absolutely no indication of why they got swallowed into the SPCA system!
Fast forward a week… “On March 18, the SPCA acted on a complaint and spent almost 14 hours removing the horses, as well as 53 cats and four dogs, from the premises. The director of public relations for the SPCA, Gina Browning, said the situation was “abominable” and the animals had to be removed.” 53 cats instead of 30? I swear these people can't even count!
“Feces was climbing the walls, it was all over the horses, in their manes. It was not a couple of piles here and there that someone forgot to clean up. It was extremely unhygienic. Unsanitary conditions in New York State constitute animal cruelty,” Browning said.
But there’s “a letter… from John Whitney, a district conservationist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, an East Aurora field office for the United States Department of Agriculture. It states that with proper care and ventilation, manure can be used to insulate and hold heat during the winter… When contacted, Whitney said his department deals with farms 90 percent of the time, providing information about conservation planning, as well as manure management and barnyard runoff. He said there is a standard practice where a bedded pack of manure can be good storage as well as offering a stable environment.” AND
“Whitney’s letter, which was addressed to Hoskins, states that horses still have their winter coat during this time and it can look shaggy before shedding for summer. ‘In fact, horses often role in the mud and manure as a normal part of equine behavior.’ The letter also states that a floor of bedded manure could be more comfortable than a concrete floor during the winter, but goes on to state that ‘this situation can be taken to extremes and without adequate bedding…conditions can get sloppy, although not necessary unhealthy for the animals as long as other needs are being met.’”
Got all that? Manure can be packed to insulate floors, horses are shaggy in the winter and sometimes like rolling in their own POOP and it does NOT hurt them to do so! So says a professional with experience and training!!! (Maybe our kids would be healthier if we'd let them make a few mud pies too.)
“She [Browning] also said there were structural concerns with some of the barns the horses were stored in, with exposed walls and a blue tarp covering one area. Browning said there was a fear of the wall collapsing on one barn, but investigators were still examining the situation.” How interesting to maintain that when the building inspector says otherwise!
Are we really to believe SPCA volunteers over real, trained experts? Or even individuals who have years and decades of experience? Don’t think so, not me anyway!
“The horses were being held at an undisclosed location…” “Covert [Ms. Hoskins’ attorney] said he has spoken with the lawyer for the SPCA to try and negotiate having the animals stored at an agreed-upon location to spare the agency the cost of hosting the horses. Browning said she did not know of the proposal…” Oh, this thing about snatching up animals that someone has cared for and loved for years and secreting them away, refusing the owner or the owner’s representative even an opportunity to exam them really makes my skin crawl. Think about it; your animals being tended by a bunch of young, nominally (at best) trained volunteers. ARGH!!! Beyond that, the owner is utterly deprived of an opportunity to obtain the evidence needed for their defense. That just violates every basic principle of sound jurisprudence.
Even more disgusting is their arrogance in demanding that people from whom they've seized animals pay their exorbitant hostage fees! I'd fall out of my chair if this SPCA agreed to move the animals to a place where they weren't getting paid those hostage fees!!!
“Several complaints have been made against the farm, all of which Covert said Hoskins was cleared of, and the SPCA had been to the farm in the past. Browning said the last time was in 2008, and that had followed different anonymous complaints.” Yep, we’ve reached the point where, if someone just calls and calls and calls someone is going to show up to snatch your animals just to stop the calls and no matter that the calls aren't based in fact, once the “humane” people have your reasonably well tended animals in their sites in healthy adoptable condition, someone is going to snatch them up alleging abuse so they can use your animals for fundraising and then sell them almost immediately.
AND WHAT ABOUT THE 53 CATS AND 4 DOGS????? Why were they seized at all? Of course we know why – because they were there, that’s why. If one allegedly abuses one animal, they can’t be trusted with ANY animals; besides, they might decide to arrest you if you object so snatching all your animals encourages you to object so they can do just that, arrest you. It’s just plain gravy to these creeps to snatch your beloved companion dog or cat along with your livestock just for the torture factor.
It takes a LONG time to rehabilitate an abused animal. Any time you see animals up for adoption within days after they are awarded to someone other than the owner, you should damn sure suspect the allegations were all LIES. And you should HATE that as much as I do because that means they are putting donations into animals that don’t need it and the animals that DO need real and serious help aren’t getting it.
“At the time of publication, no formal charges had been filled [sic], but Browning said they would be coming.” Well, of course, they probably will be coming. Doesn’t matter if Ms. Hoskins is an angel because you’ll paint horns on her no matter what. I have yet to see a case where the humaniacs admitted error (forget apologizing altogether) even after being ordered to return animals. Man’s inhumanity to man has been escalated to new levels by these crazy activists.
“UNHYGIENIC”. You read enough of these stories and you start to see the “key” words: deplorable, feces, “worst ever”, escalating and colorful descriptions of stench (but no one using a stink meter, yep, they do exist!)… They’ve all got to be working from the same Top 20 words to inflame the public’s imagination. Some of the words annoy me more than others and “unhygienic” is one of them. “Sanitary refers more especially to conditions affecting health or measures for guarding against infection or disease: to insure sanitary conditions in preparing food.” Traditionally, this is the term used when discussing animals and animal care with the goal being to keep things clean enough not to harm the animals as well as the humans.
“Hygienic is applied to whatever concerns the care of the body and the promotion of health: to live in hygienic surroundings with plenty of fresh air. 2. healthy, salutary.” Traditionally, this term is used when discussing human health, cleanliness. Once again, the animal rights activists are trying to refer to animals as equivalent to (or maybe higher than) humans. I am sick to death of this!
No matter how much I care for animals, they are still PROPERTY. We humans were not put on this earth to cater to the animals. Many of us do cater to our animals by choice but, by dog, I will not be dictated to do so by these arrogant activists!
You read about these cases and learn how very few owners get their animals back, how grossly unfair the process is, the enormous price they pay even if they do get their animals back. People expect the judicial system to be fair/effective/efficient and, if it isn’t, they tend to start defending themselves and their property. People aren’t going to be as nice as Ms. Hoskins and so many others are when these nuts come knocking. Why should they be? But I digress… back to my main topic… MANURE.
Manure is a wonderful item with many uses and it simply isn’t the 100% health hazard the humaniacs would have you believe. “We use it in our floor mix, in some of our earthen plasters, and in our daub mixes. It’s a wonderful material, readily available, and free or extremely cheap.” From fertilizer to mulch, manure is probably all around you and you don’t even know it. The USDA is looking for new ways to use manure. How about powering 600-800 local homes by one single dairy farm? Sounds better than importing oil to me! Why not heat a wholesale greenhouse located with a cattle operation? Add trucking and mulch business and… wow, they’ve almost got a nifty completed circle going that’s economical. I think I’m in love with a whole family business! Wonder if the greenhouse is organic? One of the oldest uses of manure is in poultices for healing wounds and here’s a few more for the less squeamish out there. Tooth polish? Really? OK, even I’m not ready to go that far! But it does tend to indicate that manure isn’t the equivalent of poison even if it is stinky when fresh.
Do I need to mention that scent or strength of scent is not much of an indicator? Many things stink greatly and aren't the least bit harmful (a few cheeses instantly come to my mind) while there are deadly poisons that have no smell to them at all (how about the gas coming into your home pipes? they add that stench so you'll know if there's a leak, the gas does not have a stink of its own).
Sure we need to try to limit the chemicals we put in animals if we’re going to creatively use their manure but I’m already in favor of that! Most of us feed our pets pesticides every month (that’s those lovely drugs that prevent heartworms and other invaders) and many of us have read how we shouldn’t use their poop in our gardens. Really? ‘Cause I’ve seen that ivermectin can be used in humans too. How big a risk is it really? Nobody really seems to know and I keep wondering if that scare tactic came from some fertilizer company. BTW, do you even know what is in those fertilizers and other stuff you so readily spray on your veggie garden? I have something of a black thumb when it comes to gardening so I’m pretty liberal with the Miracle-Gro but I keep wondering about that ingredient list. Guess that’s why I try to stick to using it on my “pretties” rather than my edibles :)
Manure = Insulation (and a whole lot of other useful things)! Who knew? Well, those of us who have some past experience with animals, that’s who! Anybody else out there getting sick of incompetent, ignorant activists telling lies like: manure is inherently bad; stink = BAD/unhealthy? Won’t be long before they’re insisting that you walk around behind your animal waiting for the poop so you can catch it before it even hits the ground! Or maybe they'll just dictate that we all have indoor bathrooms for our animals, confine the animals to indoors, and mandate that we teach them how to flush. I hear there's a nut over in Marion County, TX already promoting this idea.