June 28, 2006
The Honorable Hardy Myers
Office of the Attorney General
Department of Justice
1162 Court Street, NE
Salem, OR 97301-4096
Re: Threemile Canyon Farms investigation
Dear Attorney General Myers:
In the United States, farmed animals are exempt from coverage offered
by the Animal Welfare Act; generally speaking, whatever is construed
to constitute "standard" treatment for farmed animals is
held to be acceptable. However, most individual states,
including the state of Oregon, do not exempt those who raise farmed
animals from charges of abuse and neglect when instances of abuse and neglect have
clearly occurred. Such appears to be the case at Threemile
Canyon Farms' dairy operation. Several months ago, the
Humane Farming Association sent you the results of an investigation
which documented widespread neglectful and/or abusive treatment of
cows and calves housed at Threemile Canyon Farms, including, though
not limited to, keeping them in unsanitary living conditions, providing
inadequate veterinary care, performing surgical procedures without benefit
of an anesthetic, starvation, bludgeoning and "thumping"
(slamming a calf's head on the ground) as killing methods, and the
excessive use of electric prods to force sick or weakened animals to move.
Surely these allegations, all of which are supported by eyewitness
accounts, are worthy of further attention by your office. I am
writing to urge you to conduct your own investigation into this
matter, and, should the allegations prove true, to prosecute
Threemile Canyon Farms to the full extent of the law. I would
further urge that you not allow promises of future improvements in
animal care to excuse past criminal acts. There is not much
point in creating laws to protect animals from abuse and neglect if
those laws are not enforced. Nor does the fact that the alleged
abusers in this case exploit animals for a living provide just cause for
excusing them if and when it is proven that they have failed to
observe those minimal protections legally provided to farmed animals.
Please take the welfare of those animals seriously, and prosecute
those who inflict unnecessary suffering with the severity which both
conscience and the law dictate that you should.
Yours sincerely & etc. . . .
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