Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Vandals Kill 3800 Pigs In Iowa

Suspected act of vandalism kills 3,800 Northwest Iowa pigs

By Dolly A. Butz dbutz@siouxcityjournal.com Posted: Monday, November 16, 2009

HULL, Iowa -- A suspected act of vandalism at a hog confinement near Hull that caused the deaths of thousands of pigs last week has puzzled authorities.

"We have no idea why somebody would do something like this," Sioux County Sheriff Dan Altena said Monday.

According to Altena, someone entered the facility, 2739 Highway 75, and intentionally turned off the confinement's airflow and alarm systems sometime during the overnight hours last Thursday, causing 3,800 pigs to suffocate.

"These confinements have an alarm system that if something goes bad with the air handling unit it telephones to a certain location," Altena said. "They shut down both of those."

At 10:30 a.m. Friday, owner Todd Hasche, of rural Rock Rapids, Iowa, called police and reported that all of the feeder pigs at the facility were dead and that someone had tampered with the confinement's airflow system. Read More

It’s almost hard to read this story. Farmers and ranchers put everything they have into taking care of their crops and livestock and then on a whim, some criminal comes along and destroys it all. Hopefully they catch whoever is responsible for this very soon. To go along with this, does anyone think HSUS will come in and offer a reward on this case? If someone intentionally killed a dog or a horse in this manner, they would have already done so. I guess I won’t hold my breath, but it shows the hypocrisy of this group.

Update:
The HSUS did finally come forward with the offer of a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of these criminals. Thanks to my friend Sarah at HSUS for sending me the information. Now if we could only get them to reverse their policy and stated goals of eliminating all animal agriculture and forcing a vegan diet on everyone.

8 comments:

Bea Elliott said...

I'm so confused... What happened to the 24-7 "care" and "close monitoring" that these dedicated "farmers" provide to the animals? Wouldn't it take hours and hours for suffocation to occur? WoW! That pig waste must be some awfully toxic stuff!

Strange though... I just read a post by someone regarding the pig investigation released yesterday from Mercy for Animals:
http://tinyurl.com/yhu4lap
Their response to the fact that the pigs were brutalized was that "oh well, they were going to die anyway". I'm always amazed at how callous people can be regarding "food" animals.

Troy Hadrick said...

They were receiving 24-7 care with multiple back up systems to protect them. All of which were destroyed by these criminals. Hopefully we won't have to put up armed guards to protect our livestock from the vegan militance which you so readily support.

The fact that they died had nothing to do with the manure. That just shows your lack of understanding of animal agriculture.

It's unfortunate that someone would think that food animals shouldn't be treated well for any reason. I'm glad we can agree on that.

Deedee Williams said...

Oh this is awful Why would someone do that??? What could they possibly have to gain? I guess they wanted to go to hell and they didn't want to wait in any lines!
:(
~DD

~The South Dakota Cowgirl~ said...

You can count on the HSUS to say nothing. They are the epitome of hypocrisy.

Anonymous said...

Hold on... Bea, are you saying it's this hog operation's fault for the deaths of these animals because they weren't giving "24-7 care"? The people who did this to the animals are ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS... you know... you're supposedly ONE of them. Who the heck KILLS animals to get their point across that killing them is bad? ONLY a hardcore AR activist who borders on criminal terrorism.

The comment you made about the "oh well, they were going to die anyway" responses ARE NOT THE MAJORITY when it comes to animal agriculture and the care that is put into raising animals for the food chain. It's too bad you refuse to see that because you're blinded from your own agenda.

-Dawn said...

You said it, South Dakota Cowgirl! I see today that "The Humane Society of the United States is offering a reward of up to $2,500 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for an act of vandalism that killed thousands of pigs last week at a hog confinement near Hull."

Oh, the hypocrites are at work! They will find a way to spin this to fit their agenda, just like always.

caheidelberger said...

Wait: so first you specualte the Humane Society won't do anything to help, and then when they do offer a reward for catching these criminals, you cal them hypocrites? Boy, there's just no winning with you extremists, is there? If you want spin, look in the mirror.

M Fagnani said...

Well whoever did this is less than human and downright evil. I'm a HSUS supporter but not a vegetarian; we choose our food with a little more thought. Our choice. I just believe that our food animals should at least be treated as humanely as possible. We try our best to buy meat products from local and smaller ranches rather than the big factory farms. Or wild ducks and geese. If there are some whacked-out animal rights people that truly did this -- what was the point? How brutal to purposely let these animals suffocate to death. Why? Terrible news...