What goes on when the camera is not rolling?
Missing: The day the farmer finds one of his cows with her side hanging open, the wound having been caused by another cow who missed the relatively short discomfort of de-horning. Yes, the camera missed the vet trying to sew the cow back together and the healing process. There was no camera at the funeral of the farmer who was gored.
Missing: The farmer who gets up every two or three hours checking on the cow about to give birth, making sure she isn’t having trouble. Or maybe she is having trouble and they miss him putting all his strength into pulling a baby calf out. It misses his efforts making sure momma and baby are ok, giving momma water and grain, warming colostrum and feeding the baby because it is weak. Then checking that baby has gotten up and is nursing. The camera also did not catch the baby being “ripped from his momma’s side,” at weaning, because that doesn’t happen. True the two are separated, but both are treated with great care.
Also Missed: The cameras missed that old dairy farmer out in the cold before daylight getting the cows milked so he has time to get them fed and the water all chopped, thawed or carried to them before it is time to milk again. They missed him unrolling an extra bale of hay so “the ol’ girls will have a nice dry place to bed down.”
Missing: The farmer putting up fences in the heat of the day so the cattle have new pasture every 12 hours. They missed the time, effort and money that went into planting the pasture to begin with.
Then there are so many times the farmer also chooses to buy fly spray for the cows instead of dinner out and a new pair of boots. He does this because he wants his cows to be comfortable.
The truth is that the camera misses the whole deal about how the farmer feels and cares for his cattle. It takes a special person to be at work twice a day, every day with no holidays, no weekends off and no vacation. Maybe it isn’t like that on a factory farm. But not all farms are not factory farms. I don’t believe there is a farmer alive who willingly mistreats his animals.
We as people end up places that can hurt us, like in surgery or in football or fights. Dentists inflict pain, but it is to help people, not to hurt them. Dehorning is like that. Farmers do what they do for the good of the herd. The product they produce is used in a lot more than bottled milk and cheese.
Let’s not let some small group of people tell us what we should think and do with our animals. Anyone concerned about the treatment of animals should make the effort to find out for themselves what is going on. Farm animals are important to this nation’s food supply. Let’s not forget that they are animals, there are plenty of laws protecting them now.
Just for the record: I would not be alive today if a bull had not been dehorned before we got him. Even without horns, he put me in the hospital for three days with a punctured lung, broken ribs and bruises from armpits to ankles.
Leta Dunlap
Dairy Farmer, Pierce City, Mo.
