Cattle Left to Starve to Death

Published October 24, 2008 @ 02:04PM PT

And I thought the Oregon story this week was bad. Following are a few excerpts from the story on what's happening to Nebraska cattle, but there's much more, so read the article. And there's a definite theme: the animals are allowed to starve to death—a slow, excruciating way to die—and the humans who allow it to happen either are not charged at all or are just inconvenienced with a small fine. (Thanks to Vegan.com for posting a notice about this.)

Investigators haven't had to go out of their way to find dead cattle in Nebraska, where 6.5 million head roam. Since early this year, three cases of alleged starvation deaths involving a total of about 240 cattle have been reported in Nebraska - more than some officials can recall. . . .

In the Red Willow County case where 111 cattle were found starved to death, an investigator who went to the ranch described a grim, surreal scene. Some of the carcasses were frozen in a pond. The cattle had broken through the ice trying to get water. . . .

The man wasn't charged with any crimes. Red Willow County Attorney Paul Wood said doing so would have cost too much because the county would have had to take custody of the remaining live cattle during court proceedings. . . .

Prosecution is also bypassed because livestock abuse doesn't cause the same level of public uproar as abuse to pets such as dogs, said Bartlett.

Let's change that, shall we? Tell the Nebraska Attorney General's office (contact info here) and the Nebraska Brand Committee (contact info here) what you think (but do it politely). Watch for a Change.org petition in the next day or two.

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Photo of starving cow courtesy of Pasado's Safe Haven

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Comments (5)

This is SOO sad... can Farm Sanctuary go rescue them!? My god... I can barelly even go a day without food. This needs to end.

Posted by Michelle Taylor on 10/25/2008 @ 07:29AM PT
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It infuriates me that people can dismiss cattle starving even though the pain these creatures feel while starving would be NO different from a human starving. It is so sad that speciesism runs so deep that starving is only atrocious to the masses if it occurs to humans, dogs and cats!

Posted by Nikki H on 10/25/2008 @ 12:55PM PT
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That's a good point Nikki H. As a pedagogical tool, this example of speciesism will be helpful.

Posted by Alex Melonas on 10/25/2008 @ 04:11PM PT
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I'm pleased to say that an Australian has gone to jail for letting his cows starve. See http://therural.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/warning-issued-neglect-is-a-nono/813394.aspx. He was successfully prosecuted under both cruelty to animals legislation and animal research legislation (the latter because he was taking blood from the cows for research).

Posted by Jason Grossman on 10/31/2008 @ 12:11AM PT
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Good for Australia. Thanks for sharing this, Jason. (Fellow readers, if the link Jason provided doesn't work when you try it, go to the address bar and delete the period at the end and try again.)

Posted by Stephanie Ernst on 10/31/2008 @ 06:37AM PT
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Stephanie is an independent animal rights advocate, a vegan, a tree-hugging environmentalist, and a freelance editor and writer. She lives in St. Louis with an aging corgi-lab and an adolescent rescued pit bull.