LJR Enterprises

BoingBoing points to this blog, whatikilledtoday, written by a vet tech that writes about the animals she has euthanized.

A sample–

A ferret with lymphoma, an adrenal tumor, and an insulinoma. She had no hair left and was covered in lymphatic lumps. She didn’t look like a mammal anymore. Nevertheless, her spirits were high and I fed her a hefty dose of Nutrical tasty goo before anesthetizing her.

I have long envied that euthanasia is an option for animals but not me (ignoring the option of sucide, of course). If I looked like that ferret, they would keep feeding fluids, waiting for ‘mother nature’ to end it. Horrible. 

I love this picture and I love this article.

“No matter who you are or what your background is, everyone has a ceiling to break through,” [Mike Jones] says. “All my ancestors on both sides of my family have been farmers, but they never owned land. So mine was to own my own farm.”

It took him more than 20 years to reach his goal. Determined to make something of himself, Jones became the first in his family to attend college. He finished his degree with help from the GI Bill, then worked for several confinement hog farms—many of which now contract with Smithfield Foods—to learn the business. He did well, but kept looking for ways to improve the system.

“Finally I came to the conclusion it couldn’t be done,” he says. “I didn’t see how the environment could be managed in a way that was tolerable to me. The profit was there, but I didn’t want to be there.”

Jones’ decision to leave was one of conscience.

“I began to get callused to animals’ suffering, and this bothered me,” he says. “I thought, ‘This is how human rights abuses get started.’ First the animals get abused, then the people.”

There’s a reader comment at the end that claims it would not be feasible for all pigs to be raised in this way. He may be right that not all pigs could be raised in exactly this way, but I think all pigs can be raised in a better way than an entire lifetime spent on 6 square feet of concrete. We can all eat less meat and, most of all, stop turning our noses up at certain cuts. Our pig lasted us nearly a year. We didn’t get to eat bacon and pork chops everyday. Some of those days we ate soups made with neck bones and hocks. There is a cookbook out there about the moral necessity to use the entire animal if we are going to eat it, but I can’t find it. I heard a brief section of an interview with the author on NPR a while back but I’ve searched for the program a number of times to no avail. Does anyone know what this book is, or did I dream it?

New Foot-and-Mouth Case in Britain, New York Times, Sept. 13, 2007.

In a report on the August outbreak, the government said that it had most likely been caused by drainage problems at two animal-disease research laboratories — one privately owned, the other run by the government — at Pirbright, in Surrey. Milton Park Farm is about 10 miles from Pirbright, but Ms. Reynolds said it was too early to determine the cause of the latest case.

I keep reading about all of the family farmers who have been put out of business in England because all of their animals had to be culled. If it turns out to be true that the research laboratories are responsible for the outbreak, shouldn’t all of those families be reimbursed for their losses so that they can continue making their living? Does it not work that way in England?

Last night we ate our last pound of bacon as sandwiches for dinner. This has me wistfully thinking about raising more pigs. On the way home from my poop shoveling job I had a revelation - next year I want to put a pig pen within our pasture area. Actually two pens. That way we will be able to ‘leap frog’ the pigs across the pasture allowing them to be on grass all summer and the pasture will get turned up as a benefit. When the first pen is worn out, the fencing between the pens can be opened to allow the pigs to get to fresh pasture and then the old pen can be disassembled and moved to the other side allowing the stakes to settle into the soil before the next move. We can plant pasture mix behind them as we go and the pasture fencing will serve as a failsafe for those inevitable escapes.

We did do this to a certain extent last year, but I don’t think we used the grass feeding methods to their greatest benefit. The benefits being turned soil without having to own or hire out a tractor, a healthier pasture for the next year’s pigs, healthier, tastier meat for my family, and happier pigs (although I am absolutely certain our previous pigs had happy pig lives),

The biggest obstacle to doing this is going to be getting fresh water to the pigs a couple times a day. I think we can use Scott’s idea of having a large tank that we fill at the house and drive out to the pasture. Alas, we can’t do pigs this year anyway, but I’m hoping that we can afford to make another go at it next year.

Eat Wild
Eco Friendly Foods

We have lots of baby birds! I’m sure that there are even more that I don’t know about considering how wild some areas of our property are.

We have the hideously cute baby robins…

And the nuthatches (I think) that Meg won’t leave alone…

And here is my attempt to keep Meg from killing the birds and/or the tree…