Cattle Left to Starve to Death

by Stephanie Ernst · 2008-10-24 14:04:00 UTC
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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
Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
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