Oregon's Livestock "Rendering Crisis"

Above: One of the landfill alternatives—"whole animal" composting, in this case compost rows full of dairy cows.

So what happens when dairy-producing cows and egg-laying hens are "spent," and they and other farmed animals are so ill and in such bad shape that they can't be slaughtered for human meat consumption? Or when an animal dies before reaching the slaughterhouse? Or when someone doesn't want his or her sick or injured horse anymore but can't find someone to buy the animal? Well, generally, these tortured beings are sent to rendering plants, where they're turned into pet food, livestock feed, and other animal "byproducts."

But uh-oh—Oregon has a rendering "crisis" apparently, particularly in the case of spent dairy cows:

As it stands now, there are no such processing plants in the entire state. And as Kristian Foden-Vencil reports, about 100 cows a week are going straight into Oregon's landfills. . . .

Old and sick farm animals are being tossed into landfills after they die or are killed -- instead of being used to make leather, animal feed, fertilizers and other products.

At Coffin Butte Landfill for example -- just outside Corvallis -- an average of 50 cows a week are buried -- from the Tillamook County Creamery Association. . . .

Lissa Drewbeck [of the Department of Environmental Quality]: "The animals are only taken by appointment only, and in the case of Coffin Butte, they're taken only outside of the hours that the public is there. And then the special waste management plan requires that the land fill dig a large hole, put the animals in it and then cover them with four feet of waste -- so that you don't have odors generated from that or flies or any other vectors that would be attracted if it was left just out and uncovered."

The Tillamook County Creamery Association didn't want to answer questions about the cows.

It referred OPB to the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association. . . .

[Former rendering plant owner] Cacho says many farmers and ranchers now just turn sick animals lose [sic].

Carl Cacho: "You know, what else are they going to do? They can't afford to feed them. Hay is so expensive. And to have them put down by a vet and me to pick them up, they're going to have a $500 or $600 bill -- depending on what the vet is going to charge them."

That's right—animals are allowed to live only as long as they're useful to humans. Dairy cows (and egg-laying hens) do not live out full, happy, long lives on green pastures. Their bodies are abused, pushed to the limits, and exhausted, until they are "old" and sick and no longer profitable, and then, like the animals exploited for their flesh, they are unceremoniously killed. Yet we are not asked to sympathize with these beings—these beings who spent their entire lives suffering at the hands of humans and who apparently were quite sick or injured or both by the end. We sympathize instead with their exploiters, who are left with the terrible burden of getting rid of their carcasses. The article continues:

Letting a horse free on BLM land is one thing. But large farms and co-ops have dozens of sick cows and chickens to get rid of every week.

There are out-of-state rendering companies that can pick up animals, but it's expensive. . . .

Jerry Gardner is a spokeman with the state Agriculture Department. He says many farmers end up using the plan of last resort -- landfills.

Yet another example of the humane nature of the dairy industry and the environmental sustainability of animal agriculture: cows who are sick and "old" at a fraction of their natural lifespan and landfills full of dead animals.