Letter: We value our farmers, but animal welfare as well

Posted 8/21/18

To the editor:

In his recent Shorelines letter, Carter Wilkie of Little Compton accuses those of us who are working on behalf of better farm animal oversight here in Westport as being …

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Letter: We value our farmers, but animal welfare as well

Posted

To the editor:

In his recent Shorelines letter, Carter Wilkie of Little Compton accuses those of us who are working on behalf of better farm animal oversight here in Westport as being “hostile” to farmers. He says that we are “using” the Medeiros farm tragedy “as a pretext for going after neighbors who raise livestock.” His accusations could not be further from the truth.

One would have thought that, after the first horrific case of animal abuse found in 2010 on the Medeiros property, steps would have been taken by local officials —including the Westport Agricultural Commission—to prevent such an outrage from happening again. But they did nothing and nothing changed. Then came the 2016 “discovery” involving 1,400 animals, over twice as many as were found on the same property six years earlier.

That is when a diverse group of concerned Westport residents banded together with the shared goal of preventing a third farm animal abuse case.  Over the course of these past two years, we have reiterated our support of our farming community at every turn. Here is what we have asked of the town and the farming community. We leave it up to Shoreline readers to decide whether or not Mr. Wilkie’s charges of our “hostility“ have any merit.

We asked our Select Board to form a committee to look into why it happened; they responded by forming the Animal Action Committee (AAC). The committee’s first and most important realization was that the town does not know who all has farm animals on their property, so there is no way to check on their condition. That realization led to the proposal that the town institute an animal site registry. The registry will identify where farm animals are being raised and who is responsible for them. The issue of who was responsible for what animals continues to be a fraught item of contest in the Medeiros tenant farm court case.

To the genuine surprise of several AAC members, it was learned that the state requires no training at all for state-appointed municipal animal inspectors. The AAC recommended that critical shortcoming be addressed. Our state epresentative and senator spearheaded the passage of joint bills mandating inspector training.

We also discovered that for decades Westport had a director of public health. In 1998, this important position was downgraded to senior health agent. Many of us working toward better animal oversight petitioned the BOS and BOH to consider reinstating the director position. We are grateful to now have a public health director. We suggested that the BOH join the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards, which they did and now have access to valuable resources and collegial connections.

The BOH is currently holding public hearings on the establishment of an animal site registry. The registry does not have to be complicated. It should be a simple one-page application, with a small fee of $25 attached to help pay for processing and the annual state-mandated barn book inspections. Currently, the money for our animal inspectors must come from our general fund, as there is no budget line item for it. That must change.

Municipal animal inspectors conduct barn book inspections. Although they work for and report only to the state, it is the town that must pay their stipends. The funding for this service must come from somewhere, and we feel it is only fair that it should come from those who choose to raise animals on their property. Dog owners must register and pay a fee. Parents whose children play a sport or ride the bus to school have to pay large fees. We do not see an annual $25 fee as putting undue stress on those who raise livestock, many of whom are already receiving 61A tax breaks.

So many towns already have this system in place that both the Massachusetts Farm Bureau and Massachusetts Association of Health Boards have templates on their websites for towns to use for replication. Dartmouth has had a similar set-up for years, without any issues and, by the way, with a much better track record than Westport for farm animal oversight.

Let us not forget the sizable cost to Westport residents in terms of tax dollars and reputation in the aftermath of Medeiros farm 2010 and 2016. Even if you are so hard hearted as to not care about the humane treatment of farm animals in our community, perhaps the costs of after-the-fact clean up and police detail might persuade you to support putting into place a more effective system of animal oversight.

Yes, our shock and outrage over the Medeiros tenant farm tragedy is what brought us to this moment in time. But there is no “pretext” here for “going after” farmers. All of these ideas ought to have been implemented a long time ago.

For those of you who disagree with Mr. Wilkie’s assessment of our work—most especially if you are a Westport farmer—we implore you to join us in doing the right thing. We most certainly value our local farms, but we value our humanity even more.

Donna Parrillo and Chris Wiley

Wesport

The writers are Animal Action Committee members and Join the Conversation Westport founders.

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