To the editor:

I founded the group, Stop The Insanity, Westport!, in response to the abuse of 1,400 animals on the Medeiros tenant farm in Westport. I did so because I could not live in a town where systematic animal abuse was allowed to occur without someone speaking out. I was lucky to encounter like-minded people who also wanted to speak out.

When our group came together, we were almost all complete strangers but we did have two things in common: our love of animals and our residence in Westport. In the nine months our group has been together we have accomplished many things of which we are exceedingly proud. During these nine months we have been the recipients of hate mail, inflammatory social media posts, and threats against our families, our homes, our animals and ourselves.

Just why are people so upset with us? We did not abuse the animals on the farm. We did not ignore the signs of animal abuse while making inspections of the property. We did not ignore warnings of state agencies to look into the situation. All we have done is talk about what occurred – and we have talked about it a great deal. We speak out against the abuse, against the ignoring of the abuse, and in favor of prosecution of the abusers and dismissal of the town inspectors and board members who allowed the situation to occur.

We have had to endure people accusing us of lying. The number of animals abused on the farm was 1,400. People still believe that we are making that number up. I even had an elected state official tell me to my face that he had heard the “real” number of animals on the farm was “more like 200” and that he had gotten that information from a “reputable farmer.”

A colleague and I assured him that we are not making up that number. It was 1,400 animals. Ask the ASPCA who cared for and rehabilitated the ones that lived. Ask the Westport Police who investigated the crime. Ask the Attorney General’s office who is about to prosecute the criminals. It is not a made up or exaggerated number – it is fact. However, some people in Westport, that politician included, would rather believe that number is untrue than face the enormity of it. But it did happen. And we, as a community, should be rallying together to see that it never happens again.

Westport needs to come together on the issue of animal abuse. Our group does not exist to harm farmers, to put an end to the right to farm status of Westport or to push regulations that make it more difficult to farm. We have been accused of all of those things – but none are true. What we do want is for everyone who has farm animals to provide those animals with an acceptable level of care: clean water, food, reasonable shelter and appropriate vet care.

What we do exist to do is to hold up a mirror up to our community. We understand that some residents don’t like what they see. We don’t either. There are those who wish we would just stop talking about it. But we won’t. People did that six years ago and it happened again. It will happen again and again until we put checks and balances in place that protect farm animals from people who would harm them.

There are nefarious people out there who will take advantage of a community that does not look out for its animals. So we are going to look out. We are going to continue to follow cases of suspected animal abuse and make certain that local officials get to the truth in each situation. We will continue to fight the abusers and push for regulations to protect animals from those who would harm them.

Our hope and our plea is that all citizens of Westport will join us.

Kathy Feininger,

Stop The Insanity, Westport!

Westport