Authorities arrested a woman in connection with the deaths of thousands of pigs in rural Iowa. The arrest served as a respite from news of mysterious livestock deaths, whose culprits remain unidentified.
Authorities in Sac County, Iowa were alerted to an unusual number of dead hogs. A physical inspection by officers of the Sac County Sheriff's Office on June 30 found more than 1,000 hogs dead in two confinement sites. The dead hogs were owned by Corey AGR Inc., which is based in Lytton.
Farm caretaker Elana Laber, 33, initially insisted that "someone" had turned off the electricity to the pens on June 29, a day before law enforcement visited the farm. However, investigators discovered that the animals were in different states of decomposition – with some already dead for more than two weeks. They also found that the pigs had no access to food and water in their enclosures.
Laber, who was hired to maintain the two confinement sites, subsequently confessed that the hogs had been dying for weeks and she did not know what to do. As a result, she was charged with two counts of first-degree criminal mischief and two counts of livestock neglect. Laber is being held in Sac County Jail on a $22,000 cash bond, reported KCCI 8.
According to the Sac County Sheriff's Office, the cost of the dead hogs amounted to more than $150,000.
Writing for the Western Journal, commentator Warner Todd Huston mentioned that "after a long string of unusual fires, explosions and disasters at food production plants, ranches and farms across the U.S., it is good to see someone arrested and charged in one case of mayhem involving our food chain."
"The world is reeling from all the disruptions in the food chain, whether from nefarious acts, natural elements or war. All this disruption could not be coming at a worse time for America or the world." (Related: Merritt Medical Hour: Lack of fertilizer, food manufacturing plant fires will cause food shortages in the US – Brighteon.TV.)
Hog deaths followed cattle die-off in Kansas
Huston also mentioned the deaths of tens of thousands of cattle in Kansas, which authorities attributed to a "massive heat wave." News of the dead cattle, numbering more than 10,000 heads, became viral in mid-June.
Footage of the dead cattle in Kansas, taken at the Cattle Empire feedlot located in the state's southwest, made the rounds on social media. Lot owner Trista Brown Priest said two days of rain they had in Haskell County caused humidity that, coupled with scorching heat and a lack of wind, caused the cattle under her care to perish.
"We were so excited to have the moisture, [but] little did we know, it was going to backfire majorly on us," she told KAKE 10. "As soon as the sun came up, we saw that we had dead cattle in the pens."
Veterinarian Tera Barnhardt told the news outlet that the state has an emergency burial protocol in situations similar to that of Priest's. She explained: "It is what it sounds like. We have to dig a large hole and then bury these animals."
Barnhard elaborated that when cattle die, their carcasses are usually rendered for other things such as glue and tires. But with the sheer number of carcasses, there are just too many to process before they spoil.
"Just to be helpless and not know what to do to help them, or are helping them, is frustrating. It's heartbreaking," Priest lamented.
But the rancher said the deaths of her cattle were also a blessing in disguise.
"There's been a lot of talk in the last decades about how people are disconnected from farms and where their food comes from. And then, at the very least, this situation can help bridge that gap and open some conversations."
FoodCollapse.com has more stories about the deaths of livestock amid the ongoing food crisis.
Watch this video below that talks about the cattle die-offs in Kansas.
This video is from the Mitchell Reads The News channel on Brighteon.com.
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Thousands of cattle die in Kansas as attack on America's food supply continues.
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