Loudoun county animal care and control has proven useless. They were useless back in July 2014 when They first got involved and still useless today.
They have a long friendly history with Ayrshire.
This is an email from the assistant commonwealth's attorney Jason Faw.
Sadly, this is not uncommon. Animal control officers I've dealt with usually don't know much about farm animals. There are some AC officers who care and are knowledgeable, but they are hard to come by.
ReplyDeleteIn Washington for example, it seem you can starve as many horses as you want and AC doesn't bat an eye.
I know it's hard, hang in there.
-C
You are going to have to put them out of business another way, girl. Even better for the market to not want their products anymore - which is so much BETTER than for animal control to do a half-ass job anyway. After all, animal control WENT to JW's farm and APPROVED it (years ago), but still. Speaking of JW, she hasn't posted in awhile. Is she/her animals/her home still alive in the literally sub zero temps upstate NY is having?? But back to that farm, who are their customers? Do THEY know how the animals are really treated? How can you get the word out in a way that it doesn't look like you are a bitter former employee????????
ReplyDeleteI'm the laughing stock of the community for coming forward with this information. Looking at those pictures people have vowed to frequent her restaurant more often. My name, credibility, and reputation have been "damaged"...obviously by people that are fucking crazy enough to defend Sandy Lerner and Ayrshire. Going to the farm for a hour long farm tour seeing the place through rose colored glasses makes them experts. Or the fact that she donates millions (money to her is like leaves in our yards) to various agencies or organizations negates the neglect and cruelty.
DeleteThe reason I was immediately terminated when I went to upper management and HR was to make me look like a disgruntled employee...which They succeeded in doing. I'm not a disgruntled employee I'm a furious heartbroken not letting them get away with abuse previous employee. They are sadistic and it will not stop until word gets out. I need a large media outlet pronto.
That's absolutely awful. I hope some justice can be found both for you and the pigs. Something needs to change there.
DeleteI agree with the above poster that getting the word out to their customers would work best.
ReplyDeleteAccording to a Washington Post article from 1/28/2008, "48 Horses Seized Over Poor Farm Conditions" ,Loudoun County Animal Services didn't have a problem following up on an anonymous tip with regular visits until " After a noticeable decline in the condition of the horses, a veterinarian was brought in." and the horses were seized. "After receiving evidence before the seizure, prosecutors told officials that they would be willing to pursue charges of animal cruelty, said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Jason Faw, the liaison with the animal control office." The article discusses how the horses were emaciated, ice buckets obviously frozen over for days, and almost no hay on premises, and it talks about the shortage of hay during the hard winter. You have to wonder why it took repeated visits to notice the horrifying condition of the horses (some pregnant and a 1 on a scale of 1 - 5). Knowledge of bad conditions is not enough; they have to decline to crisis levels?? The thing is, Ayrshire Farms can afford to take care of their animals; someone posted on an egullet forum (regarding a foodie's visit to the farm) defending their exorbitant prices with the argument that to be Certified Humane and USDA Organic is expensive. So are they or aren't they following through? Meredith, you mentioned that HFAC's solution-based requirements are "laughable". What did you mean? Do they do follow-up after the 30-day revocation of a farm's certification in humane practices? Is there a double standard for producers who might be big donors? I wonder if Ayrshire Farms gives to Loudoun County Animal Services. By the way, the food reviewer who visited Ayrshire Farms had this to say after raving about the chicken and veal:
ReplyDelete"The pork we tried was quite good but not as good as a lot of
pork I've had. It lacked the marbled fat of truly great pork."
No, they did not reinspect after 30 days.
DeleteAnother issue with HFAC
"Ms. Douglass said Petaluma Farms’ certification had expired in June. She said it had applied for recertification but, because of staffing issues at her organization, the inspection required to renew the certification has not yet been done."
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/business/direct-action-everywhere-video-of-laying-hens-raises-concerns.html?referrer=&_r=0
Apparently the farm continues to.use the certified humane label on their products though. Basically HFAC is saying these farms meet standards they don't necessarily inspect yearly and do not follow up on farms given a certain amount of time to correct various noncompliances.
I don't understand why animal control found no signs of abuse. What did they say about the pictures you gave them? Were those emaciated pigs there when they inspected? It is heartbreaking and horrifying that a certified humane farm would do such a thing. And just as horrifying that animal control would do nothing.
ReplyDeleteThey recognize abuse in the evidence but says the farm is sorry and they changed their ways and that negates the abuse. Yes. Seriously. When they went out and saw pigs in that condition they said complaint unfounded....though the farm responded with an email claiming treatment and contributing the pigs condition to anything but poor husbandry and neglect.
DeleteThis is just the tip of the nightmare...politics abuse and Ayrshire oh my!