To the editor:
I worked for Alan and Lori Andrus for over 28 years. I probably did every aspect of duties on their farms. You couldn’t find more dedicated farmers.
Alan is usually up by 5 a.m. and works until 9 p.m. or later. He makes sure that people have their duties for the day: feeding, cleaning, milking, calving, planting or harvesting crops, taking care of calves, the sick cows. It takes a lot of hard work to take care of approximately 2,000 head of cattle every day, 365 days a year. Cows don’t take days off.
He and his family work together to get this done. I never saw cattle abused or denied any need. Many people do not understand that you are dealing with animals who weigh 1,100 to upwards of 1,500 pounds. They will run you over or crush you into a wall if given a chance when they don’t want to do something. They have a tendency to seem to find ways to get themselves into trouble. They can slip and fall on concrete in the barn and there is no room to get a tractor or skid loader into a milking parlor. So you have to use what’s available. Used to be a hand winch and rope before people were lucky enough to have four-wheelers.
I do not believe they knew that their help was abusing their animals. When you have a farm, you have to trust your help, or nothing would get done. I know if Alan and Lori knew this was going on, they would have been livid. I find the group who went to work there (or anywhere) very much at fault for not informing them. I feel the group should be prosecuted for failing to report a “crime,” as they put it. They allowed the abuse to continue for months until they wanted to make it public. That is wrong. They are the ones who should feel ashamed.
Before you condemn the owners of a farm, maybe ask why the first they knew about it was when it was blasted all over the media. I commend Alan and Lori for always taking care of their animals, and addressing the issue in the professional way they have always operated their farm.
If you don’t have happy, healthy cows, they do not milk. Simple as that. Any veterinarian will tell you that.
Linda Jones,
Bryant
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