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Preliminary Postmortem Reflections

By now, everybody knows that Lou is dead—allegedly euthanized and buried in an undisclosed location in the middle of the night. The mysterious circumstances of his death make it difficult to know exactly what to say, and perhaps that was the point. And of course VINE staff—especially the two who twice went to see Bill and Lou at the college—are grieving, as are Lou’s friends on campus (including but not limited to Bill) and in the community.

All of Lou’s supporters, especially those who knew him personally,
deserve to know exactly why and how he died.

With all of that understood, here are a few of our preliminary thoughts. We say “preliminary” because, unless the college  produces a veterinarian to attest that he or she both mandated and enacted euthanasia for humane reasons using humane methods, we cannot know for sure what happened on the last night of Lou’s life. We do believe that all of Lou’s supporters, especially those who knew him personally, deserve to know exactly why and how he died.

If this was a real euthanasia —recommended and implemented by a vet for humane reasons and by humane methods— and Green Mountain College administrators really have decided not to kill Bill, then that represents a compassionate response to the concerns of the tens of thousands (including many GMC students, GMC alumni, GMC neighbors, and other Vermont citizens) who voiced their opposition to the proposed slaughter and consumption of two campus workers. We would be eager to laud Green Mountain College for choosing compassion and reason over defensiveness and rigidity were it not for disturbing questions about why and how Lou was killed.

Lou’s friends on campus and in the Poultney community have been keeping an eye on him in recent weeks. VINE Sanctuary staff also have had a couple of opportunities to look at him. Neither we nor our informants have seen any sign that Lou’s injury was of sufficient severity to mandate euthanasia. On the afternoon of what would be the last day of his life, he was seen strolling in the pasture.

According to the statement released by the college, Lou was killed in the middle of the night due to a sudden deterioration of his condition and then buried in an undisclosed location. Many material questions make this narrative troubling. How, exactly, was a grave large enough for a 1,000lb ox dug in the dark? How was the body lowered into that grave in the dark? Did a backhoe operator come out in the middle of the night to engineer these feats?

If so, was Lou killed before or after being transported to the grave site? Did a veterinarian come out in the middle of the night to examine him and administer a painless death? Or did the farm manager simply decide to kill him and, if so, by what method?

We would be eager to laud Green Mountain College for choosing compassion and reason over defensiveness and rigidity were it not for disturbing questions about why and how Lou was killed.

We are aware that, while veterinarians and backhoe operators rarely come out in the middle of the night, transports to slaughterhouses and rendering plants almost always occur at night. In order to ease the mind of the community, we ask Green Mountain College to produce documentation of veterinary involvement in Lou’s death.

We worry for Bill. While delighted to hear that an immediate death sentence no longer hangs over his head, we are troubled by the terms used in the college’s statement of its plans for him, which reference usual agricultural practices. As students and faculty of Green Mountain College are well aware, being critics of some farming practices themselves, many commonly used agricultural practices, while legal, are widely considered to be inhumane. We would like to hear a much more clear statement of the intention to allow Bill a humane retirement.

Oxen are cattle, and cattle are herd animals. We fear that Bill will be deliberately isolated and that any resulting depression will be cited as a justification to kill him too. We are sorry to have to have this concern, but the college’s previous intention to kill and eat Bill makes us wary for his welfare. We strongly urge –and encourage our supporters to urge– Green Mountain College to accept Farm Sanctuary’s generous offer to include Bill in their herd of special needs cattle, among whom he can find companionship and solace. (We would also be more than willing to welcome him here, but we understand that feelings about VINE run hot on campus right now.)

We strongly urge –and encourage our supporters to urge– Green Mountain College to accept Farm Sanctuary’s generous offer to include Bill in their herd of special needs cattle, among whom he can find companionship and solace.

We sincerely hope that Lou’s death was necessary and not deceptive. We sincerely hope that Bill will be treated kindly, as all elders should be. We sincerely hope that Green Mountain College administrators have decided not to make these two animals sacrificial symbols of sustainability, independence, or any other abstract principle.

We understand that it can be troubling to think about questions such as exactly how Lou was killed and buried, but we believe that such questions are at the heart of the spirit of inquiry that Green Mountain College purports to embody. We hope that college administrators do not intend, by making Lou literally disappear, to make all of the troubling questions raised by the controversy about Bill and Lou also disappear. Those questions remain and should be debated on campus in a humane manner that does not endanger the lives or well-being of any actual animals. VINE remains ready to participate in such dialogues, and VINE staff would readily attend any class or campus forum to which we were invited.

Again, VINE staff are grieving this death, particularly since its circumstances are so murky. In coming days, we will publish individually authored pieces reflecting the personal feelings and opinions of various staff members.

 

75 comments to Preliminary Postmortem Reflections

  • Kasey
    Lou! Shelby meant Lou! Freudian slip or whatever; Bill is still alive. Lou was euthanized on Sunday.
  • Shelby
    will that sucks for me. saying Bill was euthanized was an editorial mistake on my part.
    Seems everyone makes mistakes. I wish I could edit my post. I hope that everyone sees my mistake.

    Bill is alive and well. And GMC has no intentions of serving him in the dining hall. And I have already made statements that if the subject comes up again, that I would advocate keeping him alive.

    But my message to VINE about stopping this campaign is a serious comment.

    Sorry VINE. I am being sincere and I do think that sanctuaries serve a great purpose, but what has happened here, in my opinion, was not respectable behavior.

    Hope you can understand my typo.

  • APASTOR
    RE: ‘Laws will be put in place so that you can never do this to a business/farm/college in the state of Vermont, ever again.’

    There’s quite a number of steps a proposal has to go through to even become a bill, let alone been signed into law.

    It can all be easily tracked online via the VT General Assembly and a State representative/senator is just an email-click away.

  • Shelby
    Thanks, I will be taking a class on Law soon. I am excited to learn how writing a bill works. This case will be my focus point.
  • Geoff
    Marji – here’s your statement “I have a degree in animal science” ….. “nearly 15 years working with farmed animals in myriad settings including a dairy farm ”

    Animal science IS the study of production animal agriculture. Add to that your stated 15 yrs working with farmed animals and a dairy and it appears that your a glutton for punishment —

  • Geoff
    Don’t sweat it Shelby. Plenty of states already have “right to farm” laws on the books put there over 20 yrs ago in WA state. I wouldn’t be surprised if VT already has something like that as well.
  • Rucio
    Geoff, while you are right in a way, that they both can also mean the other and more, the common usage of “ox” is for a castrated bull, and the common usage of “steer” is for a bull raised for meat.
  • Geoff
    Nope – a steer is a castrated bull. Period. What you do with him after that doesn’t change that.
  • Geoff, you certainly seem very curious about me!

    I studied animal science because I wanted to be a veterinarian. I worked at a veterinarian’s office my third year and realized it was not what I wanted to do, but I felt compelled to finish what I started. My experiences at the ag university, including my aversion to the slaughter lab and my strong reaction to the standard separation of calf from dam on the school’s dairy farm forced me to re-evaluate what I wanted to do with my life.

    The animal science program made an activist out of me, one who wanted to stop what I saw and start helping farmed animals in what I felt was a meaningful way. So I started volunteering at a farmed animal sanctuary (I had five prior years experience working w/ horses)…and never left (now I’m employed).

    I’m fully aware of what the animal science program is and is not, but when I was 18 and entering school, I was told by many a veterinarian that it was the most “useful” major to attain prior to vet school. I learned later (and advise prospective vet students this now) that the animal science major certainly isn’t necessary to become a veterinarian. But I stuck it through and used the knowledge obtained to advocate on behalf of farmed animals.

    I happen to have a strong affinity for bovines and appreciate them greatly. Had GMC reacted differently from the onset and gave any indication that they actually cared about Bill’s welfare, I would still want him to go sanctuary but I would feel more comfortable if he retired at the farm. That they actively sought his slaughter because an entirely different animal may have been injured indicates to me that they cared very little for his well-being.

  • Shelby
    If Vermont had a “right to farm” law, then wouldn’t this campaign have been squelched?
  • Geoff
    @Shelby – not neccessarily. GMC would likely have to file suit against VINE, GMAD or whoever the entity violating their right to farm is. See if VT has a right to farm law – in WA it has been used to protect farmers from nuisance complaints for farming on Sat AM.
  • Rucio
    Geoff, you are apparently even close-minded and a pedantic bully about language. Every dictionary I consulted does say that you are right, that “steer” means a castrated bull. Every one also said that, particularly in North America, “steer” means a bull, period. And if an ox is a castrated bull (or a castrated steer) used for work, then one can not be amiss is using steer to refer to a bull (castrated or not) raised for meat.

    Language is imperfect, but arguing about terms doesn’t change what they are attempting to refer to: GMC didn’t (doesn’t?) want to care for their retired workers.

  • Rucio
    Vermont does, by the way, have a “right to farm” law: Act 68, “to protect reasonable agricultural activities conducted on the farm from nuisance lawsuits”. As Geoff says, it would not apply to this issue at all.
  • Geoff
    @Rucio – You can’t castrate a steer. That’s what makes it a steer in the first place. Just trying to help you use the correct term. Language is made even more imperfect by those who misuse it. Retired worker is not a term applied to cattle.

    “right to farm” law: Act 68, “to protect reasonable agricultural activities conducted on the farm from nuisance lawsuits”. As Geoff says, it would not apply to this issue at all.”

    Geoff DID NOT say it would not apply to this case and I WOULD encourage Shelby and others to pursue having their legislators broaden the scope and wording of this law so that protection from malcious harrassment is also included.

  • Shelby
    Thank Geoff, we will try to expand this bill. And now, since this issue is very well publicized in Vermont, it will not be terribly difficult to pass.
  • Geoff
    Just for the record – I am not affiliated with GMC in any manner, have never been there and live 2000 miles away.

    Pattrice, before shutting down the other thread, took the opportunity to make a list of ways VINE has been unfairly treated by GMC. She seems to have forgotten that GMC did not initiate any of this. They were going about their business (rightfully and legally) when they were the victims of a social media slander campaign to force them to comply with the demands of those behind the attack. VINE was part of that social media blitz and, even if they did not launch the cyberattack, they are using it to their benefit much as the GOP did with the “swiftboat veterans for truth” campaign.

    Don’t try to play the victim after being part of the initial cause.

  • Geoff
    Pattrice –

    I’m an environmentalist and I don’t entertain any of the sweeping generalizations you attribute to “environmantalists”.

    You had quite a list of ways that GMC was “playing unfair” but it seems that some of your comments are laced with claims you have no way of knowing.

    For example – “sending out a “request for common cause”– not to faculty members at other colleges and not to environmental organizations, but to meat producers and others engaged in animal-exploiting endeavors.”

    How can you possibly know who they sent out their message to? I’ll tell you that I know for a fact that some faculty at my 2 local universities who received this message.

    ” A handful of faculty members really, really wanted to kill Bill and Lou and are really, really mad that they weren’t ale to do so.”

    No – the handful of faculty members were really, really mad that a group that allies itself with PETA and ALF had attacked them and their right to determine the fate of their animals.

    “it is maybe not surprising that it has turned to another sacrificial animal now that it was prevented from killing the oxen. And what better sacrificial lamb than a sanctuary where actual lambs are protected from slaughter?”

    Wow – you really are a fiction writer if you believe this.

    “It can’t be easy to have tens of thousands of people tell you that they think your moral reasoning is repugnant.”

    Tens of thousands GLOBALLY (that would be out of nearly 7 billion people). GMC (and I) could give a rat’s arse about what they think. It was the attack on their reasoning that was repugnant.

    “scholars in the fields it claims guided its decision-making have not come to its defense and, indeed, have been very forthright in their condemnation.”

    Who? What scholar do you speak of and where are their quotes condemning GMC’s decision?

    “has defensively become even more shut-off from the rest of the world—including the rest of academia.”

    How would you know this? They have garnered massive support for their right to operate their farm as they see fit. This includes many faculty at the 2 universities near me. And shut off from the world? What?

    “The program’s vegetable plot is smaller than some home gardens, which makes no sense since even non-veg*n environmentalists agree that everybody should be eating a predominantly plant-based diet.”

    Surely you must know by now that size isn’t everything.

    “Green Mountain College is a powerful institution in the state, with ties to the governor and a multi-million dollar budget. There are some 600 students and dozens of faculty members on campus.

    In contrast, VINE Sanctuary is five people with a budget that barely stretches beyond animal care. Unlike GMC, we don’t have a Communications Office, a Board of Trustees stocked with affluent and powerful people, or the clout to get the governor to drop everything to issue a press release in our support. And yet, to hear some GMC students, faculty, and administrators tell it, GMC is the weak victim of the powerful VINE.”

    NO – GMC is the victim of what’s known as “the tyranny of the minority”.

  • Rucio
    Geoff, Green Mountain College made a victim of Lou and will no doubt make a victim of Bill. With the understandable outcry (initiated by GMC alumni), they have been whining that those victims have (or will have) been made into martyrs for the cause of more compassionate farming. They have blamed everyone but themselves.

    You will of course hurl that last sentence back at VINE Sanctuary, so I will answer you here by referring you to the above paragraph again.

  • Geoff
    “martyrs for the cause of more compassionate farming”

    I’ve got a head of lettuce and a carrot who also were martyred for the same cause. Will VINE take them in and can they have a petition and their on Facebook page? Their names are Butch and Julius. Who will speak for them? Spare them and let them live out their retirement in peace. Save them from the salad shooter.

  • Geoff, to vegans and vegetarians, the good ‘ol “ZOMG VEGETABLES HAVE FEELINGS SAVE THEM FROM UNJUST SALAD EATERS” is a bit like Godwin’s law! So thanks for bringing it back down!
  • Geoff
    Don’t know what ZOMG means. And I more like The Arrogant Worms song “Carrot Juice is Murder” 8>)

    Here’s a point to consider:
    U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report (“Livestock’s Long Shadow”) that holds livestock raising as responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions. Not only does the report reveal a bias in favor of intensive farming, ….. it also attributes the largest portion of that 18% to deforestation, a figure that is now decreasing and that is not wholly attributable to animal husbandry.

    Just saying that what things appear to be may not be what they really are.

  • Rucio
    Well, Geoff, that’s why it was never about denying the GMC students their meat, but about acting with compassion towards the two very well known and beloved oxen, Bill and Lou. That’s why many nonvegans joined the call to spare them, why even ranchers and dairy farmers offered sanctuary.

    It was turned into a veganism-versus–animal agriculture fight by the college, because there was no room in their curriculum for compassion. They have no moral standing on either ground.

  • Sharon Henry-Vasquez
    GMC SUPPORTERS, One of the biggest mistakes you are making is believing that everyone fighting to save Bill is a bunch of extremists. Most of us are not, Its BECAUSE of what you’ve done to Bill & Lou that I have now become VEGAN and that I now fight against ALL SLAUGHTER HOUSES!! The REASON I was so upset and up in arms IN THE FIRST PLACE was because you CHOSE to not retire Bill & Lou to a lovely sanctuary, instead of wanting to kill them. Its not like you needed the meat….money was offered in return! You wanted this so called “test case” to be attributed to GMC!! If you had any HUmanity at all, you would have chosen LIFE over DEATH! You could’ve went and bought meat that was already from a DEAD animal!! I also believe you slaughtered Lou. The LONGER this goes on, the more MAIN STREAM people are going to get involved. Also, whatever slaughterhouse you took Lou to will be revealed to the public. PEOPLE ARE TALKING!! Do the right thing, and send Bill to Sanctuary. Why not show society that you are willing to compromise & that you are GOOD people. You are making it hard for anyone to believe differently, especially as this story grows and reaches more people!
  • pattrice
    @Sharon, glad to know that you’ve come to realize that they’re all Bill and Lou and have consequently decided to go vegan.

    @Wild Jane, whose increasingly odd attacks on VINE I don’t feel obliged to publish: Nothing could be further from the truth. The more we and other scholars look at GMC’s “farm” program, the more clear it becomes that the students are ill-served. They’re so busy playing Old House on the Prairie with their wooden plows that they don’t get to learn much about basic agronomy much less the exciting developments in truly sustainable agriculture. The vegetable plot is smaller than many home gardens. And I guess nobody ever taught them that you can produce 5 to 10 times more protein per acre by growing soy or legumes than by setting land aside for grazing animals to make milk, and up to 15 times more protein per acre than land set aside for meat production. I believe that agricultural historian James McWilliams is now writing a book specifically about the Green Mountain College controversy, specifically because he is so appalled by what he has learned about their allegedly ethical educational and agricultural practices. So, if they killed Lou in hopes that doing so would make the controversy go away, that’s not happening.

  • pattrice
    @Wild Jane, you are sincerely confused about the facts of the matter. We never offered any money for Lou and Bill. We are an animal sanctuary. We do not engage in buying and selling animals. Others did offer to buy the oxen. Others did offer donations, some quite substantial, to the college in exchange for showing mercy. Perhaps because of their ethical view that the elderly and disabled should not be allowed to consume resources if they are no longer useful, the college President refused those offers. We do not know if he abided by his obligation to consult the Board of Trustees before turning down a substantial donation to the library, and we do hope that students, parents, and Trustees will ask him to account for that decision, which cost the college more than money.

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