Life = $100?
To the Editor:
On a beautiful and clear Saskatchewan morning one year ago this Sept. 23, our treasured friend and relative set out to join her husband in the field to help with the harvest.
She was killed instantly when a truck crashed into her car from behind. The road was clear of visual obstruction, yet the driver claimed not to have seen her. He pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention. The judge fined him a mere $100.
The judge explained that the limits of the law regarding this charge restricted him to fining $100. This is a gross insult to our friend’s life and all who loved her.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
It is frightening to think that this death and any other caused by careless driving is deemed less of a crime than that of speeding or numerous other minor infractions of the law.
It is also interesting to note, although not the main subject of this letter, that the victim, as we understand it, was tested for drugs and alcohol yet the driver of the truck was not.
To add insult to injury, under Saskatchewan’s no fault insurance, her husband received the minimal amount of recompense because his beloved wife did not contribute a regular income to the household.
Thus we have a second unspeakable insult to our friend and all farmers’ wives whose contribution to their households and to society is to toil beside their husbands in order to maintain the family farm.
Nothing can bring her back to us and only time will help to ease the pain of her death. …
Her loss is tragic beyond words and coupled with this travesty of justice from a government that holds her life, on two counts, to be of so little value constitutes a horrible truth that must be told.
– Dale Calderwood,
James McGee,
Coquitlam, B.C.
Vote needed
To the Editor:
Many cattlemen wonder how the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency can go ahead with a program that has only had the first reading in the House of Commons. They are coming out with deadlines on when calves are to be tagged.
(The) president of the stock growers informed the Assiniboia Livestock that he did not want his calves put in with calves that did not have CCIA tags.
How can these people go ahead with a program that is not as yet law and is a program cattlemen do not want?
The RM of Bengough had a vote on the CCIA program and are 100 percent against it and want a vote.
The president of the stock growers said you are not getting a vote and that’s final.
Canada is supposed to be a great country to live in, and is also supposed to be (a) democratically run country. Many of us wonder why a few people are making the laws and making their own rules and the livestock producer is not even given a chance to vote on an issue that could upset the whole livestock industry.
– Archie Shaver,
Bengough, Sask.
Bovine acupuncture
To the Editor:
The field of veterinarian medicine no longer fills its traditional role in our society. Modern technology, innovative new ideas and an increased awareness of animal health among clients makes the nature of the profession change every day.
The recent article entitled “Acupuncture based on body harmony” by Dr. Jeff Grognet (Sept. 14) shows us an excellent example of how ancient ideas are broadening the basis of the conventional practice.
I’ve heard of specialized small animal and equine practitioners using the discipline of acupuncture to treat a variety of musculoskeletal, dematologic, neurologic and reproductive disorders, but this is the first time I’ve read about its applications to bovine.
If this relatively new strategy to animal health is well researched, one can only begin to imagine the benefits for herd managers. …
The practice of acupuncture could also have an effect on the quality or potentially the quantity of the meat. If acupuncture can restore the flow of chi, as suggested by Grognet, animals should be more relaxed and endure less stress and this in turn may have an impact on marbling and meat quality….
Although the things suggested may not be practical for feedlots or large-scale operations, smaller cow-calf operations may find acupuncture very beneficial.
Acupuncture will have a huge impact on the nature of veterinarian medicine as well. Herd managers are becoming increasingly educated in treating their own animals and this has made the need for bovine practitioners limited. Procedures such as castration have essentially been abandoned and replaced with simpler methods that do not require a veterinarian.
Acupuncture has the capability of increasing the demand for bovine practices because it will broaden the spectrum by which they operate. People like myself, who may sometimes feel the pressure to give in to the demand for small animal veterinarians, can now feel reassured that the fate of the bovine practitioner is not in jeopardy.
– Waylon Wise,
Pre-Veterinarian Student at the University of Alberta,
Edmonton, Alta.
Thanks anyway
To the Editor:
To the firefighters: Thank you for your efforts.
To the United States Forest Service: Everything that we love is gone … up in smoke. Your mismanagement of our forests has turned our beautiful west into an ash heap. To Bill Clinton and Al Gore: Because of your environmental policies, the jobs are gone, our way of life is gone and the beauty is gone.
A special thanks to you, Bill Clinton and Al Gore, for destroying our family farms. You have destroyed our way of life, our families, and the small towns and businesses that once thrived here. You have taken agriculture, the most important and number one industry in America, and turned it into a welfare program.
It is an absolute national disgrace that those who produce the food and lumber for the richest nation on earth are losing their jobs, their livelihood and their farms….
– Gary Willson,
Reubens, Idaho
