Harris Ranch is a landmark on Intersate 5 in Coalinga, CA. It is hard to miss. For those of you who don't know, it is a feedlot with a inn, a restaurant, and a store. I have never been but I have heard that their restaurant is amazing. Harris Ranch is a family owned and operated business which is very succesful. They are amazing at branding themselves which is probaby one of the many reasons for their success.
On Sunday morning, the north american animal liberation destroyed 14 cattle trucks at Harris Ranch. The news article from the San Fransisco Chronicle is here. To see the letter from the activist group and Harris Ranch's reply go here. They did this becasue they choose a "direct form of action" against evil factory farms. Harris ranch is a family owned company - a very succesful family owned company. The activist group was not taking action against factory farming, they were taking action against animal agriculture.
It is quite ironic that they chose the weekend before Martin Luther King Jr's birthday to ignite the cattle trucks and then challenge all of the activists that are 'on the fence' about violent protests to take action because "there is a lot of stuff that needs to be destroyed."
Even my first graders know the golden rule - Treat others the way you want to be treated. Apparently, these activists want their means of transportation to be burned to the ground.
I get being passionate about something but I do not get the ignorance that people show. If you don't like the farming practices of a business then don't support them - don't just go out and burn up their stuff! These activists have probably never been to Harris Ranch and asked about how they treat their animals or whatever it is that they were so angry about. They probably just take all the pictures out there of animals in semingly bad conditions as how the entire industry treats their animals.
If you want to be informed - get in touch with a local farmer and ask questions. Not questions that can be answered yes or no, instead sit down and talk to them - tell them your concerns, tell them what you want for your family and if they don't provide what you want they can point you in the right direction. Farmers are not evil mindless machines - they are people with families and values just like you!
6 comments:
So glad to read your reaction to what happened! Just a few days ago I did a post on my own blog about what happened. Great post!
Yeah I'm not sure how burning cattle trailers really is going to do anything to the cattle industry. Those activists are just flat out rude and deceitful!
But how cool would it be to own a business like theirs! I might be a little envious!
This is awful!!! I hope those activists are prosecuted. I'm thinking they should be required to spend time on the farm or something. :( I hope no animals were hurt.
how terrible!!! this is as radical and foolish and destructive as the right-wing Christians who feel killing an abortionist is justified. ugh!!!
I just heard about this...that is ridiculous. Wow. These crazy people....I simply do NOT understand it.
The Harris Family also gives back to the community in ways the mainstream media never reports on. I don't know if you get KMJ radio where you are, but Assemblyman Valadao was on the Appleton show this week talking about the incident and also about dairy cattle comfort...very informative and interesting for people to know. Great job on this blog, too!
Post a Comment