The Davison County Commission clearly prefers the smell of money to free speech. Gail Hahne, who runs Purr ‘N Ruff Rescue in Mitchell, asked the Davison County Sheriff to host her September seminar on investigating animal cruelty. The Sheriff’s office said sure, fine… but the cops and the county commission are warning her not to say anything bad about Davison County’s factory feedlots:
Davison County Commission Chairwoman Brenda Bode said she was skeptical about the county endorsing the event without knowing what would be discussed, and said she didn’t want to have an event that was attacking local livestock agricultural producers. Bode said a number of local producers called her concerned about the event.
“This is an agricultural county. We are fortunate and we have good animal caretakers and we want to make this is something that wouldn’t do something negative to that industry,” she said.
…“The sheriff and I talked about this and it’s going to be a strictly dogs and cats seminar, and if it’s not, I’m going to personally put a stop to it,” Harr said.
“As long as people know our agricultural producers are off limits,” added Commissioner Denny Kiner [Marcus Traxler, “Animal Cruelty Event Hits Nerve with County Officials,” Mitchell Daily Republic, 2019.06.25].
CAFOs pollute our air and water, make people sick, produce inferior meat, hurt economic growth in rural South Dakota, and crowd small family farms out of the market, all with the support of state tax dollars. And animal cruelty happens in some agricultural production facilities as surely as it happens in some pet production facilities.
Dang, now that I’ve stated those facts, the Davison County Commission won’t let me host any information meetings in their jurisdiction.
Just another day in Noemistan….
👊 ☭ “I’m going to personally put a stop to it,” Harr said. Bode said she was skeptical about the event without first knowing what would be discussed. ☭ 🛂
~ Davison County’s got a bone to pick with Freedom of Speech? Speak Truth to Power, Gail Hahne!
Call the ACLU for threatening people’s constitutional rights to say what they want.
Northern Mississippi is turning cafo owners into a protected class with special rights.
Not surprised coming from Denny Kiner. So much for free speech.
Can’t criticize CAFOs, can’t protest oil pipelines, can’t put anti-Trump messages on social media, can’t put measures on the ballot….
Reminds me of Texas suing Oprah for criticizing beef.
The Sheriff has since canceled the training that was endorsed by the National Sheriff’s Association and has already been held three times in the state with great success. Topics covered included training on dog fighting, puppy mills and other area issues. This training is for law enforcement by law enforcement. My question is…what are they so afraid of?
Shari- they probably aren’t afraid of anything. Odds are they don’t think the issues are worth their time.
The sheriff changed his mind? The September event is off? Is that in the news anywhere? Did he give reasons for canceling after giving it the o.k.?