Cattle Shipment

This is Daisy, one of my very favorite cows from my milking days.

Thankfully it wasn't the cow above that was being tortured, but it was a cow non the less. My husband Dewey is a truck driver. Today he calls me upset. He is on the job getting his trailer inspected so it can be approved to go into Canada. He is at the Detroit Michigan Customs. He pulls up to see three men, all are white, one is an older man with a beard. They all have electric cattle prods, and they are repeatedly shocking a cow that could not get up in the trailer, they take turns shocking the cow in the head, neck, shoulders, rear, etc. Basically where ever they can reach with the prods. Unfortunately there is nothing he can do about the situation as he is *on the job*, and would you approach three men with weapons by yourself????

So he does the next best thing, IMO. He calls me with a full description. The truck (a big rig) is white with a stencil of a bull w/horns on the side. It says Matt Johnson Carrier, Farwell Michigan #008 on the side. My husband witnessed this happened for at least 10-15 minutes, they were doing it before he got there, and were still doing it as he was leaving.

So of course this has me VERY angry. So I start calling people, and letting everyone I can think of know what had happened. I called the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, The Ontario and Michigan Animal Abuse Hotlines, US and Canadian Customs, among others. I must have called at least a dozen different numbers and left as many detailed messages as I could. I did get through to a lady in US Customs who took down all my information and said she would do what she could and call me back (we shall see if she does). I got through to another guy with crime reporting or something like that. He took my full statement as well. I hope "something" happens to punish these men.

But I am in Maine....and this did happen in Michigan. I wish my husband hadn't been on the job so he could have searched out someone in customs to file a complaint with, but I think he did good in calling me, and I made a very real attempt to alert the proper people to handle the situation. I just wish I could have done more.