All Your B(A)SE Are Belong to Cows

New twist in tale of BSE’s beginnings

Sheep didn’t do it.

Cows eating cows did it … or maybe sheep eating cows. Their brains got sick. Then your brains got sick. Cows and sheep don’t really eat each other – at least not that they’re aware of. And thousands of mice got sick to remind you that feeding cows to sheep or sheep to cows, and either one or both to yourself, is still a bad idea.

This One Will Make It

Update 2/26/2007: The efforts to care for these rescued sheep continues and we urge you to read more about them courtesy of chimerae over at LiveJournal. chimerae’s brother is a veterinarian assisting with the survivors’ ongoing rehabilitation.

We have some additional donation/contact information below for those organizations accepting emergency care funds, projected to be in excess of $120,000 even before the Oklahoma Supreme Court hears this case on March 13. Dr. Marcotte said it best:

The new law is supposed to empower law enforcement to act quickly to secure the resources to provide for the care of animals in need. It’s a tragedy that that the law has to be tested for the first time when the need and expense is so great.

Craig County is desperately underfunded for this effort. Please give what you can to help save these innocent lives. And when we say “save lives,” that does not include auctioning them off to cover the cost of their rescue and rehabilitation.

Craig County Livestock Rescue Fund
First National Bank of Vinita
102 W. Illinois Ave.
Vinita, OK 74301

Marcotte Veterinary Service
30588 S 4400 Rd.
Vinita, OK 74301

The Kelly Family (providing care for 1200 sheep, 300 cattle)
26644 South 4360 Rd.
Vinita, OK 74301

Dr. Justin Roscoe holds an infant lamb rescued from the Bluejacket, Oklahoma “farm” where thousands of sheep were left to die of starvation when their owner, David Bradley Bell, couldn’t afford to feed them anymore.

Bell, who was previously investigated for failing to care for the cattle on his property, has lost his bid to have the surviving sheep in the current case returned to him.

David Bradley Bell doesn’t look like he’s missed many meals to us. His sheep didn’t fare so well.

Their feed bunks and barns held only the decomposed bodies of their herdmates.

Rescuers and caretakers of the survivors need your help to provide food, shelter, and veterinary care for them. Please consider donating to:

Oklahoma Alliance for Animals

Craig County Oklahoma Sheriff's Office
301 W. Canadian Ave.
Vinita, OK 74301

Ain't life funny?

Remember the story about a tall truck that was stuck under a low overpass and the contingent of company reps, transportation officials, LE and by-standers who couldn’t figure out how to get the poor driver unstuck? Enter one kid and the only reasonable solution: let the air out of the tires.

While the UC Extension system’s “livestock experts” are busy torching their research your tax dollars on making tall sheep sick, one guy with a weed problem just solved his dilemma the common sense way. PFW knows 4 mini-Southdowns personally, each one the ovine equivalent of a Ragdoll cat and neither breed at all suitable for a cheese-making endeavor. We hope Steve keeps his promise to Henley, Matilda, Althea, their future family, and you.

NT-12

Do you like cartoons? Most children do as long as they’re not too scary. Here’s one they might stare at over and over again.

Do you like apples?

NT-12 did. She just couldn’t stand up to eat them without help anymore. Or drink, or swallow, or breathe.

1. Caseous Lymphadenitis with:
a-Nephritis, suppurative (abscesses), multifocal (embolic), bilateral
b-Internal abscesses in: abdominal wall, diaphragm, liver, internal iliac lymph nodes
c-Positive serology for C. pseudotuberculosis

Etiology: Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis

2. Stomatitis, locally extensive, necrotizing, with plant material. Probable traumatic (food) etiology
3. Low copper and vitamin E status
4. Sarcocystis spp. infestation, severe, incidental
5. Glomerulosclerosis, multifocal, chronic
6. Fungal culture pending
7. Scrapie results pending

Pathologist's notes state: "These sheep had multifocal health problems including caseous lymphadenitis, copper and vitamin E deficiency and severe Sarcocystis spp. infestation. Please consider reviewing the health and nutritional management of the flock to control/prevent these problems in other animals."

How’d ya like those apples?

Thomas

He was a big feet, big ears, nuzzling, wooly beast. Wheat Thins junkie, hug-bug, itch my cheeks, head-press you in the chest type of sheep.

Thomas can’t meet you at the Pierce College Farm Walk, poke around in your pockets for treats, or scratch his head on your hip. Hoisted, lowered, then trucked away for disposal. He can never tell you why he was ill or why he died. We can only tell you how Thomas spent the last night of his short life: alone in his pen, weak, inappetant, febrile, and struggling to breathe.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Save his flock, and a little part of Thomas may still be around to greet you.

9-1-1

I'm sure they can all reach this in case of an emergency, or just choose the tallest to give it a go.

I'm guessing it's a direct line for help?

As the temperature drops and wind sweeps the rain in, we ask you once again to remember the animals on the Pierce College farm, especially the tiny ones, bracing for another storm.

A dry bed in a warm corner, is it really so much of a luxury?

If you care for my hooves now,

I might not be lame before I'm three.

Life among the ruins

Pray for this tiny innocent,

and that her fate is not her family’s.

Tall sheep and news of Thible and Lucy

David Blaine is not levitating that sheep. He’s in a bar down the street.

She’s securely on a few feets-worth of solid manure and molded hay ground.

And we’ve gotten some news on the whereabouts of Thible, Lucy and friends.

We never said it was good news.

Ah, Elegantly wasted

“We run We hide
We wait and we want
The good life
Aw sure You're right
This ain't, the good life.”

Happy Australia Day!

Which we almost missed due to our own inattention to the calendar. Or maybe because we're busy monitoring the conditions for animals on the Los Angeles Pierce College farm. But since there are still a few hours left here on the West Coast to celebrate, we thought we'd do it with more than a few deserving sheep. This little guy is in the party mood--just look at that smile.

He might be even happier if he had clean water and a place to live that wasn't carpeted with urine, feces and molded feed. There seems to be a covered hay rack for him under the roof in back, but it's so darn far away. It took us almost 3 seconds to reach it, but then we're more suited for sprints than distance mileage. Well, at least they don't do this here.

Yumm, lunch.

Bah. Same as last week.

The smell in here...well, the amount of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide gas rising off this rotting pile is more than a little. How much, we really couldn't say. But I bet these folks could.

Do you think sheep get bored with their surroundings, or sick of them? Maybe sheep get sick because of their surroundings. Just a thought. Yours…?