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No hate in my holler

Daily Yonder | Posted on August 30, 2017

When Hale and others learned in February that a white supremacist group known as the Traditionalist Worker Party planned to hold a rally with the National Socialist Movement and the League of the South in Pikeville, they were stunned. In response, Hale headed up a day of making art at the Boone Youth Drop-In Center, where she coordinates workshops. That day, she developed a print that read “No Hate in My Holler,” with the hashtag #GoHomeNaziScum at the bottom. The image stirred something in the community’s imagination, and requests for prints and t-shirts followed. Hale’s image appeared on shirts of protesters throughout the rally that day, and #NoHateInMyHoller became a hashtag on Instagram and Twitter in the weeks that followed. Hale assumed the phrase would decline after Pikeville. This month, however, it was revived as neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups descended on Charlottesville.


Farmland Scenes from Hurricane Harvey

http://www.agriculture.com/news/livestock/12-striking-farmland-livestock-scenes-from-hurricane-harvey | Posted on August 30, 2017

While emergency responders work to ensure Houston’s residents are out of harm’s way, farmers and the Texas Animal Health Commission with the assistance of volunteers and police are doing what they can to keep livestock safe from Hurricane Harvey. Little is known about the number of cattle deaths so far as ranchers are cut off from parts of their land and groups like the Horseback Emergency Response Team, a group of volunteers who ride horses into affected areas, are waiting for waters to recede. 


Governor revamps panel to strengthen animal cruelty laws

Minnesota Star Tribune | Posted on August 30, 2017

Sununu, a Republican, joined officials from the Humane Society and the Wolfeboro Police Department on Thursday to sign an executive order expanding the duties of the 13-year-old Commission on the Humane Treatment of Animals. Sitting on a table in front of him was an eight-week-old puppy, born to one of Fay's dogs that had been surrendered to an animal shelter shortly before the other dogs were seized. Sununu said he looks forward to working with the panel to strengthen animal cruelty laws."We're not just re-establishing it ... we're putting a little more oomph into it," he said of the commission."Whether it's dogs or cats or bears, we do have a responsibility," Sununu said. "It's part of who we are in the state of New Hampshire. It's part of our culture."


Why the War on Opioids Is Entering Veterinarians’ Offices

Governing | Posted on August 29, 2017

Colorado and Maine recently enacted laws that allow or require veterinarians to check the prescription histories of pet owners as well as their pets. And Alaska, Connecticut and Virginia have imposed new limits on the amount of opioids a vet can prescribe. Veterinarians typically do not dispense such widely abused drugs as Vicodin, OxyContin or Percocet, but they do dispense Tramadol, a painkiller; ketamine, an anesthetic, and hydrocodone, an opiate used to treat coughing in dogs – controlled substances that humans abuse.But even as some states push for veterinarians to assess the records of human clients, many veterinarians maintain they’re unqualified to do so. And while a handful of states now require vets to check the prescription histories of pet owners, about two-thirds of the states explicitly prohibit it.


Abused Dogs and Cats Now Have a (Human) Voice in Connecticut Courts

The New York Times | Posted on August 29, 2017

Jessica Rubin’s turn to approach the judge came between drunken-driving cases and a series of procedural appearances best measured in seconds. She unspooled an account of how the police found eight pit bulls kept in filthy conditions with scars that looked like they came from staged fights. She read from a police report of the scene where an officer wrote that “words cannot describe the stench.” Professor Rubin, who teaches law at the University of Connecticut, had come to the Superior Court here to argue against returning two of the dogs, including one that was pregnant, to a man who claimed to own them. Instead, she said, the dogs needed to be released from animal control to rescue groups.“That’s what the advocate would recommend to the court,” Professor Rubin told the judge. “Every day that passes continues the suffering of these dogs and makes it more unlikely they can have a normal life.”Last year, Connecticut enacted a law that, according to legal experts, made it the first state to allow judges to appoint lawyers and law students as advocates for dogs and cats in cases of cruelty, abuse and neglect. The case in Manchester was one of several that Professor Rubin and her students had been assigned to, bringing them to court regularly, almost always flanked by unofficial advocates from Desmond’s Army, the assembly of activists named for the dog whose death in 2012 inspired the law.A rising movement in the criminal justice system has placed an emphasis on giving more of a voice to and adding support for crime victims. Across the country, judges routinely appoint advocates in cases involving children and the infirm.


A pent-up threat to the Chesapeake Bay: Editorial

Penn Live | Posted on August 24, 2017

Just a few miles from the Maryland- Pennsylvania border lies the Conowingo Dam, an 88-year-old power station stopping the massive Susquehanna River, which is the source of much of the freshwater flowing into the Chesapeake Bay. Since bay cleanup began, states in the Chesapeake watershed have relied on the dam to limit the flow of sediment and phosphorous further downstream, and the plan was to continue doing so for decades to come. But the dam's sediment pools are full, long before the cleanup plan projected them to be. Now Maryland, where the dam is located, and Pennsylvania, which is responsible for much of the pollution in the Susquehanna, have to decide what, if anything, to do about it.Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced last week that the state would conduct some limited dredging behind the dam, testing the feasibility of doing so on a larger scale and determining whether there could be some use for the material recovered.But Chesapeake environmental advocates are wary, concerned that diverting focus and resources to dredging behind the dam might undermine more important environmental initiatives, such as stopping pollution from entering the Susquehanna and other rivers in the first place. That is an argument for proceeding with care, not refusing to attend to the dam.


Texas investigates brucellosis, warns against K-Bar raw milk

Food Safety News | Posted on August 22, 2017

Texas officials say all raw milk and other unpasteurized products from K-Bar Dairy should not be consumed and should immediately be discarded because the dairy has been linked to an antibiotic-resistant strain of Brucella bacteria that has hospitalized at least one person. “At this time, it is uncertain how long Brucella (bacteria) may have been present in the raw milk from this dairy. Testing is ongoing in an attempt to answer that question,” according to the Monday alert from the Texas Department of State Health Services.


Examining Farm Sector and Farm Household Income

USDA | Posted on August 21, 2017

Farm sector net cash income is expected to decline 35 percent between 2013 and 2016, following several years of record highs—though it will remain near its recent 10-year average.  Starting in the late 1990s, the median household income for farm households has exceeded the median income of all U.S. households; in 2015, farm households had a median total household income of $76,735, a third greater than that of all U.S. households but less than that of U.S. households with a self-employed head. Federal Government payments—including disaster assistance programs and commodity program payments—are expected to be about $13 billion in 2016, and buffer swings in farm income.


Telemedicine extends healthcare to rural patients

Farm and Dairy | Posted on August 21, 2017

A doctor’s appointment, particularly with a specialist, can mean long hours of driving and sitting in waiting rooms. But a new telemedicine program through the Butler Health System in western Pennsylvania is giving patients more free time and less wait time. Telemedicine visits — where patients meet with doctors via a computer video connection instead of in person — allow patients to cut down on the lost time by staying closer to home.


Pig-to-person spread of flu at fairs a continued concern

Phys.org | Posted on August 21, 2017

The spread of influenza among pigs is common at fairs and other gatherings, and protective measures including cutting the length of time pigs and people congregate make good sense for both the animals and humans, say the authors of a new study. A team led by Andrew Bowman of The Ohio State University tracked human cases of H3N2 swine  associated with seven agricultural fairs in 2016. They tallied 18 cases in Ohio and Michigan documented after exposure to flu-infected pigs. Though most of these infections caused mild, manageable illness, new flu viruses jumping from pigs to people raises the risk of a .The good news is that there are ways to curtail the spread of disease without eliminating swine exhibits altogether, said Bowman, an assistant professor of veterinary medicine. Chief among them: a 72-hour limit to swine exhibits, which would interrupt widespread flu transmission from pig to pig and from pigs to people, he said."Shorter exhibitions don't eliminate the possibility of the disease spreading, but it can be the difference between a few  catching the virus and most of them becoming infected," Bowman said.


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