Published: November 4th, 2011 at 11:04 am ET
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Nov. 4 — Fukushima’s cattle farmers “are growing increasingly desperate,” reports Mainichi, as the halt of crop farming forces massive amounts of manure to accumulate.
“Not only is the fertilizer shed overflowing with manure, the cows in the barn stand in their own excrement nearly 70 centimeters deep,” details the article, “They sometimes shake their massive bodies as if they’re trying to wiggle free.”
“Cows like to be clean, and suffer high stress levels and illness when kept in unhygienic conditions,” according to Mainichi, “Indeed, almost half the cows in Mizunoya’s barn are experiencing deteriorating health.”
SOURCE: Mainichi
“The prefectural government has advised that cattle farmers remove excrement from the cow barns and store it in a separate location. Mizunoya however, has not done so because of the many residences in the vicinity and a fear of causing environmental pollution. According to prefectural officials, many cattle farmers are facing similar conundrums.”
Published: November 4th, 2011 at 11:04 am ET
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That is pure cruelty! Why can’t they at least get the shit out and pile it outside???
Think of the cow’s feet! How do they ever sleep? Aaaaargh!
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As heart rending as it is, the cows are not the only one’s knee deep in kak. At least their plight is obvious and has an obvious solution (if only the Japanese farmers had their priorities straight) whereas the rest of us are wading around in invisible kak, most of us don’t even realise it yet and apparently the level is rising with no solution in sight.
Moooooooooooooo
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Apparently the cows have been holding TEPCO press conferences in their sheds.
It is cruelty, but is it another subtle prepatory article trying to convince the public that people should repopulate the prefecture?
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Dear Faraway: Correct. I keep re-watching various Chernobyl documentaries. I recently re-watched “Chernobyl Heart” (easily seen online), and the same crap of “resettlement without fixing any part of the problem” is pulled in the Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia, but especially in Belarus, even with millions of post Chernobyl kids with genetic defects, and dosimetric (ionizing radiation internalized from food, milk, air) related illnesses, these states still try to make it all appear normal. They, these states that are becoming MORE contaminated, appear ready to move back into previously excluded zones, which is a similar and far more quickly state pursued phenom in the FDI cataclysm case of Japan. We have a similar example of such in the case of Love Canal in Niagara Falls in the Buffalo Area. It was so contaminated for years, that many maps merely blocked out this neighborhood as empty–didn’t exist–denial–as having no roads. Then lately a decade or two after it was magically erased from road maps and atlases, it reappears in atlases, even though the soil definitely has never been properly abated, The U.S. government opens it up to have homes, once again sold…built on the same unremediated soils, bubbling and oozing with toluene, benzenes, etc. Of course, the problems in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, Norway, with their intensifying problems of radionuclide contamination are far far worse. They have a phenom not seen before Chernobyl of holes in the hearts and diminished heart sizes in the children of those exposed, rampant infant mortalities, underweight babies. They now have a new situation post Chernobyl of “abandoned baby centers”. The mental wards are full of and overflowing with children, teenagers, young adults, with severe deformities and mental functioning issues that never existed before Chernobyl. Can we not learn? We being those aside from ENE who haven’t woken up.
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Pallas I’ve also watched a few Chernobyl youtubes lately. The very same happened there, no solutions and STILL no solutions have come through for the Russian People. So very sad. And I still say Fukushima has topped the chart for WORST EVER. Way above a 7.
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All the livestock in Fukushima prefecture is likely to die in the coming months. There is very little that can be done if the animals are not able to graze outside. The chances the farmers could recover the same farming conditions is very low. No one wants to consume animal bi-product that is contaminated. All business in that region will come to a slow and painful halt.
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It is very cruel to the cows. Just put up temporary shed-like structures and put it in there. I don’t understand the statement that “the halt of crop farming” has “force[d] massive amounts of manure to accumulate.” If its accumulating because it’s not being spread onto crops–why can’t they dump it on the empty field where the crops normally would be. Stop the self-delusion that Fukushima land might be farmable again in this century.
I have a bad feeling this stuff is eventually going to get incinerated.
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They should just put all the cows down… sad but true …
The cows are radioactive, the fields are radioactive, the poop is radioactive, the cows cannot be eaten either , just put them all down…
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+1
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+1
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We are not being very good keepers of the herd. You are correct, to force a sentient animal to live in these conditions is cruelty.
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Japan is so land starved that often the raising of cattle is done in a bare minimum of space, literally. There is often nowhere outside of the barn on the property to place it. To remove it, they would have to find a place on others’ property to accept it. And no one is accepting it. And all available storage space is already filled.
It is usually sold as fertilizer, and goes as fast as it’s depositied, but no one wants it now, as no one is growing because of the contamination.
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@dosdos This was my understanding too that most of the non-organic livestock farming in Japan is of the intensive, battery, stockyard type. In fact, I think I’m correct in saying that Japan buys in part-grown meat animals from Canada and then slaughters them after just a few months because of lack of pasture. All in all this is another feature of the unacceptable face of the agro-chemical industry. I saw a video of a battery farm in Japan where the hens had just been left to starve in their cages because the farmer could not get a grain delivery inside the exclusion zone. All these animals have had a life of misery and now they are just treated as expendable not even set free to forage. What makes me even more angry is that there were farmers working in Fukushima for a better future, organic and conversion-to-organic farmers who have seen their whole dream go up in those plumes in March. They were trying to change this disgusting mode of farming and many of them have now committed suicide in final despair. Intensive farming is a worldwide abomination and the Japanese Nuclear catastrophe just spotlights ever more the callous inhumane nature of it.
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Put them down in a humane fashion or they should turn them all out in the “exclusion zone”..as in the Chernobyl “forest”. Just keeping them standing in manure-is criminal.
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I wasn’t defending them, merely elaborating on the situation that breeds this. In a strict cultural structure with limited resources, one thing amiss from the established procedure can cause chaos and suffering. This is one sad example of the crisis’ consequences rippling through Japan’s inflexibility.
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This is like not helping grandma up the stairs….
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Agriculture in this area needs to stop, period. There’s no reason they should continue to try to raise cattle in these circumstances. The government needs to step up and help these farmers financially now, otherwise consumers will fear domestic beef in Japan for years to come. There’s plenty of food that could be imported into Japan, at least temporarily, until the situation improves.
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Oh Tanuki San,
With all respect, “…until the situation improves”. Sorry my friend(s), this situation will not improve for a long, long time.
So sad for the animals the people the innocent. All life is to be respected.
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Tanuki San, please, try to not to be in denial about this situation. I know it’s hard to stop hoping that the government will somehow wake up and save you. But now you must help yourself. It will be better for your medical care planning if you start investigating methods now to keep yourself and your family as comfortable and supported in these next few months.
These animals should be compassionately killed if no one is to care for them.
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Some kind of national and international veterinary organizations need to get involved here. There are still vast, open areas, where they might ship these animals to detox…Australia, Russia, the Middle East. They will have to eat a lot of Zeolite, Boron, etc. for a long time and get some special care.
GET ALL THE UNPROTECTED LIVING CREATURES OUT OF FUKUSHIMA!!!
Those cows don’t have respirators!!!
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During Chernobyl, a lot of animals were saved for years to come by getting them to safety and better care, despite huge exposures that would kill people! Livestock respond well and quickly to concentrated detox treatment. These animals still have commercial value, so long as they’re “cleaned” up FAST, out of danger, & back to health!! (probably prior excellent Japanese standards and their large body mass has kept them standing!!)
AGAIN, GET ALL THE UNPROTECTED LIVING CREATURES OUT OF THERE!!!
DO NOT BRING IN CRITICALLY ENDANGERED PANDAS–THAT’S CRAZY!! EVACUATE THE FUKUSHIMA ZOO NOW!! DON’T BE STUPID & INSANE!!!
The longer you wait…. Time is of the Essence. Life or Death.
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In fact, why don’t they send them to India in the southern hemisphere? They would treat all the cows with kindness, like royalty!!
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This pretty much sums it up for Japan:
The longer you wait……
Time is of the Essence.
It’s Life or Death.
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