Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1983-08-31, Page 1• ila�uatt�titi s"sets 50c Q ositor ,000 loss arn fire Over $100,000 and close to 200 pis were lost in a barn fire at the farm of Richard Downey, :of-RR5 Seaforth, Lot 40, Conces- sion 4 which started Thursday evening around 5 p.m. After blowing straw into the barn, the Downeys were having supper when Clare •Downey noticed smoke coming from' the upper section where the straw was stored. The fire, which was brought under controlC4 around 3 a.m., destroyed the main barn, the pig barn, the milking equipment, and approximately 40 sows and 150 weaners. Because the cattle were out in the field when the Fire started, no cattle were lost and the family managed to save 25 calves and some pigs. Also saved were a new pole barn at the east side, grain storage bins and the silo containing the haylage. "The fact that the main barn was nretty well full of straw helped to save the one part of the barn sine the burning straw slowed the fire down, ' says Seaforth fire chief, Harry Hak. When a spark from the main barn started the haylage on fire, volunteer firefighters put out the fire while one local man climbed up the outside of the silo to close the door so no more sparks could get into the silo. Some firemen stayed at the scene with the tanker until about 7 a.m. and were called back again that day and on Saturday, Since livestock was killed, the barn will be buried and Mr. Downey says the clean-up will take a couple of months. The barn of the century -old farm was partly covered by insurance and will be rebuilt. Cause of the fire is' believed to be spontaneous combustion. Councillors look at proposed landfill -site Council members from McKillop, Sea - forth and Tuckersmith now know more about the proposed new landfill site, for their communities. They walked to within yards of the site, now partially planted in corn, viewed maps and plans and asked questions of engineers Burns Ross and George Godin. Two'access roads to the site are possible, Mr. Ross told the councillors. One, off County Road 12, the paved road north from Seaforth, could involve expropttiatibn if the two landowners refuse to sell. Another could come into the•site from the north, off the Con. 5 and 6 road, across property owned by John ,John H. McLlwain Construction Ltd., owner "of the 38 acres selected for the dump. Engineers can list advantages and disad- vantages of each route, Mr. Ross said, but it will be up to the landfill site committee to decide which it wants. PRICE? - That corpmittee, and .the price to be paid for the lawn were:two of the tnajor topics at the. meeting, at the community centre, which - followed the site tour. Tuckersmith had asked for the meeting and McKillop had some objections to a landfill site draft agreement that all three municipalities had received. When Reeve Bob Bell of Tuckersmith, who chaired the informal meeting, summed up that he wasn't happy about the way the option • or price •of the land had been handled, "initiated by one municipality and that's not fair," Seaforth councillor Paul Ross objected. "For the record....the offer from Mr. McLlwain was not received and approved by the Town of Seaforth but by the committee." "There should be minutes some place," commented McKillop councillor Bill Leem- ing. Those minutes, as read by Seaforth clerk Jim Crocker, who acts as secretary to the landfill committee, showed the motion to take an option on the McLlwain offer to sell about 30 acres at that price was made by the Tuckersmith member, Bill Brown, to Sea - forth council. Minutes of the landfill committee (mem- bers are M'r: Brown, reeve Bill Campbell of Seaforth and Bill Siemon of McKillop) aren't sent to each council but Mr. Siemon circulates his at McKillop council, reeve Marie Hicknell said. The lawyer who will handle the Environmental Assessment Act hearing on the site says neither an executive .nor .motions are necessary, ,Mr, " Siemon said. But detailed minutes are kept by the engineers, because every step of the dump selection process has to be documented fully to meet environmental standards, CHAIRMAN Councillors from the two rural areas want a Please see DUMP on page 3 Frten fs and neighbours joined members df'the DoWney family of RRS-Seaforth to atop their cattle from 'racing towards their blazing;parn, The fire which started Thursday evening around 5, "caused $100,000 In damages alid the loss of. approximately 200 pigs. The main barn and pig barn werealso•destroyed alt jjugh the silo and a new pole``e�bern on the east side were saved.. <,, tHundertmark photo) Pornography easy to find in Seaforth BY SUSAN HUNDERTMARK They don't make much money for store owners, but pornographic magazines are easy to find in Seaforth. Whether they're wrapped in plastic, behind the counter, or on the top shelf, anyone (over 18) can buy Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, Swank and numerous other magazines for "adult entertainment". And, store owners aren't about to remove them from the shelves since few people complain and they say people should have the choice to read what they like. "Who am 1 to tell people what to buy?" says Bob Beuttenmiller, of Bob and Betty's Variety. Though he only makes 20 per cent on each magazine, Mr. Beuttenmiller guesses that his store sells the greatest number of pornographic magazines in town. He estimates .thathe,st;lls..iily ,14 copies of Playboy a month because i(1 •'Atootame," About 65 to 70 copies of Penthouse are•soldo every month compared to less than five copies of Playgirl. "We try to watch what we putout since some of them are really blatant and violent, But, we don't look in every magazine, ' he says. Since he is now renting out video tapes, he's decided to deal only with family movies. However, a salesman sent a Playboy video with the rest which stays in the back room. "I give it out occasionally but everyone who brings it back is disappointed. They say it's too tame." STUBBORN Though he believes the magazines affect • how people ,think about women, he says he's stubborn about them. "I don't like anyone telling me what to sell in my store," he says. One complaint was received when he displayed the magazines on the bottom shelf. A woman came in to say her son had looked though them and asked if he could move thein. So, he did. That woman was Barb Osborne, who works at Becker Milk Co. Ltd. which also , ells,pornographic knagazines. - . ,7My only oompldlnt-is-akgds,gettin)3aat them. If they're not wrapped in plastic when we get them, I send them back," she says. NOT MANY SOLD The plastic deters some customers and though she can't say exactly how many, Mrs. Osborne says she doesn't sell many magazines. Though she has no choice about selling ANTI -RABIES VACCINATIONS aren't as bad as they used to be. Instead of the much -feared needles In the stomach, people who have been in contact with the deadly disease now receive f Ive or six inter -muscular shots. Herb Harrison and five members of his family have been in contact with a rabid cow and as a result are taking the shots. "Rabies Is the only disease we've never had since we've been farming since 1939," says Mr. Harrison. (Waesink photo) pornography since it's Becker's policy, she says she'd talk to the company about taking them off the shelf if enough people complained. If they don't get them here, they'll get them somewhere else," says Judy Scarrow, the manager of Mac's Milk in Seaforth. Customers of the pornographic maga- zines are "everybody and anybody" though the majority are men between the ages of 20 and 35, says Mrs. Scarrow. "Sometimes policemen come inand ask fora Penthouse to a brown paper bag," she says. At Mac's, the magazines have been moved fron! the bottom shelf out in the open to a shelf five feet in the air behind the counter. "You have to ask for them and some people are a little hesitant to buy them because of that, l have -also asked some kids -to shownie.thelrI,IS, since you ltavet be18 to buy them, ' she says. - • Like Becker's, the company controls which magazines come into the store and complaints would be passed on to head office in Toronto. "Since there are 700 stores in Canada, I don't think complaints from one store would be enough." And, even though she says she, never looks at the magazines, Mrs. Scarrow says anyone who suggests pornography causes men to be violent towards women is crazy. My husband reads them so he must be one of them," she jokes. • Delegates to the recent meeting of the Federation of Women Teachers' Associa- tions of Ontario in Toronto heard evidence about pornography to the contrary. TWO PAGES One teacher told the story of her grade five pupil whose assignment was writing a journal. After a series of short entries. he suddenly wrote a full two pages and while marking it the teacher discovered it was full of description about a movie of rape and mutilation he'd seen the night before with his parents. The description was so vivid, the -teacher was sick to her stomach. And, a few.tllays later, the student wps found with a -' kinttetgakiem3tudCifflii thebushes;:jie was burning her with a cigarette. Delegates decided to oppose materials depicting women or children in 4egrading orsadishc sexual roles, says Jean Turner, a delegate from Exeter. Please see PORNOGRAPHY on page 3 Seven local people get rabies shots BY RON WASSINK The Scaforth area is experiencing a major outbreak of rabies. Two beef feedlots and one dairy herd are presently under a 40 day quarantine. Seven cattle, five at one location and one at each of the others have died from the disease. Seven people, six from one family are receiving post -rabies vaccina- tions. Early this year, Dr. Brian Nuhn of the Seaforth Veterinary Clinic predicted rabies would be the diseas farmers should watch out for. His pred ction has come true. "Unfortunately, 1 t ink 1 was right. 1 had a bad feeling about i because there was an increase in the wi d animal population in Huron County," Huron County has seen an increase in positive rah), cases of almost 50 per cent. .Fro nuary to August, 1982, there were animals diagnosed as having the disease. The same period for 1983 was 65. "We have several cattle herds, dogs and cats under quarantine," says Dr. Bill Thompson, district veterinarian for Agricul- ture Canada. "We have quarantines that run through until November. There are 20 in the county and eight in the Seaforth area, three of which involve cattle." "We've seen more positive rabies in cattle in the last four weeks than in the past five years." says Dr. Nuhn. "Rabies scares vets. We're one of the high risk groups. If you start to develop signs of rabies, you're dead. We don't like to see rabies because of the human health aspect." Staff of the veterinary clinic were the first to be called to the farms, as animals were acting strangely. Rabies takes two forms, an animal is either vicious or dumb. The dumb form is difficult to detect. ARM IN THROAT "What we are called to quite often is a farmer thinks a cow has something caught in its throat because it is always swallowing. The farmer, without thinking, puts his arm down the cow's throat and finds nothing. It's the worst thing he can do. Vets can get caught this way too." At the first farm call, Dr. Nuhn was sure the animal was rabid. "It had the furious form. 1 didn't even get in the pen: It was bellowing and had a very abnormal bawl. It would yawn a lot and charge the other animals in the feedlot." OUTBREAK IN MCKILLOP The three farms under quarantine are located in McKillop, a township that up until this year had a low incidence of rabies. Names of two farmers will be withheld at their request. To avoid confusion, they will he known "A'' and "B". The third is Herbert Harrison, a dairy farmer. A veterinarian was called to the "A" farm because the farmer had a sick animal. "We had no idea what was wrong. 1t died that night. Dr. Thompson took the brains out and the next day we found out it was rabies. That was two months ago. Since then, five cattle have died. One has dropped off since, in 10 to 12 day intervals. We don't know how it happened. The last one died two days ago (Aug. 23)." Operating feedlot with 35 cattle, farmer A' says it's rare to lose one cattle beast every five years. Despite the loss, the family still maintains a sense of humour. "We never had a rabies problem before. When we first heard what it Was, we -thought more precautions would be taken, We thought a bunch of cops would come in and kill off the complete herd. The first one was Wild animals are not pets Forty Huron residents. compared to 13 in 1982, are receiving anti -rabies vaccina- tions. Thirteen are in Seaforth. Rabies in the rural setting has seen the greatest increase, due mainly to rabid farm animals and wild animals. A rabid dog in gingham resulted in 21 people, six from Seaforth, getting the relatively new, six shots in the arm, vaccine. Presently seven local people are taking the shots in two unrelated cases involving rabid cattle. Rabies can be transmitted by saliva entering a break in a person's skin, not just from an animal bite. The new, inter -muscular vaccine costs approximately $600 per person. Other expenses, such as doctor's fee, investiga- tions, travelling time. etc. could escalate the cost to 51,000. "The vaccine has definitely been effective," says Dr, Harry Cieslar, Huron County Medical Officer of Health. "I wouldn't consider the number of cases a major increase because the disease tends to cycle. The virus is circulating on a higher level in wildlife," Rabies is most commonly contacted through bites. Any dog bite, whether the animal is rabid or not. must be reported, says Ed Harrison, director of public health inspections in the county. "The dog is quarantined for 14 days in which time it could show signs of rabies. If it doesn't show signs. it is highly unlikely it had rabies.' A dog or cat which has been in contact with a rabid animal is quarantined for three months if it has had an anti -rabies vaccination in the past year. or six months if not. Cattle are quarantined for 40 days. If they die from the disease, they must be buried on the farm. "We're getting more calls to vaccinate dairy herds," says Dr. Brian Nuhn of Seaforth Veterinary Clinic. "Depending on Please see SHOTS on page 3 frothing at the mouth. yawning and bawling. The rest just looked dozy. We got rid of our dog just to be on the safe side. but we didn't have to." Family members are not receiving anti- rabies vaccinations because there was no human involvement. "We're more cautious now. We don't clean out water bowls. But if we do, we'll use gloves. BURY THEM "It's not easy to kill a cattle beast. 1 would far sooner put them on the truck and sell them, than putting them out and burying them. 1 would say compensation covers the whole value of the cattle. but we have td pay $50 for burying them. You'd think we'd get a deal after the fifth one. We just keep hoping we won't lose anymore." It is possible for one bovine to pass rabies on to another. but it's unlikely, says Dr. Nuhn. The only conclusion the veterinarian or the farmer can make is that a skunk or fox had attacked four or five of the cattle. Cattle are highly susceptible to rabies because of their inquisitive nature. If they see anything new or strange. a first reaction is to reach oat with their nose and investigate. "Rabies can take as little as 10 days, or up to three months to show because of its slow developing nature." says Dr. Nuhn. "Hope- fully the farmer will not lose any more. •' RABIES NOT PLEASANT "This is the first time we've had trouble with rabies," says the farmer "B". "We had a steer that showed the symptoms two weeks ago. I didn't know what it was. I've never seen a steer with rabies. but I'd heard about it. The vet knew right away it was rabies. "1t wasn't that big a shock. I was very suspicious. I did the humane thing. The steer was shot. It's not very pleasant to watch an animal die of rabies.' SAFE SIDE To be on the safe side, the farmer is taking Please see RABIES on page 3 Ilftdo2 Genesco supervisor retires /A3 Early bird winner in Brussels /A10 Picks at Bicks /A4 Plowing in Perth /A14 Lawn bowling attracts 150 bowlers /A8, 9 Births /A 16 Brussels news /A10, 11 Classified /Al2, 13 Community Calendar /A3 Dublin news /144, 5 Entertainment /A7 Family /A6, 16 Farm /A14 Hensall /A17 Kids /A15 Londesboro /A14 Obituaries /A11 People /A7, 11 Roulston /A2 Smiley /A2 Sports /A8, 9 s 1