The Rural Voice, 1994-09, Page 10wind -driven
PONDMASTER
27'
YEAR
IP INCREASES WATER
CIRCULATION IN
FARM PONDS AND
ICE -FREE AREAS
FOR LIVESTOCK
FISH & WATERFOWL
Contact:
R.R. #2, Mitchell
Bill French 348-8749
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MARQUARDT
FARM DRAINAGE LTD.
(ESTABLISHED 1968)
R.R. 13
Palmerston. Ontario
Jx
"We jnstall
OFFICE
343-3233
STEVE CRONSBERRV
(owner)
61 drainage tubing"
HOME
338-2373
6 THE RURAL VOICE
Mery
n Erb
"Opie" the Golden Calf
An acquaintance
Oklahoma received
several months ago,
deductible donation
fund the Veal
Calf Refuge Pro-
ject in Watkins
Glen, New York.
For his contri-
bution, he would
have a free "Boy-
cott Veal" T-shirt
and the satisfac-
tion of knowing
he was participat-
ing in a program
that collects
allegedly abused
veal calves and
maintains them
for the rest of
their natural lives on "green pastures"
and in "spacious straw -filled barns" at
the group's calf refuge shelter.
In addition, he could be proud to
know that his tax-deductible dollars
were being used to buy more land and
fencing to perpetually maintain these
of mine from
a letter in the mail
asking for a tax -
of $50 or more to
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animals so children could visit them
and be taught the pledge to "Boycott
Veal" before they leave.
He was even introduced to "Opie",
a little Holstein calf who was "torn
from his mother's side" when he was
only a few hours old. He was too
weak to even stand, and when he did
not sell at the auction, he was
abandoned in the cold, all alone, and
slowly dying in a "forgotten comer".
Now, don't get me wrong. I deplore
intentional cruelty to animals and real-
ize there may have been a real "Opie"
somewhere that got the raw end of
somebody else's deal. What really
sticks in my craw is the manner in
which "Opie's" case is being exploit-
ed to import money into the hands of
the Veal Calf Refuge Project and the
sheer absurdity of the whole operation
and similar ones to it.
Gosh! Let's help "Opie" and buy
up all those little calves (which have a
habit of growing into full-grown
animals) and then let's pick up the tab
to maintain them for the rest of their
lives with tax deductible dollars
because the Veal Calf Refuge Project
"receives no government dollars to
help them". Baloney!
Every time ignorant but well-mean-
ing people send in their tax-deductible
contributions to the myriad of such
schemes, our federal governments
pick up the tab for 15 per cent to 49
per cent (that amount of money that
would normally go to the tax depart-
ment) of this operation. Do you like
the way your money is being spent?
Would allowing the federal
government to subsidize a bunch of
non-profit bulls and steers who lounge
around as living monuments on an
idyllic hillside in upstate New York
(could even be Georgetown, Ontario,
for that matter) make sense to you?
Sounds like a great deal for those
of us who are being told there is a
record federal deficit and we're all
going to have to ante up some more to
keep the government afloat.
I've always thought bovines were
meant to graze and to be eaten — not
named and perpetually maintained as
photo -opportunities (or idols) for a
fund raising scheme. Those who fall
for this tripe remind me of the old
saying: "A rich man has many
worries, a starving man but one."0
Mervyn Erb is an independent crop consultant
and agronomist from Brucefteld, Ontario.