Letters

Readers Respond

LIKE-MINDED

I was delighted to learn that Heifer President Jo Luck is a member of Rotary Club and spoke at the Rotary International Convention in Montreal. I am a long-term member of Rotary and a former club president. I can relate to world hunger and the importance of agriculture and animals to the poor in small villages worldwide. I commend you for your work in alleviating human suffering. Poverty, hunger, illiteracy, disease, crime and poor quality of life go together. You need more visibility, publicity and public awareness. My best wishes to Heifer.

Dr. Harry K. Panjwani
Ridgewood, N.J.

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AGAINST NOSE HALTERS

I doubt seriously that this letter will get printed, but I'm writing it anyway.

It's too bad that Mr. Pitakpraisri takes so much "pride in caring for his water buffalo" [in the Summer 2010 issue]. Maybe if he was a little less prideful he'd realize how utterly inhumane it is to use that knotted nose rope as a halter. I wish someone would show him how that must feel. Put a knotted rope through his nose and pull him around a while and I'd bet he'd use a regular halter.

How do humans come up with these devices and think it's OK to use them just because they are animals? Don't they think that animals feel pain, too? The nose of a bovine is one of the most sensitive areas on the animal. Guess that's why it works. It hurts me to even look at that cover photo! If you look closely, you can even see the ticks and flies on the head of the buffalo. I'm sure the knots rub sores on the nose and the flies lay their eggs in the wounds. I'm sure some will justify this treatment because it helps the people. So there it is again: Help the people at any price, cause pain and suffering to animals in the process. It doesn't matter. Why can't the rights of both of God's creatures be observed? Humans can make choices, animals are silent and defenseless, at the mercy of cruel or thoughtless humans.

I work in a church that receives your magazine, and I'm the one who picks up the mail. From now on I will make sure that this magazine and any other mailings we get from Heifer International are filed in the proper file: File #13 at the post office.

Georgie Hinch
Vidor, Texas

Editor’s note: Dr. Terry Wollen, a veterinarian and Heifer’s vice president of advocacy, offers this response:

Livestock handling practices in other cultures are often quite different than practices in our own draft-animal agriculture. Such is the case with various forms of halter rigging for oxen and water buffalo. Quite often, a nose ring or halter rope is threaded through the nasal septum and used as the main means of animal restraint and control. While this looks somewhat painful or at least very sensitive, initial placement and life-long use is no more hurtful or troublesome than the common practice of ear piercing in humans.

Heifer International trains livestock holders in proper, humane and sanitary placement. Nose rings and nose ropes, for example, are inserted when the animals are young, often in the dry season, well before they begin to provide draft power. The procedure is done quickly using the right equipment in good working order. There is minimal to no bleeding with the procedure. The skin heals completely and suffers no more insect pests, inflammation or infection than any other mucous membrane under normal conditions.

Some of the draft breeds are difficult to handle, and without complete harness rigs or nose rings, there would be no way to manage them. For the life of the animal, this simple placement provides an easy and inexpensive way for the farmer to tether, lead and restrain the animal. Animals adapt quickly, just as they do to reins, bits, straps and tugs of a harness rig. Limited-resource animal holders can leverage the amount of work done when using draft animals with this rigging to a much greater extent than when working only by hand labor, which is the only alternative in most of the situations where Heifer works.

These practices and standards may not be the same as those in wealthier areas where equipment is easily and economically available. Yet, Heifer’s animals are managed as important members of the family and cared for well beyond the minimum needed.

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BITTER ABOUT CORN SYRUP

I’m writing in regard to the article on Page 36 of the Summer 2010 issue [“Vote With Your Fork,” by Michael Pollan].

In the "Industrial Food Systems" section, the use of high-fructose corn syrup is criticized. Please check this out with your nutritionist.

High-fructose corn syrup, for the same amount of sweetness flavoring, contributes only 4/7 (57 percent) as many calories as cane sugar. Therefore, if the high-fructose corn syrup were not available, your children would be consuming 75 percent more sugar calories in each cola they drink.

I have friends who still enjoy the old Coke [made with cane sugar], sold in Mexico and much of the tropical world, because cane sugar there is still cheaper than the same equivalent sweetness of fructose. And in most of the less developed parts of the world, they still appreciate more calories in their soft drinks.

So I get annoyed at people who decry the use of high-fructose sweetener. High-fructose sweetener actually lowers the calorie intake of people who insist on eating sugary sweets.

Howard D. Ege Jr.
Kansas City, Mo.

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PICTURE OF HEALTH

"That Cover Girl Smile," what an astute observation [Letters page, Summer 2010]! Dr. Weston A. Price made a similar observation in the 1930s, which resulted in his landmark publication, “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.” His work documented excellent health and especially beautiful teeth and bone structure in diverse groups of people who continued to eat their various traditional diets compared to the physical degeneration noted in similar ethnic groups that had begun to eat the "displacing foods of modern commerce," including white sugar, white flour, hydrogenated vegetable oils and pasteurized or skim milk. For more information on the health benefits of eating real food using traditional preparation methods, check out the Weston A. Price Foundation at www.westonaprice.org.

Michelle Borodinsky
Derwood, Md.

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BEE ALARMED

This is to the author of the [“Beauty and the Bees”] article in your summer 2010 magazine. Since you published this article, scientists have been confirming the cause of the bee drop-off. It is the electromagnetic pollution from cell towers and wireless devices that throws off the directional abilities that the bees use to find their way back to the hive. Birds have also been affected.

There is at least one book out entirely devoted to this subject. If your readers Google “EMF Safety Network” they will be able to get the title from those who run this website.

Rhonda Hoefs
Aptos, Calif.

Editor’s note: The cause of colony collapse disorder remains unknown. Cell towers are being studied as one possible contributor to the mysterious phenomenon first reported in 2006 in which the number of bees in a hive suddenly drops dramatically or disappears altogether. Scientists are also studying other possible culprits including pesticides, pollution and genetically modified crops.

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Q&A SUMMER

If you could visit a Heifer project anywhere in the world, where would you go? Why?

Romania would be my choice to visit a Heifer project. Why? Because this country gave me the most precious gift anyone could have, and that is two granddaughters who are now l7 and l8. My only child was unable to have children. After several operations, my daughter and her husband decided to adopt. Their adoption papers had been approved for about two years when my husband became seriously ill. He was given two weeks to live when they received news that two biological sisters were available to them at an orphanage in northern Romania. When my daughter and her husband left the United States, she had no idea if she would see her father alive or not. They had to remain in Romania for 20 days with the children regardless of the circumstances. My oldest granddaughter was 2 and the youngest was 1. They flew into the Chattanooga airport six days before my husband passed away. I was unable to be at the airport but my best friend and her husband stood in for me. They arrived on a Monday and brought the children to visit their grandfather on a Wednesday, and my husband passed away on Saturday.

I had never heard of Heifer International until I picked up a Heifer magazine. I gave a demonstration to my garden club with slides, etc., that Heifer provided me with. That was many years ago! Romania, you bet! The joy that this country gave me is the greatest gift of my life.

Jane Johnson
Fayetteville, Tenn.