Animal Cruelty: Fifty-One Cows Killed!

Applebome, Peter. "The Morning the Milking Was Finished." New York Times 04 Feb. 2010: A21. Print.

On January 21st, 2010 Dan Pierson decided to take a small caliber rifle and shoot all of his fifty-one cows in the head just before killing himself by a shot to the chest. Pierson was a dairy farmer in the very small town of Copake, New York. Mr. Pierson worked extremely hard just to make a living. He handeled all fifty-one cows by himself and had a very tough work schedule. His machinery was breaking down and the bad economy was making it difficult for Pierson to keep his head above water. After last year, Pierson was unable to keep up with the financial demands of the farm. Because of the economy's falling prices and the farms rising costs Pierson was not making enough money and he couldn't take it anymore. He wrote a suicide note that told of his depression because of the financial and personal problems that he was facing. He did express the love that he had for his family in the note but he just couldnt take the stress anymore. Dan Pierson was found dead on January 21st, 2010 sitting in a chair at his home on Weed Mine Road in Columbia County, New York with a gun shot wound in his chest.

Animal rights have definatly increased over the last several decades, but some will argue tht animals are still being treated unfairly. Is it fair to assume that animals do not have thoughts or feelings just because they can't speak for themselves? It is sad that Dan Pierson decided to take his own life, but why did he have to kill all of his cows before killing himself? Pierson owned a dairy farm so the cows were being used for the milk and not their meat. There was no reason that they should have been killed. In the article other farmers stated that Pierson shot the cows because they needed to milked and with him gone there would be no one to do it. There are so many animal organizations that would have helped the cows, they didn't need to die. I think that what happened to those cows was terrible, and i hope i don't see any article like this in the paper again.