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NY dairy farmer kills 51 cows, commits suicide
Associated Press ^ | Jan. 22, 2010

Posted on 01/22/2010 8:37:54 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY

COPAKE, N.Y. (AP) - State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.

State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police.

State police would only say that Pierson was having personal issues.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


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To: ottbmare
He probably figured that a bullet in the head was a quicker and less painful death than a trip to the slaughterhouse.

Dairy farmers send the old cows to the slaughterhouse all the time. At least his survivors would have gotten something for them, and if he took care of that himself, before offing himself, then they'd not have been bothered with that chore either.

I suspect big money problems and something that led him to identify the dairy operation as the root of his problems.

IOW, rather than being merciful to the cows, he wanted to be sure they got what was coming to them, in his mind, as well. But I could be wrong. Who knows what goes through the mind of a suicide.

21 posted on 01/22/2010 9:15:26 PM PST by El Gato
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To: ottbmare
He probably figured that a bullet in the head was a quicker and less painful death than a trip to the slaughterhouse.

Dairy farmers send the old cows to the slaughterhouse all the time. At least his survivors would have gotten something for them, and if he took care of that himself, before offing himself, then they'd not have been bothered with that chore either.

I suspect big money problems and something that led him to identify the dairy operation as the root of his problems.

IOW, rather than being merciful to the cows, he wanted to be sure they got what was coming to them, in his mind, as well. But I could be wrong. Who knows what goes through the mind of a suicide.

22 posted on 01/22/2010 9:15:37 PM PST by El Gato
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To: Free ThinkerNY

“Oh George, not the livestock!”


23 posted on 01/22/2010 9:17:47 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Free Republic. The BEST place anywhere to PIMP YOUR BLOG)
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To: Spunky

He only killed his milk cows and left the heifers and calves.


24 posted on 01/22/2010 9:22:31 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you. Ben Franklin)
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To: El Gato
Who knows what goes through the mind of a suicide.

I can't leave this one hanging there. Dear Lord, forgive my cruel ability to laugh in a time of sorrow.

The last thing that went through his mind was the bullet.

25 posted on 01/22/2010 9:23:22 PM PST by BuckyKat
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To: 21twelve

I don’t think there is an considerate or kind way to kill yourself.

Someone else, or perhaps a whole lot of people, will be irreparably harmed. Even if you just disappear, someone or more than one will be anxiously looking, wondering, wondering if they are to blame. . .

there is just no easy way out.


26 posted on 01/22/2010 9:24:54 PM PST by Persevero
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To: Free ThinkerNY
Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.

Hard times for anyone in the private sector...Of course, most government employees continue to receive tax paid top shelf wages, those opulent government medical benefits and their lottery style government retirement pensions....

All on the backs of the tax payers, most of which are now on their knees, as the government employees cling to their backs.

27 posted on 01/22/2010 9:25:36 PM PST by dragnet2
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To: Free ThinkerNY

How horrible.

We should be supporting farmers, not making farming more and more difficult with “environmental” regulations. We may not have as many farmers as we did a century ago, but we need them more than ever.


28 posted on 01/22/2010 9:40:51 PM PST by exDemMom (Now that I've finally accepted that I'm living a bad hair life, I'm more at peace with the world.)
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To: El Gato

People tend to notice when you send 51 cows to the slaughterhouse. IMO, he wanted to be sure that people couldn’t stop his planned suicide.


29 posted on 01/22/2010 9:46:54 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (Don't feed the trolls.)
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To: El Gato

Suicidal people don’t think clearly.


30 posted on 01/22/2010 9:47:48 PM PST by Kirkwood
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To: Kirkwood

Spilled milk followed by...spilled gray matter.


31 posted on 01/22/2010 9:58:54 PM PST by az.b1bbomberfxr
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To: El Gato
you also don't judge another's desperation without knowing what the hell you're talking about.

Do you know the man?

Do you know his situation?

Do you know how tough it's been on farmers lately - especially dairy farms?

Do you know the insane rules, laws and restrictions they have been piling on dairy farmers recently?

etc?

Those of you who are joking about this are pretty low...

32 posted on 01/22/2010 10:02:14 PM PST by maine-iac7 ("He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help" Lincoln)
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To: ottbmare; Free ThinkerNY
ottbmare, you are right about the calves and heifers. Tragic and heartbreaking.
33 posted on 01/22/2010 10:04:34 PM PST by Eagles6 ( Typical White Guy: Christian, Constitutionalist, Heterosexual, Redneck.)
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To: El Gato

I can relate — my uncle lost the family farm in the late 80’s. some of my best childhood memories are of the things I did on that farm — my first recollection (I was 3 or 4) of a JD Model 70 widefront and my dad going through a big muddy ditch and that two lunger popping like they do — climbing the 80ft silo to the top with my cousin, etc. were on that farm. anyway milk prices were in the toilet and the banks answer was to grow grow grow. saddled with debt and milking 60 head by himself day after day after day with help sometimes from the other uncles (they had day jobs) he finally ended up in the hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown — he ended up losing almost everything. he works in a completely different industry now and I think he’s made his peace with it all. Dairy farming is a tough life period.


34 posted on 01/22/2010 10:21:51 PM PST by model B (attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference -- Sir Winston Churchill)
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To: Persevero

“...there is just no easy way out.”

Yep - you got that right. I talk about it with my kids when they see me cry at the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life”. It really is a wonderful life, in spite of all the stuff we have to deal with. And I only had to deal with one-tenth the problems that other folks have. In retrospect my life has been truly blessed.

I still wonder about Alzeimers, some other chronic and expensive illness near the end of my life. As much as I am pro-life and against doctors assisted suicide, I wonder if I would contemplate it under those conditions. (Well, not doctor assisted. Especially if it is a Obamacare doctor!)

Of course if you want to spare your family from the illness, then you burden them with a suicide. I guess I would hem and haw about it and end up with “It’s in God’s hands”.


35 posted on 01/22/2010 10:46:04 PM PST by 21twelve (Having the Democrats in control is like a never-ending game of Calvin ball. (Giotto))
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To: Free ThinkerNY
My bet, it was a love triangle quadrilateral pentagon decagon dodecagon tetradecagon octadecagon icosagon pentacontahenagon.
36 posted on 01/22/2010 11:19:14 PM PST by higgmeister ( In the Shadow of The Big Chicken!)
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To: Free ThinkerNY

Dreadful. Prayers for this misguided soul.


37 posted on 01/23/2010 12:15:08 AM PST by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: Richard Kimball
I love the morbid freeper humor. It's not as abundant as it used to be.
38 posted on 01/23/2010 12:58:51 AM PST by BBell
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bfl


39 posted on 01/23/2010 1:08:51 AM PST by Born Conservative ("I'm a fan of disruptors" - Nancy Pelosi)
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To: ottbmare
It sounds as though he knew quite well what would happen to his dairy cows if he were not there to take care of them: they’d be sent to slaughter.

Not only that, but wouldn't the lactating cows be in abject misery if there was no one to milk them?

40 posted on 01/23/2010 1:16:25 AM PST by giotto
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