Most animals rescued from Washington County farm were euthanized

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of animals were rescued from a farm between Washington and Kalona shortly before Thanksgiving last year, in a case the people involved called one of the grisliest they’d ever worked. One volunteer on the scene described the farm as a “boneyard,” with livestock living among decaying corpses.

Around 26 of the animals were hauled away on trailers by the Iowa Farm Sanctuary, which kept some and relocated the rest to other rescue groups. Although a few died in the days after the rescue operation, representatives said the rest were thriving, either at IFS or elsewhere.

The grand majority, however — nearly 140 sheep, goats and pigs according to one Facebook post — were sent to the Animal Rescue League of Iowa.

By the year’s end, all of those animals in ARL’s care were euthanized.

The result: a tally of 159 barn animals put down by ARL in 2022, almost a third of the group’s livestock outcomes according to its annual impact report. The number contrasts with the nonprofit’s general stance against euthanizing its intakes.

“The ARL looks at every animal as an individual and not a number and determines a treatment or rehabilitation plan,” says a paragraph on the ARL’s reporting page. “We only euthanize animals that are dangerous or suffering, and only after we have exhausted all other humane and responsible options. We do not euthanize for space and there are no time limits on the animals in our care.”

Executive says ARL had no alternative, cites disease risk

Animal Rescue League of Iowa CEO Tom Colvin said he made the ultimate decision to euthanize the livestock housed by ARL.

The move came after three pigs in the herd tested positive for Brucellosis, a finding that came as a shock given the disease’s near-eradication in U.S. among domesticated animals.

A representative from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) said it did not have readily available data on the history of swine brucellosis detections in the state. The most recent annual newsletter from the state agency to acknowledge a case of the disease in pigs cited Davis County in 2010.

Colvin said any alternative to euthanasia would create an “untenable situation” given the number of risks and precautions associated with the disease. The required quarantine time, which could have locked down ARL’s farm rescue facilities for the foreseeable future, was a deciding factor.

“Although IDALS did not order us to euthanize, they did quarantine our facilities,” Colvin said. “Nothing could go in or go out, horse, pig, cow, whatever … and if there was any further positives, that quarantine could be extended indefinitely. That’s decision process number one. We could not operate out of our barn, at all, during that period of time.”

The ARL CEO added that he worried about the risk of brucellosis spreading across species if the disease or its potential hosts somehow breached containment.

According to a 2018 fact sheet from the Center for Food Security and Public Health, Brucellosis Suis, the strain that typically infects pigs, has been discovered in sheep and goats as well, species which were also rescued from the Washington County farm last year where they shared a living space with the swine.

It can also infect dogs and, much more rarely, cats, of which Colvin said the ARL handled about 11,000 per year at its main facility. While such cross contamination is rare for the bacteria that spreads through bodily fluids, he said the magnitude of such a risk was incalculable.

“The seriousness of then putting the main building under quarantine was unfathomable for us,” he said. “I don’t think that’s such a far-fetched possibility.”

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Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease, meaning it can potentially spread from animals to humans, although such transmission is rarer than spreading between livestock. The Iowa State University Index of Animal Diseases says farmers and veterinarians are especially at risk if they interact with animals in labor, with a higher chance of being “exposed while assisting sows at farrowing or while handling infectious placentas or newborn, infected piglets.”

While Colvin said ARL volunteers followed extensive sanitary practices to ensure biosecurity and had not handled any births, he mentioned the potential risk of the bacteria for the rest of the state as another item playing into his decision to cull the herd.

“There was also the consideration of what the impact to Iowa agriculture would be, if we didn’t follow everything to the letter of the rules,” he said. “I certainly did not want there to be a distribution from here, once we got involved, for brucellosis impacting the agricultural industry.”

Ultimately, Colvin said there was just too much riding against the rescues from Washington County.

“We take into consideration every possible other option than euthanasia, but when we had so many considerations — none of them good — facing us on this situation, then yeah, the decision had to be made,” he said.

Former volunteer ‘disillusioned’ with rescue league

Cynthia Ingham previously volunteered at the Animal Rescue League every Saturday, along with her sister. She said the situation last winter was worsened by the organization’s management, a stance that led her to part ways with the group a few months after the animals were euthanized.

“It felt like a horrible betrayal of trust that you feel you’re extending to the animals that come there, that are supposed to be rescued,” Ingham said. “I feel very disillusioned, I would not trust (ARL) again.”

Ingham said she was especially heartbroken by the scale and speed of the procedure. Sheep and goats expected to give birth soon had already been removed from the herd and culled, thanks to the high risk of spreading brucellosis during parturition.

On. Dec. 21, she said professionals arrived and asked all volunteers to leave the barn, before going through each stall to put down the remaining animals. Ingham said she came in the next day to find “blood in the straw and bolt guns on the floor” of the rescue barn.

The former volunteer said she felt the action was unnecessary and rushed.

“It was pretty horrific,” Ingham said. “They did it as quickly as they could, because they did not want the public to see this. We’re not talking compassionate euthanization … and you know they must have been terrified, because once animals smell death and blood, the fear starts to increase.”

Two unrelated animals, a potbellied pig named Arnold and a goat named Ms. Marry were already lined up for adoptions outside the league, and had little to do with those taken from Washington County, according to Ingham. Both, however, were euthanized alongside the rest of the ARL livestock, which they shared a living space with.

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While she acknowledged the public health implications of brucellosis, Ingham said she was unconvinced that ARL had no alternatives. She pointed to the roughly two dozen animals taken from the Escher farm by Iowa Farm Sanctuary, all of which survived, or died by causes beyond that organization’s control.

“If it had truly been an effort to save the animals, there could have been some objection,” she said. “The three pigs came back infected, but that didn’t mean that every single one was … look at what IFS did, they picked out ones that seemed healthy, quarantined them even longer than the quarantine was required.”

Colvin said he sympathized with the departed volunteers, but stood by the choice.

“It was a horrible situation, and I’m sorry to those volunteers that had to be exposed to it,” he said. “But we have an organization to look out for an all the other animals that we can possibly take care of … and we’ve got to be available for them, and we’ve gotten ourselves back to where we can be.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com