MIDWEST FLOOD DISASTER

FARM ANIMAL ACCOUNTS EXCERPTED FROM NEWS ARTICLES

Concerns leveled over polluted flood waters in Midwest
USA Today

More carcasses may be found as hog barns dry out, Broughton said …"We can deal with as many (carcasses) as we have," he said. "We can bury thousands, if necessary."

Iowa Floods Wreak Havoc on Farming Communities
PBS NewsHour

One of our trips –– I think it was our first trip out this morning, about 5:30 –– we saw, as we were driving by, we saw the pigs, the little pink dots, all along this one barn over here. So we swung in there and, sure enough, it was just loaded with probably close to 250 to 300 pigs. After five days in the water, hundreds of pigs were dead, but others had managed to survive. The difficult, dirty and dangerous job of getting the pigs out of the highly contaminated river water began.

Iowa farmer makes a sorrowful choice
Chicago Tribune

The 450 abandoned sows and 400 hogs were still alive. In hopes some might survive, Lanz opened the shed doors, giving the animals a chance of swimming to safety–despite the treacherous currents and the general unfitness of swine for swimming. When Lanz visited a patch of high ground Monday, he found roughly 30 pigs had survived.