The Bad Air Sponge

Area residents who’ve been pinching their noses because of their neighbors’ smelly outdoor pets could soon get some relief.

Proposed changes to Gaston County’s animal control ordinance would give the county more authority to address odor-based animal nuisances.

The rewrite of the entire ordinance was presented to Gaston County commissioners last week.
They could approve it as soon as Feb. 28.

“It strengthens and clarifies the current ordinance,” said Animal Control administrator Reggie Horton, speaking to the county board Thursday. “It gives us the ability to address the number of animals involved in a nuisance, the size of the area they’re on, and whether the owner should have to put down lime or another odor-control substance.”

Odor complaints tend to be some of the most common involving pets — particularly multiple dogs being housed in an outdoor pen, Horton said Monday. But the language in the current ordinance doesn’t define odor alone as a valid nuisance.

Animal control officers investigating such complaints have had to look for other wrongdoing that may be causing the odor, even if a foul smell is obvious. But there’s often no evidence of animal cruelty, the animal lot is clean and all the pets have up-to-date shots, Horton said.

“If you’re the one smelling it when the wind’s blowing in the wrong direction, that can certainly be an obstacle to you enjoying your own property,” Horton said. “But there was really nothing there allowing us to enforce it.”

A reeking pet wouldn’t be allowed to wreak havoc if the ordinance changes.

“We were left with a situation that really fell through the cracks,” Horton said. “Now that crack’s been filled in.”

The ordinance change would also give animal control officers more authority to address dangerous nuisance situations. Pet owners would be required to fix a broken fence that a dog might be able to escape through, for example.

“Before, we could only suggest that,” Horton said. “Now we (would) have the authority to require the owner to do it.”

Horton worked on the rewrite in recent months with the county’s Animal Control Task Force Advisory Board.

Commissioner Pearl Burris Floyd said the attention to updating the ordinance was timely and important. As pets become more prevalent in people’s lives, the county must ensure its laws are up to speed, she said Thursday.

“The multi-billion-dollar pet industry is too big to be ignored,” Floyd said.

You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826.

Loren Schmidt saw the backhoe digging in a gravel-less part of a county gravel pit and wondered what was up. He became more curious when he saw truck after truck heading for the site. Then he detected an offensive odor.

When he got a look at what was going on, he was appalled. The county was dumping some smelly material into a 15-foot deep trench that appeared to have reached the groundwater.

All of this sounds worse than it really is, but even the sanitized version does not sit well with residents of the town of Bloomer, who met with DNR and county officials Tuesday.

Loren Brumberg and David Lundberg of the DNR’s waste management department told the 19 people gathered that the material was mostly soil mixed with animal waste and was not toxic, and the water in the trench did not come from the water table that fed their wells.

Still, resident Jean Turner said the bottom line was that the group wanted the material dug up and removed. That is not likely to happen any time soon, but County Administrator Bill Reynolds was agreeable to testing the residents’ wells to give them some peace of mind.

According to Brumberg, the story started in 1936, when a rendering plant was opened on a site just northeast of Chippewa Falls. It operated until 2002.

The county took the property for back taxes, and inherited a problem, including petroleum storage tanks, various toxic compounds and contaminated soils. The county received DNR grants for assessment and clean-up.

“They basically cleaned up the site, took care of all the contamination, taking care of all the waste materials,” Brumberg said.

The county then put the property on the market for industrial development and a drywall company bought it with plans to put in a $1.4 million distribution center.

During site development work, another problem was found. An area was discovered in which animal wastes and some crushed steel barrels had been buried.

The owner tried to haul the material to a landfill, but it became cost prohibitive. He was ready to back out of his project.

That’s when county economic development and DNR officials quickly got together, and within the space of a few days in late October came up with a plan to bury the waste at the gravel pit, which had been used at one time to dispose of road-killed deer.

Lundberg said the DNR was fine with leaving the material where it was, as tests showed it was not toxic nor a threat to groundwater. However, the owner wanted it removed at reasonable cost. And the DNR granted a permit for disposal at the gravel pit site, which led to the scene Schmidt witnessed.

The crushed barrels, which Brumberg said once held cooking oils, were hauled away for recycling. The other material was a mixture of mostly soil and decaying organic material from animals.

Neighbors protested, but after a meeting with DNR officials at the site, the situation quieted down and the project was finished. Tuesday’s meeting made clear residents were not satisfied.

Brumberg explained that the permit required the material to be at least 10 feet over the water table. He said the water in the trench leached from the side of the trench. He described it as water that soaked in at the surface, hit a layer of impermeable material and sort of pooled underground until it came out into the trench and pooled at the bottom of it.

That it was still above the water table from which wells draw water is seen by the level of a nearby pond created by the gravel pit and the depth of area wells, Brumberg said.

He also explained the ground has the ability to clean up bacterial contamination in the material, the same way it takes care of septic system drain fields and manure spread on fields.

Still, residents envisioned the water leaching into the buried materials, then down into the groundwater.

“Everything’s going to leach right into our drinking water,” said Eugene Kerckhove.

And if it wasn’t any worse than manure, why couldn’t it be handled in the same way, he asked.

“Why can’t the material just be spread out on the land and let the rain take care of it?” Kerckhove asked.

Brumberg said that would have worked, too, and might have been preferable.

Bloomer Town Chairman Vern Kellen complained that the project violated a town ordinance that prohibited the spreading of waste in the township that did not come from the township.

The DNR officials acknowledged that the town should have been notified, but were unsure if the ordinance applied.

Removal of the material would be expensive, as would setting up monitoring wells around the site to test any effect on groundwater. The offer to test residential wells to ensure the water was safe was the only solution that appears to be moving forward.

However, County Board member Paul Michels of Bloomer has a suggestion that received wide support. He noted that the gravel pit, or at least part of it, is near the end of its useful life, which means a closure plan will be implemented. Since closure involves earth moving, it could include a digging up of the burial site.

That plan may be for another day. For now, the materials remain buried in the town of Bloomer.

CEDARBURG - Police are considering animal neglect charges against a Cedarburg couple.

Police were called to the filthy house last week. In the video, you can see piles of trash piled up in the kitchen.

At one time, at least 24 cats were living in the home located on Walnut Street.

A picture shows a filthy bathroom in the home.

We are told a husband and wife lived at the home.

Crews found 10 dead cats inside the home last week. Workers were able to rescue 14 cats. They were taken to the Ozaukee County Humane Society for treatment.

Some of the rescued cats could be up for adoption as soon as next week.

OTTUMWA — The woman charged in connection with the raid of a local pet store last week has admitted responsibility for animal neglect and must pay nearly $750 in fines.

Donna Marie Rhodes, 76, former owner of the Court Hill Pet Palace, 160 S. Iowa Ave., pleaded guilty Monday morning to four charges — two counts of cruelty to animals, one count of confining animals (filthy confinement conditions) and one count of sanitation of premises (odor and conditions of inside).

Rhodes appeared in front of Magistrate Judge Sam Erhardt, who ordered the woman to pay the fines within 45 days.

On Feb. 18, Ottumwa Police Animal Resource Officer Jeff Williams received a report of animal neglect and inhumane living conditions at the Pet Palace.

Upon investigation, Williams reported the discovery of nearly 30 animals living in squalid conditions.

In his report, Williams said as he entered the building he “detected a strong odor of urine and feces. The building had no gas, so the only thing keeping the temperature above freezing was two small electric space heaters. The business had 24 dogs, three cats inside, which all but one were confined in small kennels. Most of the confinements (kennels) had an offensive odor and was not clean and sanitary.”

Williams also discovered “a medium-size dog in a larger kennel. The dog was living in standing water with feces and other debris throughout the kennel floor. The water in the bowl was brown. The dog carrier for his shelter was closed so he did not have a dry spot to sit. His coat was covered in feces, water and urine. He was a white dog, but looked tannish brown from the filthy conditions of the kennel.”

Rhodes said Monday in court that she has not been well and that she never meant for any of the animals to suffer.

Scott Niles can be reached at (641) 683-5360 or via e-mail at sjniles@mchsi.com.

If your interest is piggery and poultry, you have today and tomorrow to attend the 2nd International Animal Health Genetics and Nutrition Congress (INAHGEN 2008) which is being held at the SMX Convention Center at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City.

Although it is just in its second staging, it is proving to be the country’s biggest livestock and poultry show. According to Jimmy Chua, expo chairman, it has become a world class event. The almost one-hectare indoor exhibition area is fully occupied by local as well as foreign exhibitors. Holland, for instance, has a big pavilion featuring the agricultural products and inputs from that country.

There are many probiotic products being exhibited by various companies. One of them is Bio-Kleen Pro, a high concentrate probiotic from Green Era Biotech Corporation. This is a product from three main groups of microorganisms, namely lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and proteolytic bacteria. When added in small amounts to the feed, it helps in the digestion and absorption of nutrients inside the intestines. The good bacteria will proliferate to counter the harmful bacteria.

As a result, the animals, pigs and poultry, have higher immunity. Piglets and fatteners are claimed to have higher resistance against respiratory diseases, achieving better feed efficiency and higher average daily gain in weight.

In poultry, it increases egg production, egg weight and reduces ammonia level inside the farmhouse, thus preventing respiratory diseases as well. Bio-Kleen Pro is also claimed to eliminate flies inside the farm. After a long period of using the product, animal manure becomes drier and is therefore not favorable for larvae to multiply.

Another product of Green Era Biotech is Golden Protein, a feed ingredient consisting of fermented soya. It is claimed to increase the appetite of animals because of its good palatability with a unique smell due to its 11 percent increase in glutamic acid after fermentation.

Feeds with Golden Protein are claimed to be highly digestible because the protein is already broken down to smaller peptides by the bacteria. It helps reduce foul smell in the farm because the product can decompose the ammonia produced by bad bacteria, thus reducing the foul odor in the manure.

While Toto Barcelona is better known for his seeds of hybrid vegetables and other high-value crops, he has joined INAHGEN not only to promote his hybrid crops but also new products for livestock and poultry. One of the items he is promoting is Alaska Bear Fish Meal which is claimed to be particularly beneficial to weaning baby pigs and breeding sows, as well as chicks of broilers and layers.

The raw materials consist of fresh meat of shark and whale, head and tail of salmon and tuna. The product contains 65 to 69 percent protein.

Another probiotic product that Barcelona is promoting is Anilov XO which is a feed additive for the establishment and maintenance of a favorable intestinal microflora in pigs and poultry.

Then he is also promoting greenhouse structures from France which are not necessarily for the growing of plants but for the housing of farm animals like goats, sheep, cattle, poultry and others.

Of course, Barcelona has displayed his leafy greens as well as his Red Lady papaya. They are attractions among products for pigs and chickens. His Red Lady papaya fruits are truly attractive.

Engr. Walther Alvarez of Atovi fame is also participating in INAHGEN. His product is added to animal feeds, boosting digestibility, enhancing the animal’s immune system, and reducing foul odor in the manure.

There are a wide array of products to see at INAHGEN, so don’t fail to attend.