LL, take this from a hunter’s widder woman. If you didn’t cause or see the death of an animal, all meat is suspect.
The cattle that died were in a feedlot. That’s where cattle go to fatten up before they’re butchered, or sent to the butcher. There’s like a gazillion cattle in each feed lot. The cattle eat out of troughs and drink out of them also. They don’t “roam the range” like most of us think when we think of cattle. The thought is to let the cattle roam very little while they pack on massive amounts of calories. A fat farm for cattle!
So, to sum it up, the ones who died were an acceptable and not very unusual amount. Like the author kind of says, a drop in the bucket.
I know, when I first just read the headline yesterday, I thought maybe someone would be investigated for animal cruelty. I mean, how many ranchers were so neglectful of their cattle that they each lost like 500 cattle? Did a whole group of ranchers decide to not let the cattle into the pasture with the crick or pond in it? Who turned off the spigot to the watering troughs????
Very glad I read the article...and glad I’m the granddaughter of a dairy farmer.