Milk / Timing

Just now I drove to the Farmers' Market. I go pretty much every week, if nothing else, to get milk. As I drove, I listened to WAMC. When I parked my car, a story came on about a Hudson Valley dairy farmer. I thought I'd sit and listen.

I couldn't find the audio, but this site had it text-based:

A dairy farmer in this Columbia County town shot and killed 51 cows in a barn on his property and then committed suicide, state police said on Friday.

Troopers responding to a 911 call about 1 p.m. Thursday found the dead cows and the body of Dean E. Pearson, 59, inside a barn on the farmer’s property at 121 Weed Mine Road, police said.

They said Pearson appeared to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Troopers were called to the farm after a visitor found a note on the barn door that said not to come in and to notify police.

Police said their investigation revealed Pearson had been despondent about recent personal issues.

Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn on Friday.

An autopsy on Pearson was to be performed Friday at Albany Medical Center.

The timing was eerie. The topic is really sad. Some of the comments on this post are really cruel, but someone left a really articulate defense of that farmer. I'd encourage you to go read it.