Day: June 6, 2016

I have not yet spoken with Craig Mosher, although I drove to Rutland, Vt. today to sit in his first interaction with the Vermont criminal justice system. His hearing lasted about two minutes and resulted only in scheduling the next hearing at 3 p.m. on July 11. I will be there then as well.

Ken Norman, my friend and farrier and guardian angel to farmers and animal lovers in distress,  came to the hearing also and joined me on my bench.

I don’t know Mosher, but my heart sank for him. I also made it a point to think of Jon Bellis, who died last July in the road outside of Mosher’s property. He was in the courtroom too, in many ways. I did not want to forget him. He is why we all were there. I believe in empathy, it is so essential to being a human being.

He looked quite lost, even stunned in the courtroom, as if he could scarcely believe where he was. Neither could the many friends and neighbors who showed up to cheer  him on.  The courtroom was SRO.

“This is bullshit,” said a constable who had known Mosher all of his life. “It makes no sense at all.”

It is an awful thing to have the full force of the criminal justice system brought down on a person, especially one who has never been in any kind of trouble with the law, and for decades has run a successful business and lived a life full of work and family and community. Mosher is a little league coach and also considered a local hero.

Joshua Rockwood, the Glenville, N.Y., farmer arrested for having a frozen water tank in – 27 degree temperatures, and many others  who find themselves in this position – the animal and farming world is roiling in controversy –  can testify that it will be a long year, and a grueling and difficult process for Mosher. If his friends and family and supporters truly stick with him, he can get through it.

Mosher is not only fighting for his freedom, but his reputation and his future, and his soon-to-be depleted bank account. The criminal justice system in America is very expensive, I hate to think what might have happened to Rockwood, a good and honest man, if people all over the country had not raised $70,000 to help his ultimately successful defense.

The patently absurd charges against Rockwood were dropped. Mosher’s case is much more complicated, it involves the death of a human being and charges of extreme and criminal negligence. And the death of a human is perhaps the most important thing a judge and jury will ever consider.

The case seemed even more troublesome this week when State Police affidavits  claimed Mosher’s animals – cow and bull – had escaped at least five times, and that Mosher had been warned by a truck driver minutes before the accident that killed Jon Bellis that his bull was out by a nearby motel. According to the police, Mosher did nothing and soon after, Bellis and the bull were both dead.

One or two people recognized me and a reporter e-mailed me asking if I was there.  I am sorry to say I am getting too familiar with this.

I passed by Mosher as he parked his truck outside of the courthouse, and then met him again in the men’s room. We smiled at one another but didn’t speak, almost as if we ought to know one another but didn’t dare take the step. He seemed a nice man to me, courteous, quick with a smile, he had many close friends. It is something I look for at court hearings, I wonder how many people would come to cheer me on if I were in that kind of trouble.

Not as many as came to cheer Mosher.

That does say something about a person.

I didn’t want to bother him by introducing myself, he had other things on his mind than me. I knew meeting me would make him uncomfortable, and I know his lawyer told him not to speak to anybody. I was not allowed to take photographs inside the courtroom, which was large, clean, pleasant,  and crammed with Mosher’s friends and supporters.

As always, I was searched and frisked, my big camera checked. (I was not allowed to use it.)

__

I want to say a couple of things about this visit and this story:

First off, I do not know and will not expect to know the details of the tragic accident that led to this court hearing. It is not for me to judge anyone.

Mosher is in the system now. There is no doubt that the business of owning an animal is being criminalized, I have been to more criminal hearings as an author writing about animals than I saw in months as a police reporter in Philadelphia.

It was eerie in Rutland, I feltl like a combat reporter dropping on a war zone, and in a way, that is what the deepening conflict in America between people who understand animals only as pets, and people who live and work with animals, is.

Every farmer I know feels embattled by clueless prosecutors and politicians, fanatic animal rights informers, and animal lovers who know absolutely nothing about farms or about animals that are not dogs or cats, and think all animals should be treated like dogs and cats. I know nothing about this prosecutor, mostly because she will say nothing.

I will not be poring over affidavits and court documents and deciding of Mosher is guilty of involuntary manslaughter. The good reporters of Vermont can do that, and that is the ultimate job of the judicial process, not people on Facebook. I was not there.

__

The prosecutor, whose name is Rosemary Kennedy, made me uneasy, not because of the indictment but because of the appearance she is giving of hiding behind the grand jury process. She claims she can’t speak about the Mosher case because grand jury proceedings are secret. That is like Donald Trump saying he can’t release his tax returns because they are being audited.

Prosecutors are in complete control of grand jury proceedings. A favorite saying of defense attorneys is that a grand jury will indict a ham sandwich if the prosecutor asks them to. And of course Kennedy can discuss the broader issues of the case – why she chose so extreme a penalty for a tragedy that has always been considered an accident, even if there is negligence – without divulging any details of the grand jury hearings.

Mosher is 61, he could go to jail for fifteen years.

Several people at the hearing told me that Kennedy is removing all critical or questioning comments on her Facebook Page as soon as they appear, and she refused to explain the case to a group of concerned county legislators who met with her last week on another matter.

A judge and jury will have to decide Mosher’s guilt or innocence now, not me, but something does feel wrong about it.  I can’t be any more specific than that.  It’s just what I feel in my gut, and over the years, I have a good if not perfect record gut-wise. A reporter often  has to live by his or her instincts, they are often better than reports and affidavits. I was a good reporter.

The portrayal of Mosher as  a callous and arrogant and lazy and reckless man does not fit the man who built those fences I photographed above. Nor do they fit the hero who jumped on his tractor after Hurricane Irene and spend several days – without getting pay – clearing roads and freeing panicked and trapped residents and tourists.

Several women told me stories of Mosher appearing through the mud and muck to clear their roads or take them to the pharmacy for medicine and the grocery store for food after Irene. “He saved us,” said Gloria, who is 77 now. “We will try to save  him.”

It’s possible, I suppose, that he is a Jekyll and Hyde, but so far, that is a stretch for me.

After the hearing, I drove out to Killington, about 20 minutes outside of Rutland, to visit Mosher’s home and look at his fences. I live on a farm, and have many friends who are farmers, and I know that fences say a lot about the people who built them.

Mosher’s fences are impressive, they are carefully built to keep animals inside. There is four-strand barbed wire and sturdy three plank hewn wood. The fences run over many acres, they cost a lot of money.

The pastures are beautiful, perfect for sheep, bulls, donkeys and cows.

I don’t know what Craig Mosher did that night when his bull got out and a milk truck driver knocked on his door to warn him, but I do know those fences were built by a responsible person who was going to a lot of trouble to keep his animals on his property. He obviously is not someone who doesn’t care.

The Mosher case has sent shock waves throughout the farming and animal communities, in Vermont and elsewhere. If it stands – regardless of what he did or didn’t do – then the lives of every farmer and every animal owner will be affected, and radically. If a precedent is set whereby animal escapes that result in death or injury can now be considered felony crimes, many lives will change, many animals will suffer.

If your dog slips out the door and is hit by a car or truck and the driver is injured or killed, you may end up in the criminal justice system. That is a good reason for many people to avoid animals.

I spoke with a lawyer in Nevada this morning who specializes in civil suits involving animal accidents – Mosher is reportedly involved in negotiating a civil suit with the Bellis Family. She does not know of a single case in the country where an animal accident has resulted the criminal charge of involuntary manslaughter for the owner of the animal.  “That is highly unusual,” she said. Vermont appears to be making history, but not owning up to it or discussing it.

The death of a human being is a profoundly troubling thing. To me, the life of a human is much more important than the life of a bull or any animal. But is threatening Mosher with jail the answer.

Also troubling is this: a way of life – the human-animal bond – that has existed for many thousands of years – will be threatened, and in some cases, destroyed  if Mosher is convicted of this and/or goes to jail. The scales of justice are pretty tricky sometimes. In this case, a judge and/or jury has to balance a human life, which is sacred, with a precious and important way of life, which is also sacred.

I am no judge or jury, but I will stay with this case and follow and explain it as best I can as it unfolds. It is not my job to judge, but to think and to feel.

Maria is offering six new Full Moon and Bedlam Farm Tote Bags for sale, $40 plus tax and shipping. I think this one almost perfectly captures the spirit of the farm, as well as the inside of my wife’s head. You can see the others on her website, just going on sale tonight.

When I bought a cabin in Jackson, N.Y., more than 15 years ago, I used to shop at Yushak’s Market in the hamlet of Shushan, N.Y. I met Dennis Yushak there, a regionally famous butcher, and an interesting man, who left college when his father died and came up to Shushan to take over the family market.

Yushak’s meats are well-known in this area, people and restaurants drive many miles to buy his sausages and meats, the market is  a full-service and friendly place in a small but beautiful and very community-minded town. I always loved talking to Dennis, he is bright and engaging.

When I moved to Hebron, further away, I lost touch with Dennis, and sadly for me, with Yushak’s. Recently, I went there to pick up some meat as a favor to my friend Scott, who won’t sell any other meat from any other place than Yushak’s in his very fussy way. He only uses the very  best ingredients in the cafe, he is manic about it.

And around here, if you say it’s Yushak’s meat, that is a badge of honor. So Dennis an I re-connected, in the country way, it was as if no time had passed, we spent a half-hour yakking this morning about the weather, farming and animal rights. Dennis was happy to pose for my new monochrome camera, I am happy to add him to the list of regulars for my portrait gallery, people in my life.

Going to Yushak’s to shop for meat – I bought turkey sausages for dinner tomorrow, we invited the Gulley’s over – felt like running into a good friend for the first time in years, or finding a wonderful old shoe that really fit.

I’m going to Rutland Criminal Court this afternoon in the hope of attending the first court hearing involving Craig Mosher, indicted for involuntary manslaughter. Mosher’s bull Red got out of the fence last July and was hit by a car. Red and the driver, Jon Bellis, were killed. The police say Red got out a number of times before the fatal accident and when Mosher was notified by a truck driver that the bull was in the road just before the accident, he failed to respond, even went back to sleep.

Those are accusations, we don’t know if they are true.

A Rutland prosecutor named Rose Kennedy has taken this farm accident and made it a criminal case, alleging extreme negligence and recklessness on Mosher’s part.

Mosher, a local hero for his work opening roads after Hurricane Irene, is popular in his town, respected as a caring animal lover and rescuer and little league coach. He is clearly a community-minded person, not a habitual criminal.

The case is complex, there are many elephants in the room.

Farmers everywhere fear this will become another tool used against them by prosecutors and hostile  and poorly informed animal rights activists to make their lives much more difficult, and for animals lovers, it threatens to criminalize animal escapes and incidents that have always – always – been considered accidents, not crimes.

Some farmers say they already euthanizing cows who escape too often, others are locking them in barns all summer rather than risk arrest and prosecution of they escape from their grazing fields. There are already reports of people (not farmers) refusing to lease their land to farmers for grazing because they fear legal confrontations, now criminal legal confrontations.

There are two sides to everything, and this story has become complex and difficult. If the police reports are accurate, Mosher had multiple warnings about his animals getting through his fences and chose to neglect them. That is damning, if true.

That is the very core of involuntary manslaughter charges. There is no doubt that the prosecutor has chosen to escalate and make much more serious one of the familiar elements of rural life – animals getting through fences. The issue is whether or not this is justified.

This kind of thing happens every day in rural communities and in cities and suburbs as well.  Most Americans have lost touch with farm life, and the cost and complexity of things like fences. Good fences cost a fortune, they are way too expensive for most farmers to buy, they have to build them themselves with electric wire and wooden posts. These fences often stretch for miles, through brush and trees and around old stone walls.

A hundred things can break or bend them, and no farmer can patrol these vast and often invisible spaces two or three times a day. I’ve seen people on Facebook say “well, he just should have repaired his fence,” and perhaps this is so. But not to fast. If you lived on a farm, it wouldn’t seem to simple a task to  you.

Animal lovers and farmers are also understandably and deeply concerned about this case. So are people who can relate to the family that lost a loved one because a bull got through a fence that perhaps ought to have been repaired, and that the owner knew about.

We  have not yet heard from Mr. Mosher or his lawyers.

This story is already a metaphor for many things, including the polarized and absolutist way in which we are conditioned to take all or nothing positions on difficult issues. Oppositional thinking has become a cancer in our culture, a kind of illness. It travels on the super-highway that is social media, a gift to the angry and ill-informed and righteous.

I got a message from my friend Eve Marko last night, she is a Zen teacher and a good and wise friend and human being:

“I continue to enjoy your posts,” she wrote. “Interesting regarding the ambiguity that has come in regarding Mosher. Recently I read a Buddhist scholar write that in Buddhism, nothing is oppositional. Meaning that nothing is ever black and white, this vs. this, nothing is that clean. These labels are less and less relevant.”

Labels are less relevant in the world at large, but very relevant in our political system right now, and in our personal and digital communications. People on the left and the right believe that everything is black and white, this versus that, and that their side is clean and the other side is always dirty. Our political leaders have embraced oppositional thinking – this is Donald Trump’s stated philosophy – as a necessary survival tool, it has paralyzed Congress and poisoned public discourse.

In our politics, and in our online discussions, we preach and practice hatred for different points of view. We never admit we were wrong, change our minds, or compromise. There is no color but black and white.

Our politics is defined by  oppositional thinking. The only question is who will do it more effectively. This is also true in the animal world, now just as polarized as the political world.

The left and the right exists in permanent and perpetual opposition to each other, the system is not built to negotiate or reach consensus or find solutions, but to refuse to compromise or negotiate and fix rigid labels on beliefs and the people who share and practice them. According to the Free Dictionary, oppositional thinking the act of opposing or resisting, the condition of being in conflict, or opposing ideas. If you listen to any presidential debates or read almost all of the statements of political candidates on both sides, you will hear nothing but conflict and opposition.

That is oppositional thinking, you can hear and see it every day.

The Mosher case challenges me to step back and recognize that there are no simple answers to some issues.

I already believe this, I reject political labels for myself and believe there are two sides to just about everything. When I first heard of the Mosher case, it did seem black and white to me. Animal escapes are such a common feature of rural life – and I live in the country – that I had an instant concern about what this sudden criminalizing of what was always seen as an accident could do to farmers and animal owners and lovers.

As often happens in cases relating to animals, the prosecutor seemed to have overreached, and the toxically oppositional shock troops of the animal rights movement would surely not be far behind. Talk about oppositional thinking.

But as Eve suggested, this is not so simple, not so clear, not anywhere near black-and-white. This is why I want to go to the court hearing myself and get a look at the principals and a feel for the case. I learned as a reporter that sometimes you just have to go and see and listen and feel.

It is difficult for me to accept the idea that Craig Mosher ought to go to jail – one to 15 years – because his much-loved bull Red got through his fence. But I believe in the practice of empathy as well as thoughtfulness and I can well understand members of a family wanting someone to be held accountable for the death of someone beloved to them in an accident that might easily have been prevented.

If the police are correct, Mosher was warned more than once.

On the other hand, and there is always another hand, the rights of farmers and animal lovers have been threatened and challenged in a serious way in recent years, and their concerns also need to be considered and protected.  The prosecutor has given no indication that she is aware of this or is concerned about it.

If this case in any way elevates the war on farmers and people who live and work with animals, then it becomes a far more troubling and complicated matter than it already appears to be.

Nothing about this case is clean or simple, which makes is significant as well as tragic. I do not believe in oppositional thinking, I think it is a cancer on our world. And I have to be careful not to let my head be clouded by the past several years, in which I have explored and written about injustice after injustice wreaked on farmers and animal lovers by prosecutors and well-meaning people who have lost any sense of truth and perspective.

So I’ll happy make the two-hour drive to Rutland, a chance, maybe, to understand this awful happening in a better way and more helpful, and to try to find a comfortable space in a collision of values and circumstances that may well make a simple judgment impossible.

How do you find clarity when something is not clean?

Once in awhile I am compelled to realize just how much I love my farm. I loved the first one too, I love this one as much or more. I love the rhythms and rituals of the farm,  l love the feel of it, the life and death of it, the challenge of it. Maria calls me Farmer Jon because one of the things I most love about the farm is managing it, taking the big view of it, anticipating its wants needs and problems.

I am not a farmer, but I have been managing a farm for more than 15 years now, and I have gotten very good at it. I know how much hay to order and when to order it, I do the same with firewood. I keep a sharp eye on our fences to make sure nobody ever walks out of them insofar as it is in my control.

When we got the pony Chloe, I knew we would have to make some dramatic changes to our pastures and rotational grazing schedule to accommodate a Haflinger-Welsh mare, who eats day and night if permitted. This year, I presented Maria with a new plan and we talked about it and agreed to it.

I decided we had to break up our available grazing pasture – about eight acres – into four distinct parts by adding a new fence to the South side of the pasture, sealing off some of our best grass. This would mean the area behind the pole barn would be a paddock, when the animals were not grazing, they would be confined there, nibbling on grass that would eventually just be a worn down stubble.

I called Todd Mason, who came and installed one of his very strong and durable post-and-mesh fences, about five feet high. No horse, donkey or sheep is walking out of those fences, unless lightning strikes or a car crashes through or a big tree falls. We check our fences every day. Todd charged me about $500 for this fence, which runs 500 feet across the pasture from the apple tree to the other side of the marsh.

This leaves us with three grazing ares. The old cow pasture behind Lulu’s crossing, the wide pasture on the north side of the house, which is where I do most of the sheepherding, and this newly-sealed off area, above, on the south side. We opened it up this morning, and the animals rushed out and loved it, fresh green grass three to four inches tall. Two weeks ago, it was worn down and in danger of being barren.

We graze on each pasture for two or three days, then rotate. We let the animals in for three hours in the morning, then three in the late afternoon. Otherwise, they can nose around in the paddock, there is nothing much to eat there. Donkeys and sheep will eat until they are full, and then stop and sit around.

Horses like Chloe never stop eating, they can become seriously ill if left along for days on new and sugary grass, they can even founder. This way, all the animals get what they need, and we preserve our pastures. This is not only efficient farm management, it is good for the animals and it keeps us from having to spend hundreds of dollars on hay all summer, when we have good grass to eat. I’m order 125 bales of hay for the winter, a mix of first and second cut. Ed and Caro Gulley are selling it to us. (Can’t wait to see them tomorrow, they are coming to dinner at the farm.)

I’m not sure why an urban creature like me would love a farm or love managing it, but somehow, my mind works that way. I think I’m a big picture kind of person, not a detail kind of person. Maria and I share every bit of the farm, including the decisions about it. We each have our own strengths and weaknesses. This morning, I couldn’t get the new pasture gate open, Maria came and fixed it in two seconds.

I consider farm management one of the most creative things I ever do, and I loved seeing everyone slip into the new routine, including Red and Fate. The animals seem to know what to do

In any case, the new pasture is a big success, and I am proud of it. Time to get ready for winter.