0Prison farm supporters purchase part of Frontenac Institution's herd

Aug 26, 2010

Organizers and supporters of the “Save Our Prison Farms” campaign, who held a protest and blockade at the Kingston Frontenac Institution on August 8 & 9 to try to stop the sale of the institution’s dairy herd, have since joined forces and purchased 25 animals from the herd at two separate auctions.

Campaign supporters attended the first auction in Waterloo on August 3 and purchased four cows and two heifers. Soon after, campaign organizers became aware that 24 animals from the herd had been held back at the institution and not auctioned off because they were either too young or too close to their calving dates to be sold.

It was then that organizers took swift action and sent out an email inviting supporters to a potluck picnic celebration, where they offered supporters $300 shares in the herd, which they intended to purchase at the second auction on August 23. According to Kim Perry of Local Family Farms in Verona, who helped organize the potluck, “People came on very short notice, and many shareholders came pretty much out of the woodwork and very generously offered their support.”

Five prison farm campaign organizers attended Monday’s auction, which took place at the Selby sales barn near Napanee, and one of them, Brigitte Doherty of the Sisters of Providence of Kingston, placed the bids on the cattle.

Perry said that the campaign buyers successfully acquired “every single animal they had intended to purchase” and that each of Doherty's successful bids was greeted by cheers and applause from supporters in attendance.

At the end of the day, 19 of the 24 cows from the Frontenac herd - 10 milking cows and nine calves – had been purchased at a cost of $31,000, bringing the total number to 25.

The cows have since been delivered to a number of local dairy farmers in the area who have offered to host them, and who have milk quotas. Their milk will enter the system, which according to Perry “will help to compensate the host farmers”.

In the meantime campaign organizers have formed the not-for-profit Pen Herd Farm Co-op, and an interim board of directors will be holding a meeting to decide how to set up the co-op and manage the herd, and to draft the by-laws. Dianne Dowling, Jeff Peters, Dave Perry, Meela Melnick-Proud and George Sutherland are the five directors of the co-op board.

Dowling explained, “The idea of the co-op is, we're loaning the cows out to farmers in the area who are interested in adding a cow or two to their herds.”

One original goal of the co-op had been to form a milk sharing dairy co-op, but according to Dowling that idea was quashed because the Dairy Farmers of Ontario and pubic health authorities forbid it.

One definite long-term goal of the co-op is to preserve the genetics of the herd. Dowling explained, “Our hope is that one day a new government will re-establish the prison farms and will we have the nucleus of the herd to begin that process.”

In the meantime, the Save Our Prison Farms campaign continues. Dowling said, “We are hoping to involve more people from all across eastern Ontario, listen to their ideas and to make future plans of action. We will also be focusing on raising awareness of the Conservative government’s prison agenda and their desire to keep people in jail longer and to build mega prisons.”

The campaign’s next public meeting will take place at the Memorial Hall at Kingston City Hall on Ontario Street on Saturday August 28 from 1-4pm. For more information visit www.saveourprisonfarms.ca