Mark Baker sent me an interesting, and infuriating, tid-bit this evening that I wanted to share. Keep in mind that it is taken right from court transcripts.
I'm crazy busy getting ready for tomorrow's Pletzke benefit (please come see all the great items that were donated for the silent and live auction, and come bowl with us!), so I'm posting it as-is…
Pig Farmers Causing Stink Over Assistant AG's Comment
A recent statement from a state attorney in a swine-related court case has pig owners betting the farm that the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is out to kill their businesses.
Assistant attorney general Harold MARTIN was filling in on a case involving the DNR's order banning exotic hogs from hunting ranches when he said the following, according to a court transcript:
“You know, when it comes down to brass tacks, Your Honor, the fact of the matter is yes, the intent of this Order is to put that business and nodding to Roger TURUNEN or Mark BAKER or anybody else, but to eliminate that business, and, of course, we wait for the Courts to determine whether that Order is valid and legal, but, you know, there's no getting around the fact that that is, indeed, what DNR hopes to accomplish.”
DNR spokesperson Ed GOLDER said Martin wasn't saying the department wanted to put people out of business.
“That's not true at all. What he's articulating is that we don't want people to be in the Russian boar businesses,” said Golder. “Of course, we want people to be in the business of agriculture, and raise any other type of pig they want in the state of Michigan.”
But Turunen's attorney, Joseph O‘LEARY, said the assistant AG's original statement summed up what he thought had been going on all along.
“We've been saying all along ‘Hey, this isn't an invasive species, it's about putting out of business a business they don't like,'” said O'Leary.
When Baker of Baker's Green Acres saw he'd been named specifically in a lawsuit he wasn't involved in, he wasn't exactly surprised.
“They're pretty brutal about what they want to do, and they don't make any bones about it,” he said.
Baker said that he thought Martin may have accidentally mentioned that businesses were a target.
“He wasn't supposed to say that . . . but he let the cat out of the bag,” said Baker.
O'Leary said he and the DNR agree that feral pigs are a problem. But he said Turunen's pigs are behind fences, and not a threat.
“The hairy scary pig is going to behave just like a pink pig, just like Arnold the Pig. It's how a pig is raised,” said O'Leary.
Baker said his own lawsuit had been delayed.
“They just want us to run out of money, because they know we're feeding a whole bunch of pigs. We're feeding them, can't sell 'em,” said Baker. (Source-note that only members can get into this site.)
Previous posts on the Baker Family that you may have missed:
Samuel Sternhagen says
God forbid an animal gets naturalized somewhere it doesn’t belong. That surely would only be negative. Consider the salmon and trout planted in Lake Michigan that have become an invasive species. No one likes those either. (sarcasm)
The DNR has their directive to keep wild pigs out of the woods. Why do they have this directive. Who gave them this directive? Why are they so adamant about accomplishing this goal?
Linda says
It is obvious they want to put the small farmer out of business. Interesting that he actually admitted it. I hope that statement will end up backfiring on him in the end.