Photo by Cameron Knight

In preparing to interview newly elected Cincinnati City Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld, I was repeatedly visited by the temptation to ask him, “Are you as squeaky-clean as you seem?”

I listened to him, then 25 years old, deliver a bright-eyed, five-minute distillation of a book he was writing on happiness, onstage at the Know Theatre. Later that year he began to frequent a café where I worked.  He was impeccably warm, courteous and dapper as I served his business lunches and coffee, and I wondered what he was all about.

For one thing, I find, Sittenfeld is all about writing. If any hint of a dark side reveals itself, it’s while he scrambles to think of a character from literature that he identifies with.

“Oh, man … I think it’s one of those things where, you know, you fall in love with characters despite their imperfections sometimes,” he muses, giving a shout-out to John Milton’s imagining of a certain charismatic underworld figure in his 1667 epic poem, Paradise Lost. 

After more thought, he decides on someone less controversial: James of Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach.

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Illustration by Rebecca Sylvester for CityBeat

A series of 12 unusual earthquakes in northern Ohio reached a 4.0 magnitude on New Year’s Eve, shaking homes in Youngstown and intensifying nationwide opposition to fracking, a controversial natural gas extraction process.

John Armbruster, a Columbia University seismologist hired by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), located the quakes’ epicenters near the base of a wastewater injection well operated by D&L Energy. One of 177 injection wells in Ohio, this one was greasing the palms of a previously unknown fault line, by pumping gas industry wastewater right into it.

In response to the finding, Gov. John Kasich suspended injections at that well and at four inactive sites in the same area.

Those injection wells dispose of wastewater generated by fracking wells, whose job it is to extract natural gas by blasting pressurized slurries of water, chemicals and sand into ancient shale formations, thousands of feet below ground.

Although it hasn’t been known to cause earthquakes, fracking — or horizontal hydraulic fracturing — creates its own problems. Ask Thelma Payne.

Ms. Payne, now 88, and her husband Richard Payne, 91, were asleep in their bed one night in December 2007, when an explosion in their basement blew their Geauga County home straight off its foundations. The couple bounced up and landed safely back on their mattress; the house landed back on its foundation, but was damaged beyond repair.

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A retriever awaits his human, outside of a pharmacy in central Prague.

Beneath the sooty spires of Prague, dogs join men and women in restaurants, birds arrive to winter on the iceless Vlatva River, and a group of scholars is meeting to ask questions that I, too, would like answered:

Left to his own devices, what kind of life might a domestic dog choose for himself?

How do people protect their psyches, in jobs that demand violence against animals?

How relevant are the differences between humans and non-humans?

Across Europe this month, experts in animal law, zooethnography, and other areas of the young field known as human-animal studies (HAS), are convening to share and build ideas.  Having recently studied human-animal relations in my own grad program, I’ve decided to come along and mull through the most useful and interesting insights I hear, for a general audience.  The language of scholars can be flummoxingly high falutin, so I want to see if I can do for these ideas what Scientific American does for astrochemistry.

I plan to write a short article here, each day for the next three weeks; to stay tuned, you can subscribe to Sentient Cincinnati (by hitting the “follow” button at the top or bottom of this page), or keep your eye on my Twitter account.

My journey begins here in Prague with perhaps the most radical wing of HAS scholars, the Institute for Critical Animal Studies (ICAS).  Many of these scholars dedicate their work to the liberation of animals from human coercion, blurring lines between scholarship and activism.  Conference organizer Tereza Vandorovcová likens the activist bent of critical animal studies, to that of gender studies:

More after tomorrow’s 23 talks and one vigil–thanks for reading!

Smokestacks at Duke Energy's Miami Fort Plant in North Bend, Ohio

In a move almost as confusing as its monthly bills, Duke Energy has proposed a 10-year rate plan that would impose a new “capacity” fee on both its own customers and those who have switched to other electricity providers.

While the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) evaluates the proposal, Cincinnati residents are considering an unrelated ballot measure that would enable them, as a group, to take their business away from Duke and give it to a lower bidder.

Under Duke’s proposal, its customers would now find their energy charges “unbundled” into two components: The cost of generating energy, which only they would pay for; and also Duke’s more hypothetical “capacity” to generate energy, which everyone on the local grid would subsidize through the proposed fee.

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Ellen Bierhorst presides over the final Lloyd House Salon at her Clifton home.

If Cincinnati were Paris, Ellen Bierhorst would be its Gertrude Stein.

In July the 71-year-old psychotherapist-poet ended her Lloyd House Salon, a gathering in Clifton where some of the city’s most engaged citizens grappled with local leaders and each other about politics, art, life and death. Open to anyone and any topic, the salon convened every week “come hell or high water” for 10 years.

Free from the confines of short soundbites, visitors to the salon such as mayors, City Council members and aspiring public servants often used the forum to stump and debate, and Lloyd House “salonistas” relished the chance to cross-examine them around a potluck dinner table.

Longtime salon-goer Steve Sunderland, 71, a professor of peace and educational studies at the University of Cincinnati, remembers a visit from Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper as emblematic of what made the salon unique.

“He stayed the whole evening, and people had an opportunity to talk to him about what his background was, what his dreams were,” Sunderland says.

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ALEC members convene privately; image from an organizational brochure.

Courageous members of the American Legislative Exchange Commission (ALEC), peeked out of the hotel’s grand entrance during their recess, to survey the opposition.  Until now, their organization of 2000+ state legislators and corporate executives has stayed under the public radar, while crafting 1000+ items of legislation each election cycle since 1973.  *Numbers reported by ALEC.

Their goal: an economic climate friendlier to corporations.  This year’s anti-collective-bargaining bills in Ohio and Michigan were two recent triumphs.

“Legislators welcome their private sector counterparts to the table as equals, working in unison to solve the challenges facing the nation,” reads a membership brochure.

But as the group’s annual Spring Task Force Summit convened yesterday, so did journalists and activists from across the Midwest.  And during a two-hour protest and 19 public “teach-ins” across downtown Cincinnati, speakers described a group bent on bloating corporate profits, at the expense of taxpayers and jobs.

Indianapolis-based Daily Kos journalist Bob Sloan told an audience at the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center about a growing ALEC-supported movement to provide cheap inmate labor to corporations, by criminalizing immigration, relaxing child-labor laws, and abolishing “prevailing wages” rules for working inmates.

Proponents of these bills, such as the Ohio Prison Industries Reform Act, argue that manufacturing programs allow inmates to develop useful job skills.  But Sloan cited instances of businesses collapsing in communities where large corporations have “insourced” factory jobs to a captive workforce.  While corporations save money by paying workers partial wages and no benefits, he said, taxpayers foot the bill.  And when those jobs disappear into prisons, former inmates with new skills can find themselves at loose ends.

At Buddy’s Place, a Section 8 housing complex on Vine St., Michigan activist Bruce Fealk gave a morning talk on “outing” ALEC in the corporate media; in the afternoon, that sector was silent.  (The Enquirer is one of 82 newspapers owned by the publicly-traded Gannett Company.)

Although ALEC has non-profit status, it appears to behave more like a political action committee, with its member list and model legislation texts both kept under wraps.  But with the election of Governor John Kasich, who was a founding member of ALEC, the promotion of Boehner to Speaker of the House, and a 25% ALEC ticket discount offered by the Reds, Ohio may feel like receptive territory this year.

Also active from Ohio are Senator Bill Seitz, Chair of the Civil Justice Task Force, and Rep. John P. Adams (R-78th), ALEC’s Ohio state Chairman.  Ohio University economics professor Richard Vedder sits on ALEC’s Board of Scholars, and Reps. Andrew O. Brenner (R-2nd) and Danny Bubp (R-88th) were both tweeting from the summit.

Legislative members of ALEC pay $50 in annual dues.  But corporate members who participate in one of the nine task forces that met yesterday, pay between $2500 (to weigh in on educational policy) and $10,000 (to help write legislation affecting International Relations).

ALEC literature calls the creation of model legislation the “centerpiece” of its activities–and its state-by-state fill-in-the-blank formula has proven effective at sweeping the country.

Versions of the “Freedom in Choice and Health Care Act” that were designed to unravel last year’s health care reform bill, have been enacted separately in 10 states and are pending in 30 more.

In a press release last month Christie Herrera, director of ALEC’s Health and Human Forces Task Force, wrote:

“ALEC congratulates the states for their successful fight against ObamaCare.  Their resilience and determination have paid off: ObamaCare is failing.”

Perhaps that was what inspired one middle-aged man at the protest to carry a sign reading, “Screw us and we’ll multiply!”

Not to be outdone, those inside the meeting retaliated via Twitter.

@PamelaGorman, identified on Twitter as “Conservative former Arizona State Senator & Congressional Candidate. I dig States Rights, 2nd Amendment, Limited Govt. I’m Pro-Life, Christian, & my son’s mom! http://citizengorman.blogspot.com” yawned, “Lamest protest today at ALEC mtg in Ohio. No fun. Drummer had no rhythm and chants were not catchy. All the good hired mobs taken?”

And @jennifer_butler, “EVP of State Policy Network & hearts liberty http://www.spn.org,” goaded, “Living on the wildside by wearing my ALEC badge outside on CVS run. Come and get me protesters!”

The two sides will have another opportunity to face off this August, when the board holds its annual meeting in New Orleans.

Livestock Care Board members Harold Dates (l) and Dominic Marchese (r) at last week's board meeting.

Ohio’s Livestock Care Standards Board moved with unusual swiftness and cheer last week, to vote the final 25 pages of their document one step closer to entering the Ohio Revised Code. Likely to become effective this July, these will be the state’s first statutes regulating the care of chickens, pigs, cows, horses, turkeys, sheep, goats, alpacas and llamas—all of whom are excluded from the federal Animal Welfare Act.

Congratulations have hummed within the board and animal protection groups, for arriving at mutually-palatable standards after a year-long haul.  But as the whittled rules move forward, no structure exists to enforce them.

While board members discussed plans to educate livestock producers on the new rules, Dominic Marchese voiced a worry that farmers would be told, “Do what you’re doing, and you’ll only be in violation if there’s a complaint.”

“I don’t think I want to use the definition or the philosophy that [the standards are] only complaint-driven,” said Marchese, an organic beef producer from Trumbull County who said board members had murmured about this possibility. “I don’t want to go there.”

Other members were quick to reply that outreach efforts would aim to protect farmers by bringing them into compliance—not to coach them on avoiding change.

But however the new rules may be explained to producers, there is no system in place to monitor their compliance. State Veterinarian Tony Forshey will investigate reports of civil animal care infractions, just as local humane societies investigate criminal animal cruelty tips; no one has been given the job of looking for those infractions.

In contrast, the Department of Agriculture’s Dairy Division annually conducts about 10,000 random and unannounced milk safety inspections on the state’s 3,377 licensed producers, according to ODA Communications Director Andy Ware. And the agency’s Livestock Environmental Permitting Program conducts about 345 waste management audits of Ohio’s 177 Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)—those which raise over 650 cows, 1000 steers, 2,500 pigs, or 100,000 chickens.

For the near future, it looks like farms will continue to receive considerably less formal scrutiny for the quality of their animal care, than for their environmental or public health impacts.

“Do we have folks who go out and routinely visit all Ohio farms? The answer is no,” answered Ware.  “We’re on dairy farms for food safety, and we’re on CAFO’s for the permitting program. As need arises to ensure the health of Ohio’s livestock in response to animal disease situations, we’re on farms in response to those situations.”

But he said that all of the inspectors already visiting farms, would be briefed on the new Livestock Care Standards and instructed to report any animal care infractions they might see.

Nonetheless, although 3,377 dairy facilities and 177 CAFOs are inspected regularly, they form a small minority of the producers in Ohio, where cattle facilities alone number over 15,000. Most livestock farms rarely receive inspectors.

As the new law stands, if a beef producer drags a broken-legged steer onto a truck for slaughter, the probability is small that an inspector will be there to see it. If a farmer slices the horns off a goat without analgesic, it will likely go unreported.

The only organized efforts to pinpoint specific animal care failures in Ohio are not agricultural initiatives, but covert video investigations by animal protection groups like Mercy for Animals.  And Ohio’s agricultural community has plugged in to a movement to stop those exposés.

At last week’s annual symposium of the Ohio Livestock Coalition, Professor Peggy Kirk Hall of OSU’s Agricultural and Resource Law Program presented a portfolio of laws that could curtail undercover videos by criminalizing them. From a current Florida proposal that would make unauthorized photography on farms a first-degree felony, to the 2007 federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which prescribes up to 20 years in jail for causing “economic damage” to a farm, national and state agricultural lobbies have been upping the ante for groups that tarnish the image of animal farming.

The Livestock Care Standards comprise a landmark move by an agricultural agency, to define and codify good animal care as a value distinct from environmental stewardship and public health. But without an auditing system to propagate that value, public conversations about farm animal care may remain stuck between damning videos and damning efforts to ban them—a place equally unhelpful to animals, activists, and farmers.

Video coverage transcript:

A tense crowd of nearly 200 people watched last week, as Ohio’s Livestock Care Standards Board granted future veal calves the space to turn around in a circle. The unanimous vote reversed a decision made just one month ago, which permitted farmers to house calves in narrow, solitary stalls. That first decision prompted over 4,700 Ohioans to email the board, most of them asking for the use of those stalls to end.

Jeff Wuebker, the board member who successfully argued for permitting those stalls last month, responded to critics by holding up a bag of Aureomycin, an oral antibiotic that he said calves would need to consume in much larger amounts, if they moved into group housing.

Jeff Wuebker, pork producer from Versailles, Ohio: “I want you to know that this is what you’re telling me that you might want.”

Wuebker also had harsh words for press and other organizations that he said had publicly misrepresented the board’s last decision, naming the Ohio Veterinary Medical Association as an example.

Wuebker: “I guess to tell the truth is one thing, but to misrepresent the standards and lie about it is another, and that’s the way I’ve looked at how they’ve—how it was sent out.”

But then he shifted focus.

Wuebker: “With all those things said, I do appreciate the e-comment process, and all of you who have taken the time to comment to our board. And the last thing is, as a livestock farmer in the state of Ohio, I do not want to go to a ballot initiative. I know it would be very detrimental to the State of Ohio, to its consumers, to the farmers, and to the animals that the farmers care for. So with that all being said, Mr. Chairman, I move to reconsider the motion that was passed at the last board meeting, in Section 901:12-5-03, Section C-3.”

“‘An individual pen must permit a calf’s movement as described in section C-1 of this rule, and in addition the calf must be able to turn around.’That is my motion.”

Board Member and Cincinnati SPCA President Harold Dates, seconded the motion.

During the public comment period that followed, animal advocates from across Ohio addressed the board, wearing T-shirts that read, “Let them turn around.” Many expressed gratitude for the board’s decision.

Veronica Dickey, Stark County: “In Stark County we are somewhat city, but we also have many farms throughout the county. I also have a B.S. In Agriculture from Ohio State University, so obviously I’m not against farming at all. But as farmers, we do understand that there are good practices and there are bad practices.  So I applaud the Livestock Care Board’s Standards.”

Kira Pilat, Cuyahoga County: “All though I did not grow up on a farm—and especially as I listen to you, sir—I could not be more proud to be the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Ohio farmers from Huron County. And I’m a volunteer with Ohioans for Humane Farms. I simply want to thank the board for all the work you’ve done, and for your vote today. Again, I was one of the thousands of volunteers who collected signatures to implement minimum standards of care for our farm animals, and I’m grateful to see the board carefully consider the input of all Ohioans. Thank you so much.”

Others took the opportunity to share the perspectives on animal life and suffering that motivated their political work.

Shane Lampman, New Albany, Ohio: “We may think, ‘they are only animals,’but they don’t have the luxury of thinking that way. They are stuck in their own consciousness, and within that consciousness they are clearly having a very real experience of suffering, a suffering that they are unable to rationalize away as the ‘mere suffering of an animal.’

“It is common to confine animals to living conditions that we would never accept for ourselves, because we understand that they have a less complex consciousness, a smaller intellect, than we possess. But in fact, this probably makes the experience far worse for them, because they are stuck in the moment. Animals are far more sensitive to their surrounding environment than we are. They cannot let their minds wander to find comfort in things like relivion, philosophy, spirituality, or even hope.  They cannot strive to find a purpose for their suffering, or accept it as part of God’s plan, or think back to better times, or hope for a better future.  They cannot reflect upon the suffering of others or find a reason to be grateful for their own blessings. All the methods we use to cope with our own suffering are unavailable to these animals, and so they must sit and suffer, and believe that they will always suffer unless someone chooses to understand their suffering and alleviate their anguish.”

Saiom Shriver, coordinator of an international Animal Rights Coalition from Akron, Ohio: “We boycotted BK for 3 years when they began the veal sandwich, and after 3 years of picketing them in over 100 cities we achieved a total withdrawal. We did that because we believe that God is omnipresent and dwells not only in everyone here—on the board, and in the audience—but in every animal, as well. The people who voted for the Livestock Board, voted—on the ballot, four times the word ‘care for animals’was mentioned—and that was the primary reason that people in Ohio voted for the board.”

Livestock farmers also stood up to share personal reflections on their work, animals, and families.

David Troyer, beef and veal producer from Sugar Creek, Ohio: “I’ve got part of my family here. This is Randall—he’s 16, Shane—he’s thirteen, this is my wife. And then I got a son at home that’s 13. I’ve been a farmer—we’ve got veal calves and beef cows—my dad was a dairy farmer, my grandfather was a farmer, and my great-grandfather was a farmer. And I’m glad for it, and I’m proud to be a farmer. And we’re the ones that supply you all with meat, that you have something to eat. And we use our animals as humane and the best that we know how. We get up, I and my sons, at 4 o’clock in the morning, go out and feed them, and feed them at night. And if there’s something out in the pasture, a cow giving birth or something, we’ll get up at 12 o’clock or 1 o’clock in the morning, to take care of them.”

Chuck Wildman, pork producer from South Charleston, Ohio: “I’ve heard recently the concept—and you hear it many times at different rallying cries, I guess—being a voice for the voiceless. And it occurred to me as I was thinking about that, how do I address or illustrate that. I think of my son, who has Down Syndrome, he’s eleven years old. And he struggles mightily with the complications of that. One being he cannot speak. He can hardly utter an intelligible word that I can understand. But my wife and my daughter can communicate with him at some level. They are immersed in Simon’s world and they can understand him.”

“What I’m saying is, she is an expert in Simon-talk because of who she is and what she does, and she’s immersed herself in that. And I’m just excited to see the board, and to realize that when you talk about a voice for the voiceless, you board members all represent experts at some level in agriculture. You’ve reached out to experts at university levels across the globe to gain more understanding of that. And by your efforts, by the votes of 2,020,851 people that established the board, you have become the voice for those voiceless. I really appreciate the work you’re doing, and how you can take your expertise and bring that to bear, and come up with good and reasonable compromises. Thank you.”

Gail Eisnitz, author of the 1997 book “Slaughterhouse,” condemned last year’s agreement between the board and Humane Society of the United States. It failed to give any endpoint to the cramped battery cages housing 27 million egg laying hens, she said, and provided wide loopholes for keeping many pregnant sows locked in tight gestation crates, past the 2025 phase-out date.

Before the board meeting, The Humane Farming Association handed out literature denouncing the actions of both the Livestock Board and the Humane Society of the United States.

Gail Eisnitz, author and activist from Asheville, NC: “I can promise you that the arbitrary, capricious, and politically-influenced standards being adopted by this board, will be facing increased public awareness and opposition, in the weeks and months to come.”

Eisnitz serves as chief investigator of the Humane Farming Association, a national organization that distributed literature before the board meeting, condemning the board and its endorsement by the Humane Society of the United States.

Leaders of the Ohio Veterinary Medical Association also responded to the board’s decision and Mr. Wuebker’s comments.

Linda Lord, President of the Ohio Veterinary Medical Association from Columbus, Ohio: “We have been transparent and professional in our engagements with this board. We do not appreciate, however, the disparaging comments by Mr. Wuebker about our Executive Director Jack Advent, our organization, or our communication with our members. Our statement, which we sent to our members, asking them to make a comment in the e-comment period, I signed as the President, as did Brad Garrisson, Chairman of our Food Animal Committee. Our statement was factual, and I’m happy to share it with anybody who’d like to see it.”

There was also some back-and-forth within the board’s audience, about the rationale for raising calves in groups.

Bob Cochrell, chairman of the board’s Veal Subcommittee from Burbank, Ohio: “I would have a question for the board. What makes intact Holstein bull calves that are raised for the veal market unique, that they should have to be housed in group pens? I’m not aware of any other species or classes—other than perhaps camelids, which you’ve just addressed—that allows for socialization.”

Sirrus Lawson-Bourne, Bexley, Ohio: “The reasoning behind implementing group pens are due to the fact that bovine are herd animals, and this is why the socialization is important to their health and well being.”

During the meeting’s recess veal producers gathered to speak quietly together, while upbeat activists poured out of the conference room, their job done for the day.

When the meeting reconvened, board member Leon Weaver, a dairy farmer and former veterinarian, reached out to the few remaining observers, asking animal advocates to understand and work with the board.

Leon Weaver, dairy producer and former veterinarian: “You hear the agriculture community often say that ‘we want to do this about science.’That’s how we’re trained, that’s how we think. And what you haven’t had the opportunity to observe, is agricultural scientists—veterinarians, agronomists, and livestock specialists—begin to embrace the partnership with the consumer and the public…

“I think this board and the livestock community at large, is really learning to respect the diverse viewpoints and the diverse bodies of knowledge that need to be brought to this task. And I want to ask the public at large to embrace us in the same way. I can tell you, without naming names, there are people on this board—more than one or two—that cast votes against their personal experiences. Somebody said, ‘I’m going to vote for this but animals will die.’So what we’re saying is, we’re balancing the broader perspectives.

“And so I’m just making a plea—for particularly those that are here now, because you’re more committed, you stayed the extra hour—to join us in a partnership to find the best good. Don’t believe that because you’re vocal, or because you outnumber us, or because we vote to your point of view, that there’s only one facet to this issue. We’ve spent our whole lives on these things, and we have opinions too. We’re not right all the time, but we have opinions, and we can find the better good, by working together as we have. And I just want to commend you for being involved, and continue to engage with us, recognizing that we have something to contribute as agricultural people, just as you have something to contribute as consumers. Thank you.”

If you’d like to become involved with the decisions of this board, visit http://ohiolivestockcarestandardsboard.gov for meeting details.

Reporting for SentientCincinnati.com, I’m Fabien Tepper.

• Who (incl. non-humans) lives in Cincinnati?
• What kinds of relationships make up their lives?
• What policy decisions and other events affect their lives and relationships?

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