Roswell Daily Record THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 124, No. 96 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
April 22, 2015
Wednesday
www.rdrnews.com
Leprino Foods announces new animal policies By Jeff Tucker Record Staff Writer Leprino Foods has announced new policies for animal care after an undercover investigation last year at one of its suppliers in Chaves County revealed widespread abuse of milking cows and calves. The new policies require Leprino’s dairy suppliers to provide proper veterinary care for sick and injured cows, to provide cows with a safe and sanitary environment and to provide pain relief during disbudding and dehorning. Mercy For Animals, which employed an undercover investigator last summer at Winchester Dairy in Midway, said the new policies will alleviate the suffering of tens of thousands of cows in Leprino Foods’ supply chain. The Mercy For Animals investigator compiled video and photographic evidence of Winchester Dairy farm workers kicking and punching cows, stabbing cows with screwdrivers, whipping cows with chains and wire and shocking disabled cows in the genitals with cattle prods. “It’s certainly an industry
Charges forthcoming for ‘culture of cruelty’
leading policy that will hopefully inspire other food providers to step up to the plate and implement meaningful animal welfare policies,” Matt Rice, director of investigations for Mercy For Animals, said Tuesday. “It’s a policy that will reduce the suffering of thousands, tens of thousands, of animals. Of course, there is still work to be done. But this represents the most comprehensive policy ever adopted by a major U.S. dairy company.” Leprino Foods’ new policies require its suppliers to also stop “docking” cows’ tails. Rice explained tail docking is the practice of cutting off the tails of cows, without pain relief. “They cut through their skin, their nerves, their tailbone, without any painkillers whatsoever,” Rice said. “The practice stems from this idea way back in the 1920s that people had that it
would help improve milk quality and cleanliness. A huge number of studies since then show that’s just simply not the case. It doesn’t improve milk quality. It doesn’t improve worker safety. It certainly is painful to the animals. It causes acute pain at the time that their tails are actually cut off, but also chronic pain throughout their lives. And it also makes it impossible for them to swat flies away, which is their primary defense against flies.” Leprino Foods, which has nine cheesemaking plants in the United States including one in Roswell, said in a news release Monday that tail docking is a “cruel and unnecessary practice.” Rice said tail docking is opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association. “It’s opposed by the dairy industry itself,” Rice said. “It’s been banned in California and
Submitted Photo
Photographic and video evidence of animal abuse such as this at a Midway dairy farm has been turned over to authorities for criminal prosecution after an undercover investigation last year of Winchester Dairy, a former supplier of Leprino Foods. Leprino Foods, the world’s largest mozzarella cheese producer, has announced new policies to prevent the abuse of cows in its supply chain. a number of major companies, including Nestlé, have come out against it. So now Leprino is also saying that tail docking needs to be stopped in its supply chain.” Leprino Foods implemented a deadline of Dec. 31, 2016, for its milk suppliers to end the practice of tail docking. Rice said the timeframe is reasonable.
“I think what the company is doing is it takes time to put this message out to its entire nationwide supply chain and also implement the oversight, the auditing and all of that, to ensure compliance as well,” Rice said. “So See LEPRINO, Page A2
City pays $65K-plus to 27 employees By Jeff Jackson Record City Editor
Timothy P. Howsare Photo
Authorities arrested three burglary suspects as they attempted to flee on foot from this black Ford Explorer, which crashed into the Impala as it was being chased by police.
Suspects captured after pursuit, collision By Timothy P. Howsare Record Editor The solitude of a quiet neighborhood in the northwest corner of the city was disrupted Tuesday after a black Ford Explorer being pursued by law enforcement units crashed into a passenger car at West
Berrendo Road and North Montana Avenue. Three male suspects, believed to all be in their early 20s, were captured after the wreck. The elderly woman driving the car, a light-colored Chevrolet Impala, was transported to the hospital but was not seriously
injured, said Todd Wildermuth, a spokesman for the Roswell Police Department. Wildermuth said the Chaves County Sheriff’s Office was responding to a burglary in progress in an area of the county east of the city when deputies spotted the black Explorer, which they believed may
have been involved in the burglary. Deputies began pursuing the Explorer as it headed west on Berrendo and the Roswell Police Department joined the pursuit around 5:15 p.m. as the suspects crossed North Main Street, See COLLISION, Page A2
More than police officers and utility workers are cashing in after the city of Roswell agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement with unionized employees recently. All personnel on the city payroll were affected financially when the City Council unanimously approved the CBA with the Roswell Police Officers Association and the Utility Workers of America Local 51 on April 9. The adopted wage scale is structured so that it will be placed among the 55 percentile in a 12-city in-state group. That left most employees from the city to manager down to parttime office aides with more spending money, some with just a few bucks and others into the thousands. “I know there’s a lot of complainers out there, there’s some upset people, but the reality is nobody got hurt,” said Najar, whose salary went from $76,905 to $106,548. “Bottom line is it’s all mathematical.
Math is not looking at your name.” All pay adjustments were calculated based on market pay and not merit, the individual or time of service, said Director of Planning and Engineering Louis Najar, one of three men at city hall who run day-today operations when City Manager Steve Polasek is out of town. Najar said he and Polasek are planning to attend a Utility Workers union meeting April 30 for a question-and-answer session with the rank-and-file. According to a document from a city council workshop held in February, the city has a 545-employee payroll of $19.8 million, and 42 percent of those workers earned below minimum wage. The city pays 27 employees $65,000 or more based on the new pay scale, and four top the century mark. Those 27 and their pay scale adjustments, listed by earnings, include: • Steven Polasek, city See CITY, Page A3
Roswell teacher dies in crash
From Germany with love
Staff Report
Bill Moffitt Photo
Mayor Dennis Kintigh, left, presents the key to the city to Roswell’s latest visitors, Angela Schubert and Alexander Moeckel who are joint sponsors for a group of 20 German students on a week-long stay as the guests of Sharon Bell, far right, who teaches German at Goddard High School. Schubert is the principal at Westerzgebirge Oberschule, where Moeckel teaches English, in Bad Schlema, Germany.
People may retrieve tax documents seized in state investigation Submitted by RPD The Roswell Police Department would like to get a large amount of tax documents back into
the hands of the people to whom they belong. Those people had provided their 2014 tax documents to Roswell tax preparer Sylvia Franco, who was Today’s Forecast
HIGH 84 LOW 44
arrested in early March on 79 criminal counts that include tax fraud, fraud See TAX, Page A2
A Roswell teacher was killed in a three-vehicle crash around 6 p.m. Monday. New Mexico State Police said Lori A. Johnson, 55, sustained fatal injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene. She was driving a Honda 2012 passenger car. Johnson was a teacher at Mesa Middle School. This crash occurred in the 1600 block of East Second Street in Roswell. The Roswell Police Department and the Chaves County Sheriff’s Office assisted with blocking the roadway and controlling traffic. An initial investigation by state police revealed a 2004 Ford Explorer driven by Victor M. Torres, 34, or Roswell, was traveling eastbound on East Second Street. The Ford Explorer crossed into the westbound lanes of traffic, colliding head-on with Johnson’s car and a 2003 Pontiac
Jared Tucker, PVON Photo
The remains of a Ford Explorer sit mangled Monday night after its driver, Victor Torrez, 35, of Roswell, allegedly crossed over the center line and hit Roswell school teacher Lori Johnson head on, killing her. Torrez was transported to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas. passenger car. Torres sustained multiple injuries and was flown for treatment to University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas. The driver of the Pontiac passenger car was uninjured.
Index
Today’s Obituaries Page A6
• Lori Ann Johnson • Betty Ann Lamb • Wilburn Marshall Riley
• Claressa Sandles • Melvin Lester Wise
The New Mexico State Police Crash Reconstruction Unit was called to assist investigating the scene. Alcohol is believed to be a contributing factor in this crash. The vehicle crash is still under investigation.
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