ANIMALS
A8 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2022
Lexington farm turns to desert-adapted sheep
By SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
EO Media Group
Farm owner Terry Felda
has seen first-hand the
value of matching genet-
ics to environment: rais-
ing a breed of dairy sheep
adapted to her region’s spe-
cific microclimate.
Introducing
genet-
ics from the Assaf breed
into her flock the past few
years has been transforma-
tional, boosting productiv-
ity and improving her farm’s
sustainability.
“We can already see the
difference,” Felda said.
For more than a decade,
Felda, 59, ran her opera-
tion with standard Amer-
ican dairy sheep crosses:
Lacaune and East Friesian
breeds. The problem was
these breeds need good pas-
ture and a temperate climate
to thrive, and Felda’s 450-
acre farm lies among the dry,
crumpled hills outside Lex-
ington, in semi-arid Morrow
County.
Felda’s ewes struggled on
ranges with limited forage.
“I felt I had to put a lot
of feed and time into them
to get them to where I
Sierra Dawn McClain/EO Media Group
Lexington sheep rancher Terry Felda holds a lamb. Felda has introduced genetics from the
Assaf breed into her flock the past few years to raise a breed of dairy sheep better adapted to
the region’s microclimate.
wanted,” said Felda.
For years, she wanted
to bring in genetics from
breeds better adapted to arid
climates, such as the Awassi,
native to Israel, or the Assaf,
a cross between the Awassi
and the German East Frie-
sian sheep.
The Assaf, according to
the Israel Dairy Board, is
prized for high milk produc-
tion and tolerance to almost
all climates. The breed has
spread across Eurasia and
today is the most important
dairy sheep breed in Spain,
according to the Journal of
Dairy Science.
Felda was one of many
American farmers who
wanted Assaf genetics, but
for years, the U.S. blocked
importation over concerns
about scrapie, a disease that
affects sheep.
Finally, in 2017, after
years
of
negotiations
with U.S. Department of
Agriculture, the Spanish
Department of Agricul-
ture and European Union
officials, the U.S. sheep
industry brought in Assaf
semen through a Univer-
sity of Wisconsin-Madison
project.
The Dairy Sheep Asso-
ciation of North America
secured some of the semen,
from which Felda got her
first batch for Tin Willows
Dairy and Sheep Ranch.
“To be able to finally get
(the genetics) was huge,”
she said.
In 2019, she introduced
the semen into her flock
through laparoscopic artifi-
cial insemination. In 2020,
she had her first cross-bred
50% Assaf lambs. In 2021,
she milked the crosses.
Felda said the Assaf-
crosses gain weight faster
and seem well-adapted to
handle heat, stress and min-
imal forage. The ewes also
produce more milk.
Before introducing the
new genetics, each Lacaune-
East Friesian dairy sheep
was fed and milked twice
a day but produced only
300 to 400 pounds of milk
annually. Last year, each
50% Assaf ewe was fed and
milked only once a day but
produced up to 500 pounds
of milk annually.
Felda expects the num-
bers would be higher if she
milked twice daily, and
because last year’s milk
came from crosses, Felda
anticipates even higher pro-
duction in future years as
her ewes approach purebred
Assaf status.
Some farms in Fel-
da’s industry started on the
genetic improvement path
years before Felda did and
are seeing even larger gains,
with some ewes produc-
ing 1,000 pounds of milk
annually.
“I’m playing catch-up,”
Felda said.
She spoke over the cho-
rus of farm sounds around
her: chittering guinea fowl,
quacking ducks, bleating
lambs and the occasional
bark of an Akbash livestock
guardian dog.
Felda said the combi-
nation of imported genet-
ics and new record-keeping
programs available to farm-
ers gives her renewed hope
for America’s dairy sheep
industry.
“It’s an exciting time to
be milking sheep right now,”
she said. “And it’s been a
long time coming.”
Controversial animal rights proposal won’t make November ballot
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
A controversial pro-
posal on animal cruelty laws
appears to be off the table,
for now, but proponents of
the initiative say their cam-
paign isn’t over yet.
“We just submitted the
initiative for 2024 and are
waiting for confirmation
from the state,” an organizer
with the Yes on IP13 cam-
paign said. “At this point,
it does not look like we will
gather enough for 2022. I
believe the plan is to shift
gears to the newly numbered
initiative as soon as we have
it.”
Initiative Petition 13, oth-
erwise known as the Abuse,
Neglect and Assault Exemp-
tion
Modification
and
Improvement Act, would
remove exemptions to the
Oregon animal abuse laws
that protect hunters, farm-
ers and anglers from abuse
violations. That means hunt-
ers could possibly be prose-
cuted for killing and harvest-
ing wild animals, as could
farmers who send their live-
stock to slaughterhouses.
David Michelson, the
author of the initiative and
the lead organizer for the
campaign, acknowledged
the proposal’s long road, and
said that like other social
justice reforms throughout
history, it will take time.
“This is asking for quite
a shift from the norm, and
I think, like with any social
change, it’s controversial,”
he said. “But every social
justice movement in history
has been met with contro-
versy, unfortunately.”
Michelson noted a peti-
tion to allow women to vote
in Oregon faced similar
political headwinds in the
early 20th century, but the
story of how women fought
for suffrage in Oregon has
been inspirational to the
Portland-based activist, who
said he would “like to see
this (initiative) as being part
of that history of progressive
ballot measures that push us
forward.”
But even if the initiative
fails to muster the signatures
necessary to reach the ballot
this November, Michelson
has his eyes set on 2024.
“We are planning, as we
have always planned, to sub-
mit our initiative for 2024
with the anticipation that
even if we qualify for 2022,
it is unlikely that it’ll pass on
the first attempt,” Michelson
said. “Speaking back to the
initiative that gave women
the right to vote, it was voted
on in six consecutive elec-
tion cycles before it finally
passed. It was voted down
five times. If our initiative
does not pass this Novem-
ber, we want to make sure
it’s on the ballot again in
2024.”
‘Their hearts are in the
right place’Farmers balked
at the proposal, stating it
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
A cow and calves rest in a field Thursday, March 17, 2022, along
Peach Road, La Grande. Initiative Petition 13, a controversial
animal rights proposal that would affect livestock, has stalled
as organizers failed to gather enough signatures to put it on
the ballot in November.
wouldn’t be worth the effort
or the ink to do a story about
the initiative. Prominent La
Grande hunter Steve West,
of the TV show “Steve’s
Outdoor Adventures,” said
the proposition likely would
fail to gather enough signa-
tures to make it on the ballot.
“The people who come
up with this, their hearts are
in the right place because
they’re so attached to ani-
mals,” he said. “The real-
ity is they will never get
enough votes to pass some-
thing like this. I just don’t
see any chance in hell that
they even get 100,000 signa-
tures to even get it to a bal-
lot. It’s just so out there.”
West said proposals like
these have an unintended
side effect of uniting groups
that are opposed to similar
initiatives.
“If anything, my bet is
this is something that would
solidify and unite the ranch-
ers, farmers and hunters,”
he said. “It’s probably going
to unite the other side just
to stamp it out once and for
all.”
Officials from the Con-
federated Tribes of Uma-
tilla Indian Reservation said
they’re not worried about
the initiative, citing trea-
ties that would supersede
the law. They are, how-
ever, watching closely in the
event the tribes need to take
a reactionary approach to the
proposal.
“We’re continuing to
watch and see how far it
goes, and see what happens
in July to see if they get their
initiative fulfilled with the
required signatures,” said
Jiselle Halfmoon, interim
communications director for
CTUIR. “Then, of course,
we’ll readdress it, but at this
time we’re pretty secure in
our situation.”
Law experts say the
proposal is misunderstood
Russ Mead, a profes-
sor of law at Lewis & Clark
Law School in Portland,
said what the proposal says
it will do and what the two
opposing factions for the
proposition say it will do dif-
fer greatly.
“Oregon’s animal cru-
elty laws have a long list of
exceptions,” he said. “For
example, hunting and kill-
ing livestock is exempt
from Oregon’s animal cru-
elty laws. IP13 removes
these exemptions. The result
is not that hunting and kill-
ing livestock will be illegal
if IP13 passes, it is just that
when you hunt, you need to
be humane. When you kill
livestock, you need to be
humane.”
The website for IP13
states its goal is to enact leg-
islation that would make it
so that “animals on farms,
research labs, exhibitions
and in the wild would no lon-
ger be allowed to be inten-
tionally injured or killed.”
However, Mead disagrees
with the drafters of IP13 and
their proposed mission state-
ment on the IP13 webpage.
The law as it is proposed, he
said, would need to be con-
sidered in courtrooms to find
the exact limitations and
framework.
“Anyone who says any
activity will become ille-
gal with the passage of IP13
is just flat wrong,” he said.
“With the animal cruelty
exemptions removed, the
Oregon courts will need to
decide what animal cruelty
is.”
How animal cruelty is
defined in the law, Mead
said, is open-ended.
“Animal cruelty statutes
seldom define what is cruel
and what is humane,” Mead
said. “For example, statutes
do not specify that beating
a dog to death with a base-
ball bat is cruel. Or that kill-
ing a dog by lethal injection
is humane.”
Mead stated if the pro-
posal did muster up the sig-
natures, and passed in the
November ballot, the pro-
posal wouldn’t turn hunters
into criminals overnight.
“The Oregon courts will
need to decide what, if any,
hunting and fishing practices
violate Oregon animal cru-
elty laws,” he said. “I could
well see the courts find-
ing leg-hold traps are cruel.
But, I would be shocked if
the courts found a father and
daughter fishing with a cane
pole animal cruelty.”
Michelson said one of the
secondary goals of the pro-
posal is to help draw atten-
tion to exemptions in Ore-
gon statutes regarding
animal abuse, and how the
animal abuse laws give pro-
tections to pets but not to
livestock.
“We’re one of the few
states that acknowledges
that animals are sentient in
our state statutes,” Michel-
son said. “Yet our animal
cruelty laws largely only
protect our companion ani-
mals. All the other ani-
mals, whether they’re in
farms or in research labs
or in the wild, or in rodeos
and exhibitions, they’re
exempt from those same
protections.”
Michelson noted the
ultimate goal of the cam-
paign would be to ensure
all animals in Oregon have
the same rights and protec-
tions that companion ani-
mals enjoy.
“Largely, what our cam-
paign is focused on is the
right for animals not to be
killed or injured, to not be
neglected, and to not be
forcibly impregnated or
forcibly masturbated,” he
said. “Our focus is very
intentionally on that, and so
we will continue the cam-
paign until those rights are
achieved.”
As of March 15, the
IP13 Facebook page had
344 followers, and its post-
ings attract more negative
comments than supportive
ones. If the proposal passes
— either now or in 2024 —
it likely would face lengthy
legal scrutiny, according to
Jacob Mannis, the deputy
district attorney for Oregon
who handles animal cruelty
cases.
“It would require a lot of
things to happen before it
would become the law,” he
said. “I assume that there
would be a round of law-
suits before anything gets
enforced, and then there
would have to be a law
enforcement agency that
would investigate, a pros-
ecutor that would prose-
cute and ultimately a jury
that would convict, because
anybody in Oregon who’s
been accused of a crime has
a right to a trial by jury.”