THURSDAY, MAY 24, 2012
VOL. 89 | NO. 21 | $3.75
A YEAR AFTER THE FLOOD | P26
SERVING WESTERN CANADIAN FARM FAMILIES SINCE 1923
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WWW.PRODUCER.COM
SPECIAL REPORT | ANIMAL WELFARE
COMMUNITY SPIRIT | PLANE CRASH FATALITIES
Tragedy spurs town to action Community supports victims’ families | Seeding bee is ‘a way of farmers giving flowers’ BY BARB GLEN LETHBRIDGE BUREAU
MOSSLEIGH, Alta. — One of Mossleigh’s primary landmarks is owned by the man the community now mourns. Eric Donovan, 38, who died May 12 in a plane crash along with his 11-year-old son, Wade, and his
friend and pilot Denny Loree, 59, owned the northernmost of three old grain elevators that are the town’s landmarks on Highway 23. Donovan had recently put new siding on the fading elevator, replacing the flaking Parrish and Heimbecker paint with the colours of his trucking firm, EDT. On May 16, Donovan’s family,
friends and neighbours gathered on three quarters southwest of town to finish seeding the crop he had started. Six air seeders, two semis and several tandems stirred the dust under a deep blue sky showing only a few high clouds. With the wind light at about four knots,itwouldhavebeenaperfectday
for Loree to fly his Piper Cherokee. The farmer loved flying and did it often. On the day he died, he was helping Donovan by flying to St. Brieux, Sask., home of Bourgault Industries, to pick up a part for Donovan’s seeder. Wade was along for the ride. SEE TRAGEDY SPURS ACTION, P 3
Animal welfare concerns growing Fast food chains and supermarkets may incite push to open housing
» BY ROBERT ARNASON & BARB GLEN BRANDON, LETHBRIDGE BUREAUS
Opposition to sow stalls appears to have reached a tipping point in North America. McDonald’s, Burger King, Tim Hortons, Wendy’s and Safeway have all announced plans in the last four months to eventually buy pork only from farms with open housing systems. The corporate decisions represent a victory for animal welfare organizations in Canada and the United States, which have called for an abolition of sow stalls for more than a decade. SEE ANIMAL WELFARE CONCERNS, P 2
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Nathan Weber helps fill a cart with fertilizer as he and other neighbours of Eric and Wade Donovan, and Denny Loree, who were killed in a May 12 plane crash, prepare to seed 600 acres of canola on Donovan’s land near Mossleigh, Alta. | BARB GLEN PHOTO
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