UNITED STATES-200 DEAD PIGS IN FIELD.
Hampton , Iowa -- State regulators are ordering a Franklin County hog operation to take action.
Recently they discovered more than 200 dead hogs. They’d been improperly disposed of, in a
Amanda Johnstone says she never noticed anything unusual in the field next to her home in Franklin County .
"Well no, we moved in August, but it really didn’t smell that bad when we moved in, we just thought it was from the hog farms from around here, cause there’s one up the road."
But Franklin County Environmental Health Specialist Earl Kalkwarf, won’t soon forget the recent hike he made into this field north of Hampton .
"You looked out and you could see some white and we knew it wasn’t rocks, so we walked out there and discovered roughly 215 dead hogs in a pile."
An airplane pilot was the first to spot the unusual sight, a second pass at lower altitude reveled even more gruesome scene.
The biggest concern for both the DNR and the county is the composting carcasses leeching into the ground and into the drinking water of home owners living nearby.
There was also no fences to keep animals from getting into the pile and scavenging.
"We don’t need a pandemic flu of some sort of an outbreak of some serious disease," said Kalkwarf.
The DNR is telling the owner of a nearby hog confinement it is against state law. Regulators told him to get the hogs moved within two days. But many believe the company should face more than a warning.
"They do things with city’s for discharging and other animal sites that do manure spills sometimes they get big fines," said Kalkwarf.
Johnstone and others are worried about whether anything seeped into the ground. She’s just hoping her family is safe.
"Cause we have 4 kids and if it was contaminated gosh they would be sick so that was my biggest fear," she said.
The owner of the land where the hogs were dumped sent them off to a rendering plant. Regulators are warning the operator he could face legal action if it happens again.
