9 & 10 News documents MI legislators tour of PBB-contaminated MI farms in April 1975

 

Last week we watched and described a 9&10 News film reel #102 dated April 10-11, 1975 in the Clarke. It was described by 9&10 as "PBB Tour". This is raw moving film footage of when Michigan officials and a 9&10 News crew toured an unidentified Michigan farm where the dairy cows had been sickened after ingesting PBB-contaminated feed. The film shows the exterior of the farm, the tour group walking through the farm, farmers and veterinarian Doc Clark with the tour group viewing the cows which are so sick they can't stand up in the barn, sad faces of obviously suffering cows, and a black cat with the cows. The cow image above and images below are of raw footage of the tour on reel #102.  More than one farm was toured. Read more below.

Doc Clark in white coat

According to a Saginaw News article of April 11, 1975, the film documents the visit of 15 Michigan legislators from the Senate and House who toured farms in Osceola and Mecosta counties where dairy herds had been contaminated by ingesting PBB. Legislators described "pitiful sights." Although the cows did not meet the then federal standards of minimal PBB poisoning, 3/10s per million, they were at the point of death and useless. Farmers could not sell them, get product for them, or cure them, and thus were accruing significant debt as well as their own health issues from eating contaminated food products. Poisoned animals which did not meet minimums were then not quarantined by the State of MI and the State would not hauled away, kill and bury the poisoned animals or farm products at state expense. Thus farmers could not get reimbursed for their losses. A long list of ailments the cows suffered from is listed in the article. Leading the tour were Michigan Representatives. Donald J. Albosta and Paul Porter with Senator John A. Welborn. Albosta and Porter co-chaired a House Committee and Welborn chaired a similar Senate committee which sought federal funds to help affected MI farmers who could not otherwise get reimbursed. The three legislators were all  former farmers. By April 11, 1975 174 MI herds had been quarantined, and 14,500 cattle, 1.5 million chicken, 3,500 swine, 1,200 sheep, 4.85 million eggs, 34,0000 pounds of dry milk, 18,000 pounds of cheese, and 3,000 pounds of butter had been destroyed. Yet there were still farms with poisoned animals. One of the farms identified in article as that of Bonnie and Alfred Davis of Merritt in Missaukee County. The image of the pile of dead cows in the article does not appear in reel #102. The two-page Saginaw News article is from veterinarian Dr. "Doc" Alpha Clark's PBB Research Collection, Box 8, preserved in the Clarke. Copies of it are found below.