NY dairy farmer kills 51 cows, commits suicide
COPAKE, N.Y. -- State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.
State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police...
Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.
The price of milk has been in the toilet all year. It's started to come back up, but not enough. Many think that corporate consolidation and price manipulation is to blame. This is not the first dairy farmer suicide, either. What a tragedy.
