One Dairy Farm’s Manure Runoff Just Wiped Out 60,278 Fish

Iowa residents can thank a single dairy farm in New Vienna for spoiling miles of their waterways and killing more than 60,000 fish. Manure from the farm ran into a tributary of Hickory Creek, polluting it and the connected Hewitt Creek and killing wildlife. And this was just one manure leak from one animal agriculture operation. They happen all the time.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is reportedly seeking “fish restitution,” but we all know that no amount of money will be “restitution” for these fish.

Vegetarians who say, “No animals are killed for milk, so it’s fine,” are kidding themselves. From these fish to the larger animals who depended on them for food—and from the mother cows who are slaughtered when their worn-out bodies decline to their babies who are taken from them and sold for veal—dairy farms kill. The least that one can do to give all animals a fair chance at life is to go vegan.