One of the best things about living in La Plata County is the many humane business owners like Jerry and Karen Zink. They exemplify the truth that growing and sustaining successful businesses is both possible and sensible when combined with a commitment to best practices toward animals – and employees.
Before my GED students took a field trip to the Sunnyside Meats processing plant a decade ago, in our social studies classes we had studied Big Food and how massive feedlots affect America’s economy and water supplies. We examined Sunnyside’s wiser approaches and saw these in action at the plant, which applies ethologist Temple Grandin’s ideas. Dr. Grandin’s work has focused in part on recognizing environments that create stress for cattle and other livestock and ameliorating them, including eliminating visual distractions, loud, jangling noises and sharp angles in forward movement.
Accomplishing much for neurodivergent thinkers and people who literally see the world differently from others, Grandin has made the process of killing the animals we eat for food as calm as possible. Indeed, my students and I saw that the cows at Sunnyside exhibited no anxiety and literally never knew what hit them as they were knocked out.
The Zinks’ ethics in business prove that humane behavior need not be at odds with profitability. Treating workers and animals with dignity and respect serves the public good and the pocketbook where greed and cruelty never can – something the current Ozymandias in the White House who is soiling democracy and decency needs to learn.
Stephanie Moran
Durango
