B2 Thursday, September 17, 2015, Bangor Daily News
Continued from Page A1 had been bred every year,” Damon said in a telephone interview. One was 16 years old and the other 13, she said. Another goat had a slight nasal discharge that could have been treated with an antibiotic. The rest, she said, were “fat, healthy and sassy.” “One of the stipulations was that I had to have a vet out to examine the herd of goats before [Sept. 8] or by [Sept. 8],” Damon said. “I told her that basically that left me with one day before a holiday weekend to try to get a vet out there. As you well know through other news articles, we have a shortage of large animal
Kind Continued from Page B1 school, library, school and community leaders sought to host an honest, open discussion of the topic. The event also drew students and families from Topsham, Harpswell, Freeport and other neighboring towns. Pender Makin, Brunswick’s new assistant superintendent, introduced the film and spoke of her own experiences with “social isolation” as a teenager who was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and then wore a chin-to-thigh brace to help correct scoliosis. “The overarching message is beautiful,” Makin said of the film, but she added that she was “troubled” by some of its portrayal of gender roles. “I take great offense and I think you should too,” she said, encouraging students to view the film with a “critical eye.” Lauren Parsekian and Molly Stroud, both recent graduates of Pepperdine University, filmed the documentary as they traveled to 60 cities across the United
vets, so I did not foresee the possibility of getting one to add me to a rotation” on such short notice. “So I looked at the animal welfare person and said, ‘So, I do have the right — and correct me if I’m wrong — to destroy my own animals because if I destroy my animals, there is no longer a problem?’ And she said, ‘You are well within your rights to destroy your own personal animals as long as you do it by state statutes, which is one shot, one animal, doing it so that nobody else is being endangered and do it quickly so there is no pain and no suffering or undue stress on the animal,’” Damon said. Maine law allows the owner of a livestock animal to shoot it provided it
is done humanely. Damon said she would have preferred to have the goats processed for meat but she was unable to find an opening before late December. “So it was with a heavy heart that I chose to put down animals that I brought into this world because a lot of them, I helped deliver,” she said, adding, “I was not going to shift the burden off my shoulders and onto somebody else’s because [the state] would have wanted to do a follow-through and monitor the animals wherever they went.” Damon shot the goats over Labor Day weekend at a location that she declined to identify because she did not want to involve the property owner
in the controversy that the incident has generated in town. Some of the goats were buried and others became coyote bait, she said. “After I dispatched my animals, I sat down and bawled,” she said. “It was with a heavy heart that I had to destroy the animals without having animal welfare compounded fines and penalties for not being in compliance.” She said she was likely facing an initial fine of least $500. The situation did not sit well with town officials, she said. “The town asked for my resignation voluntarily or I could wait until [Monday night’s selectmen’s meeting] and they would vote me off as ACO,” Damon said. She said that she was
asked to leave the post “because of things that went on in my own personal life regarding the goats. They do not feel it looks kosher for an animal control officer to be reported and to possibly be facing animal cruelty charges, regardless of the fact that they were my own personal animals.” Damon said she has a legal right to destroy her own animals so long as it is done humanely. “I feel that what I had to do to my own animals should not reflect upon how I treated other people’s animals in my line of work as far as being the animal control officer,” she said. Damon said her stipend from the town was slightly more than $400 a month
and that she was on call around the clock. Now that she has lost her job, she might have to downsize her flock of 16 chickens, she said. Irv Marsters, treasurer of the Curran Homestead board, said Tuesday that Damon had permission to keep her goats on the nonprofit’s property and that he was surprised to learn of the animal abuse charge because she has been a valuable volunteer, frequently bringing small animals to the homestead’s public events to teach people how to take care of them. “I’m sorry it all happened and I feel bad for Carla because it’s a difficult situation. I just hope for the best for her,” he said.
States in a van in 2010, meeting with groups of girls to discuss bullying and kindness as part of their Kind Campaign. “It’s ‘Girl World,’” Parsekian states as the film opens. “It can be cruel and it can be lonely.” Throughout the film’s 90 minutes, girls of varying ages — including women in their 50s — recount their experiences with meanness. Some recall being the bully, while others speak of the devastating isolation they felt when they were targeted. “I sit by them and they move,” says one young girl, staring at the ground. “So I sit alone.” “One day she came home when she was 9 and she said, ‘I wish I was dead,’” a mother said, crying, of her daughter. Interviews with men focus on their amazement that women are “like cats.” One group of motorcycle “brothers” wonders why women don’t have “sisters.” Psychologists, authors and advocates offer insight, with one therapist describing the drama and brutality of “girl world” as “like an ancient Roman war,” explaining
various reasons for the meanness — insecurity, “reality” television that normalizes cruel behavior, a need to define themselves in relationship to others, texting, Facebook and other digital forums that let girls be mean without looking into each other’s eyes. But one group of Mississippi women in their 50s offered another perspective on female friendships. Standing in her abundant shoe closet, one of the women explained of another, “I’m 55 years old and we’ve been friends since we were 5 years old.” Motioning to another woman she said was a “new friend” — of 28 years — she continued, “It’s really important for my old friends and my new friends to be friends … I never want to exclude anyone.” Speaking again after the film, Makin asked those gathered to raise their hands if they’d ever seen bullying, ever been bullied, ever stood up for someone being bullied. Finally, she asked the adults present to “raise your hand if you’re a woman who has strong, vibrant women friends.” Makin also encouraged the
girls not to accept the “stereotype” of a mean girl offered in the film, and encouraged them to stand up
for themselves and others. “When you see somebody being picked on, even if you don’t have the courage to
say something, saying something later — even one kind word — can actually save a life,” she said.
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