At Fair, It Isn’t If You Follow Rules Cheating At Livestock Shows For Youths Comes Under Attack

He’s seen kids feed their pigs gobs of watermelon to make them gain weight for the county fair.

He’s seen fair competitors feed their cows and sheep salt to make them thirsty enough to gobble up gallons of water.

He’s watched kids starve their animals before their first weigh-in just to make it seem like their livestock gained a lot of weight by the next weigh-in.

The tactics Gene Gibson has watched Idaho kids use to win livestock competitions are mild compared to the problems in other states. (Kids have been caught beating up their animals or injecting water or oil under their skin to make them appear firmer.)

But this Benewah County extension educator is fed up with the ugly side of what has been a hallmark of a wholesome upbringing. In December he will speak at a national livestock symposium in Dallas. The subject: how to stop the problem of cheating at youth livestock shows.

“We have known that this was going on for 20 years but there was no one brave enough to stand up,” said Gibson, a 53-year-old livestock educator from St. Maries. “It’s time to get rid of the cheaters.”

Gibson is not alone. As livestock shows come under increased scrutiny, educators from across the country are speaking out and making changes.

Events - like the Spokane Interstate Fair - are implementing new, stronger guidelines for the treatment and showing of livestock. In Kootenai County, adult volunteers with 4-H and other organizations now receive ethics training.

Idaho fairs have even become a showcase, thanks to a program developed by Gibson and his brother.

There has been some resistance.

“I’ve always contended that only about 4 or 5 percent are the problem,” said Dr. Jeff Goodwin, a Dallas County extension agent spearheading the national ethics symposium. “They’ve had free run of the place too long and now they’re not happy because their free run is about over.”

Livestock competitions are an integral part of the American landscape. Youngsters can raise cows, pigs and sheep, show them at the county fair and then sell them for slaughter. The best animals can garner thousands of dollars in cash prizes often used for college.

The idea is that kids learn how to raise and care for their animals. The beast that would make the best steak or lamb chop is supposed to win the top prizes.

The problem is, Gibson says, the kids - and the adults who help them - have forgotten what it’s all about.

“In the past we’ve kind of taught kids to do anything to (their animals) to make them look better then they were,” Gibson said.

In Texas a boy rammed a garden hose down his pig’s throat and turned it on to make him gain the needed weight. In Arkansas, a boy beat up his lamb so his body would feel firmer.

But it is the steroidlike drug, clenbuterol, that Gibson and Goodwin credit with dragging the ugly secret of livestock cheating into the public eye.

It builds muscle and cuts down on fat in animals - and makes humans sick. It’s also illegal in the United States and has been found in dozens of winning animals across the country over the past few years.

Such severe problems never have plagued Inland Northwest fairs. But people like Gibson and Damian Mosey of the Spokane Interstate Fair also would like to stamp out the minor violations - bleaching pigs white, having professional hair groomers care for the animals.

“When you couple even the little things that have happened in Idaho they can add up to one big compromise of what we’re all about,” Gibson said.

At the ethics seminar he will teach participants how to raise animals that provide the best meat for the industry rather than look the best on the outside.

He will emphasize education of youths over winning livestock competitions.

The program he and his brother developed for Idaho livestock competitions will stand as a model. Here the animals are judged based on the improvements they made during the time the kids raised them - not just how the animals look at the fair.

He also has helped implement the use of ultrasound at several county fairs - including Kootenai County for the first time this year. The instrument helps judges see how good the animal is on the inside.

Goodwin will ask symposium participants to consider three questions when they decide whether a practice is unethical: Does the practice violate federal or drug laws? Does it fraudulently misrepresent the animal? Does it compromise the welfare of the animal?

“If you answer yes to any one of those questions the practice is unethical,” he said.

Ethical reasons aside, livestock officials have other reasons for cleaning up the shows. “If we don’t start policing ourselves, the FDA can and will do it,” said Mosey, the swine barn superintendent at the Spokane Interstate Fair.

In other areas of the country packers have begun refusing meat from fair animals - afraid of what may have been put in the beasts to make them win the prize, he said.

That hasn’t happened yet in the Inland Northwest. But after Spokane’s junior livestock fair in May the packers bled the animals to make sure they weren’t tainted, Mosey said.

They came out clean.

, DataTimes