Complaint Review: Heartland Farms aka William Dahl - Yelm Washington

Ma'am I don't know how many farms you've seen, worked on, or otherwise interacted with, but natural or not, it's an icky business.  Yes there is poop.  Lots of it when you have a hundred+ head.  I'm willing to bet that if your waste didn't magically go away into the puget sound you'd have a mess on your hands as well.  

The fact is that bill has a hundred and fifty something acres, and somewhere around a hundred head; several of which have names and no chance of getting slaughtered.  It took me 4 hours to walk the fenceline making repairs to it on a good day.  Do you have an acre and some change per member of your family to just go do your thing?  I don't; and I currently live in a town that literally has more cows than people and pickups combined. Cows aren't particularly lovable.  Even well taken care of ones are still dumb, dirty, and depressing.  

Additionally farms aren't going to be rainbows and unicorns.  But if there were farm unicorns, they would visit hartland farms on a pretty regular basis.  He has a natural creek running through the property as well as a couple of drinking tubs and a marsh on the back 40.  The cows have shelter to bed down in come winter time, and Bill has left a couple wooded areas as well as a tree every couple hundred feet in the pasture for shade in the summer.     

As far as being a puppy mill that is ridiculous!  My wife shows dogs at several reputable kennel club competions.  Aside from Bill's dogs being mutts, even she thought they were sweet and begged me to take ours (an australian shepherd) to work because they had so much room.  Out of that litter you saw, he kept the parents and one puppy as I recall it.  He didn't get rid of them right away because he wasn't willing to give them up to Joe Blow.  He made sure they went to decent homes with yards and preferably children.     

"In the middle of cleaning" was probably their modest reference to their home remodel.  If you weren't aware, he had recently thrown in the towel on his career and spending everything he had left on that farm to make his life his own.  He wasn't exactly swimming in cash at that point, but still trying to bring the comforts of home to that farm house for his wife. If you've ever done a remodel, you know it can get expensive.  If you've ever done one without the help of a loan, you can see why it would take a while and be done little by little.  

Furthermore he is kind and caring.  I was stationed on Fort lewis during my last 2 out of 8 years in the army and worked for him on weekends and sometimes after work.  Army or otherwise, he is one of two bosses I've ever had that called me after I'd moved on just to see how things were going for me and see if there is anything I needed.  How many bosses have called you back five or six months after you quit and moved 600 miles away just to make sure you weren't going without?  He always rounded my check up to the closest 20 dollars and usually send me home with 30 or 40 dollars worth of cuts and sausage. 

You must have been having a bad day or you are one of those people that expects farts to smell like a spring rain.  Either way I'm sure you have found another source of beef where you don't actually have to stare down the animal you're going to eat or see the conditions in which it lives.  I hope you are pleased with slamming small business while you consume chineese goods over there in suburbia.  You shouldn't keep your nose up that high, though.  I hear y'all get a lot of rain.  

In closing, Bill has shown love and compassion to his dogs as well as that of his cattle.  He has shown me that self interest, prevelant as it may be, has not yet dominated society all together.  He buys local and buys american manufactured equepment where he can get by.  He employs veterans where he can.  And he shows a vested interest in his employees ability to better themselves.  The only person he abuses is himself by trying to keep people as bitter as you happy and coming back.  

Please let me know when you start your own farm.  I'd like to visit and leave a review.  

I have worked for Bill in the past and love animals.  There is absolutely no truth to what this person is talking about.  In fact I was there when the Humane Society came to the farm and talked to Bill.  The officer visited all areas and said there was no need for concern.  During winter and spring months, if you have ever been to a farm, sorry, there is mud.  Usually alot of it.  The cattle have 150 acres to roam on and are dry and out of the weather.  All of the meat sold at the farm is professionally slaughtered and wrapped.  Bill will be happy to provide you with that information.  For someone who lives in Bellevue, it might be a shock to see a working farm when the closest they have been is the meat counter at Safeway.  Bill is remodeling the farm house, he is not "cleaning up manure", nor does he have a Puppy Mill.  We've never tried to train the cows to poop in a toilet...... The puppies were taken very good care of and the mother is now spayed.   Crying?  All babies cry, even humans, does that make them abused?  Get the facts right before you report.  People only want the facts not what the city slickers think.