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<br />--1 <br /> <br />STATEMENT BY THE MAYOR <br /> <br />July 2R, 1969 <br /> <br />Members of the Council. there is another matter that I <br /> <br />believe we should discuss and act upon at this time. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />This has reference to the situation in which city <br /> <br /> <br />employees applied some type of poi~onous material at the Kiwanis <br /> <br />Club camp on the Blanco River which seems to have had the effect <br /> <br />of bringing about the death of some cattle owned by Cecil C. Hughson. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />Let me briefly review the situation. Representatives of <br />the Girl Scout organization in San Marcos called one of the city <br />employees and said that the girl scouts were going to use the camp. <br />and they requested that the city go out there and spray for insects <br />and to spray the fence rows to kill the weeds. These little girl <br />scouts and their parents are almost all from San Marcos. As an <br />accommodation to these people. employees of the city went to the <br />camp and first fogged the area for insects. No one has contended <br />that this fogging did allY harm to anything. However. later on the <br />same d~. which was on June 6. 1969. other city employees went out <br />there and sprayed the fence rows to kill the weeds. The material <br />they used to spray the weeds along the fence rows seems to have had <br />some sodium arsenate in it. and that this is very dangerous both to <br />humans and to animals. <br /> <br />Mr. Hughson conducts a ranching operation on property <br /> <br />which adjoins the camp. The camp is not fenced in such a way as to <br /> <br />keep cattle out of it. Some of Mr. Hughson's cattle came into the <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />camp area and must have eaten some grass or weeds Which had been <br />sprayed with the poislPnous material. Other of Mr. Hughson's cattle <br />which were apparently on his property also ate the grass and weeds <br />from the fence rows. As a result of this. about 27 of Mr. Hughson's <br />cattle died. When the cattle were found dead. specimens were taken <br />from the stomachs of some of them and an analysiS showed that they <br />had died from arsenic poiSitoning. Specimens were not taken from all <br />of the cattle. but from the specimens taken I think we can assume <br />that all 27 of them died from the same cause. <br /> <br />'1... . <br />1,1 [ <br /> <br />