Photojournalist - Lara Hartley - Behind the Viewfinder

February 8, 1998

This job is all about adventure.

Oh, I know there are those days and days of mundane municipal meetings and cranky cops who like to assert their authority. But in truth, this job is for the adventure or the possibility of adventure.

Since I am easily pleased and thrilled, the adventures don't even have to be big ones. Little ones are just fine too.

A week or so ago, we got a tip that there were piles of cow carcasses in the desert - like where they're not supposed to be. The editor, in his usual dry drollish way, asked the crime reporter if she was interested in looking into this dead cow issue - believing that no one in their right mind would really *want* to go out in the desert looking for dead cows.

Little did he know! She paged me and of course, Lara seeing the possibility of even a small adventure said, "Sure! Let's roll troll."

We picked up our informant and he showed us an area near a cattle feeding facility where there were years of dead cows and parts laying about - both on the ranch property and private property across the road.

I took pictures of bodies, bones and parts scattered hither and yon across the landscape, trying to capture a sense of death and decay in the desert. I *knew* the art was good...graphic, but good.

We rushed back into town with our story and pics, hit the county assessors office to find out who the owner of the ranch was and in general did a damn fine job of investigating our little story.

The disposal of dead livestock is limited to 1) paying a rendering company to pick them up or 2) burial on one's *own* property. Tossing them onto your neighbor's land who happens to live in England and can't see what is happening or onto Pacific Gas & Electric's land is not an option.

Well, one editorial mistake led to another and no picture ran with the breaking story - my first choice being deemed not the kinda thing we want to serve with breakfast and my second choice not being given a chance to be seen.

"Parts is Parts" Lara Hartley The Desert Dispatch

As things would have it though, phone calls came in the next day giving us more information on the long-term dumping of livestock by this particular ranch.

The reporter and I headed out to the "crime scene" again to do some more looking about and lo and behold someone had been cleaning up the PG&E land overnight/early a.m. because a good portion of the debris had been removed by equipment with big tires...but not off the English folk's property.

This time though, we were watched pretty carefully by guys in a pick-up truck. I was in my little Geo Tracker (otherwise known as "4-wheel drive lite" or a "4x for girls") and the reporter was standing on a levee looking for the animals that had previously been scattered on the ranch pasture.

She kept looking in the wrong direction all the while yelling that two BIG black dogs were rushing at her. I kept yelling that she had to look the other darn way and to watch out for the dogs! She's hollering - I'm hollering and the dogs were getting bigger and louder.

We escaped and headed back to the office.

We were able to do some more digging and come up with a really good follow-up story that did run with a photo....the pic that was originally my second choice. The ranch was forced to clean up most of the mess by the publication of the story.

So, a week or so later we have a report of dead sheep on the same ranch. Off we went in search of bodies. We ended up on the levee road that runs next to the Mojave River. This is a raised road with very steep sides and few entry points.

We had arranged to meet our informant on this road, but as luck would have it we missed him. We finally saw him waving his arms in the distance...off the road.

But, we had no close way down off the levee. So we started to back up and back and back. My neck hurt from the turning/driving backwards. A half mile later the reporter says "Go down here."

"What? Are you nuts. This is too steep. This thing will tip over! And if it tips over, all the camera gear in the back will hit us in the heads and kill us if the rollover doesn't."

"Just go down. We ain't gonna tip over", she screams, reverting to really bad English.

So over the edge and down we went me yelling "haaaaaaaalp" all the way down. But she was right. We didn't tip over. Cool car.

We found mounds of dead sheep and man do those things smell BAD! Worse than the cows even. What are people thinking? That is totally ok to just dump this stuff out in the desert? It is SO unsanitary to say nothing of gross.

The ranch spokesperson was NOT happy with us. Sounded down right irritated last time the reporter called to get a statement. Darn. She was irritated but at least now the stuff will be cleaned up.

So, we made a small difference AND had an adventure. What more can a girl ask for?

Lara Hartley

"We all have our faith and mine is in the truth." Fox Mulder

February 8, 1998