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In my post yesterday on Miami-Dade's "slaughter farms," I quoted parts of a 27 year-old Miami Herald story on the subject by former Herald reporter Jeffrey Weiss.

Today, Weiss - who now works for the Dallas Morning News and freelances for PoliticsDaily.com - dropped me a note telling me that he stumbled across my post while doing a Google search.

Weiss told me that "That pig story was one of my favorite ever‏..." and added some background:

Long ago and far away. I will *never* forget the smell. The photog needed to get up close for a while to get her shots. Me, not so much on the staying close.

When the inspector invited us out for that visit, he told the photog and me to go buy firefighter-style rubber boots. We would not, he said, want to be tromping around an illegal hog farm in anything less. Too right!

I've wondered, given the buildup in Miami-Dade population since then, whether there were still space for those operations to exist. Hard to believe that so little has changed. OTOH, my 'rents still live in SFla and I get back there pretty regularly. So I guess it is *not* so hard to believe...1:-{)>

Thank you for bringing back a memory.

Jeffrey Weiss

The Dallas Morning News

In a follow-up email, Weiss tells me how he found my post and fills in some of the gaps since he left the Herald years ago:

I was googling to see if some stuff I'd done had been picked up on blogs and saw the link. Was astonished when I realized what it was about.

Sure. Feel free to repost. FYI: While I was born in SFla (Jackson, which is as local as it gets) and worked for the MHerald for about 8 years, I've been at the Dallas Morning News for 21 years. And these days, I also contribute freelance to PoliticsDaily.com (which was what I was trolling for pickup about).

As I recall from back then, even areas that were zoned for ag needed special zoning for hogs because the smell was so awful. And that was when a pigfarm was run properly. The day I was at *that* location, there was a stack -- a small pyramid -- of dead, rotting hogs with a stench that you cannot imagine. Not to mention the flies. That someone would buy something there to *eat* was just beyond thinking...

Proof that nothing has changed much since Weiss made that visit 27 years ago.

Which is just one more reason why the county should shut these places down!