A scratch-and-sniff pamphlet that used “dog breath” and “baby poo” scents to alert people to the smells they might encounter if they move in near a farm may be scrapped by Ottawa County due to a lack of artificial manure fragrance.
The Sierra Club will not miss the quirky brochures.
In 2000 the Sierra Club filed suit over the “long lasting, sickening and potentially health threatening odor” associated with a massive dairy operation in Ottawa County.
Anne Woiwode, director of the Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club, said she was disturbed when the county published the brochures in 2003 because the artificial odor “is nothing compared to what people are actually living with.”
Woiwode suggested the county replace the brochures with a map and schedule showing when people in farming districts could expect to encounter “the stench.” Concerned residents have gone a step further in Hillsdale County, she said, with a Web site that features information on local factory farms, including stench alerts and maps.