Security Steps Taken at Witter Farm
Contact: Media contact: Joe Carr at (207) 581-3571
ORONO– The University of Maine is taking steps to increase security at the Witter Teaching and Research Farm following last week’s attack on a horse at the facility. Those steps will include new security cameras, completion of an electric fence around the farm perimeter and a new entrance gate on the main road from College Ave.
“Our goal is to make the farm a safer place,” says Dean Bruce Wiersma of the College of Natural Sciences, Forestry and Agriculture. “We are committed to ensuring the safety of all of our operations. We have a long tradition of public access, but in the future that access will have to continue in a more controlled manner.”
The college is conducting a review of all of its farm operations with an eye on maintaining the integrity of educational, research and public service programs. New signs may also be erected with information about public access times.
New security cameras are expected to be in place this week. The UMaine Department of Public Safety will maintain the system.
“Since the safety of the animals and the people who work at the farm is our top priority, these steps are necessary,” says Chief Noel March, UMaine’s director of public safety. “While the added precautions should be a significant deterrent to future criminal activity at the farm, we are continuing to aggressively investigate last week’s incident and we remain hopeful that we will apprehend the person or people responsible.”
A reward fund has been established to create incentive for members of the public to bring forward information that might lead to an arrest and conviction in this case. Those interested in donating to the Witter Farm Reward Fund should contact the University of Maine Foundation at 2 Alumni Place, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469. The telephone number is (207) 581-5100.