[Jacob-list] Foot and Mouth: UK Action

[Thomas Simmons]

Folks, we MUST keep our eyes open here:  many of us have imported sheep from Canada, many of us have travelled to the UK....and here is the reality of the actions to be taken by the UK Agriculture Ministry:

FRIDAY MARCH 16 2001 

Million sheep die to reopen countryside 

BY VALERIE ELLIOTT AND ANDREW PIERCE 

UP to one million sheep, pig and goats within three kilometres of areas 
infected with foot-and-mouth disease will be slaughtered in the next four 
weeks, the Government indicated yesterday. 
The cull has been ordered by ministers who are intent on returning the 
countryside to normal life within ten days. They hope that firm action will 
enable ramblers and holidaymakers to return to large tracts of Lincolnshire, 
East Anglia, Surrey, Sussex, Hampshire and Dorset. 

But with no immediate prospect of the outbreak abating, the Duke of 
Westminster, Britain’s richest man, moved to help farmers by matching the 
£500,000 contribution to charities made yesterday by the Prince of Wales. 

The duke and Prince, who are close friends, agreed last week to make the 
contributions on consecutive days in an attempt to draw donations from 
benefactors and businesses. The Prince, visiting a London housing estate 
yesterday, said he was delighted by the matching donation. 

The duke said: “I saw terrible suffering in the 1967 outbreak and I am 
fearful it will happen again on the same scale. Much of my support will be 
targeted towards Cumbria, Lancashire, Yorkshire and Scotland, where I believe 
the problems are most severe.” The charities which will benefit are the Royal 
Agricultural Benevolent Institution, the Royal Scottish Agricultural 
Benevolent Institution, the Rural Stress Network and The Samaritans. The Duke 
of Devonshire, who has 12,000 acres at Chatsworth in Derbyshire, will next 
week consider making a contribution. 

The mass slaughter will be concentrated in areas of highest infection, in 
Cumbria, and Dumfries and Galloway. Cattle are being spared automatic 
slaughter unless vets identify the virus on a farm or a dangerous contact. 

Nick Brown, the Agriculture Minister, said it was a “safety first” move. 
Ministers want to try to revive rural tourism, although the public will still 
be urged to avoid farms with animals. The general livestock movement ban 
throughout the country expires in seven days, after which it is hoped that 
infected areas can open for normal business. But heavily infected areas will 
face a continued ban on movements. 

Farmers last night accepted the “grim but necessary” reality of slaughtering 
healthy animals. Ben Gill, president of the National Farmers’ Union, said: 
“Our farms should be starting to jump to life with newborn lambs and calves. 
Instead many will feel that spring has been cancelled and their farms are 
simply dead.” 


thom
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20010317/2ddb0ac6/attachment.htm