FIELDS

OF

FIRE

 

 

 

In memory of the

millions of animals destroyed by the ‘cure’ for Foot and Mouth Disease, 2001

 

                                              

 

                                                   Edited by Quita

 FIELDS OF FIRE

 

 

A collection of prose and poems

compiled in memory of the millions

of animals killed during the

foot and mouth outbreak in 2001

         

 

Edited and published by Quita

 

 

First published 2002

 

© Quita Allender

 

 

Quita

Laurel Cottage

Star

Somerset BS25 1QE

 

Tel: 01934 844353

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Printed by The Favil Press of Kensington

127 South Street

Lancing

Sussex BN15 8AS

 

 

 

“Cry the beloved country, these things are not yet at an end. The sun pours down on the earth, the lovely land that man cannot enjoy; he knows only the fear of his heart”

                                       

                                                     - Alan Paton

 

 

 

THE VET’S OATH

 

“In as much as the privilege of membership of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons is about to be conferred upon me I PROMISE AND SOLEMNLY DECLARE that I will abide in all due loyalty to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and will do all in my power to maintain and promote its interests.

 

“I PROMISE above all that I will pursue the work of my profession with uprightness of conduct and that my constant endeavour will be to ensure the welfare of all animals committed to my care”.

 

THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY

ON FMD IN 1968

 

This report agreed with the previous Gower Commission on FMD (’52-’54) that, “We sympathise with the widely expressed view that it (slaughter) is a crude and primitive way of dealing with the disease.  We recognise the mental anguish it may cause to those who suffer …… the shattering disaster, not computable in terms of money, that it may bring to a farmer who has to see the work of a lifetime destroyed in a day”. 

The report made various points which, unfortunately, have been mainly ignored in the current outbreak:

 

*        it recommended tranquillising drugs ‘when the need arises’ before slaughter;

*        it recommended that ‘burial of carcasses is preferable to burning’;

*        it mentioned that ‘the consensus of opinion among our scientific witnesses was that the danger of carrier animals had been exaggerated and that carriers in a susceptible population did not constitute a significant risk’;

*        it stressed, about the Danish ring vaccination at the time, that ‘the importance of the Danish experience is that no problem has arisen as a result of releasing cattle from within the vaccinated area and allowing them to mix with susceptible animals in other parts of Denmark’;

*        it recommended ‘that contingency plans for the application of ring vaccination should be kept in constant readiness’ and estimated that ‘if ring vaccination had begun early, the number of outbreaks might have been reduced to about half’.  The committee considered that ‘ring vaccination, if introduced, should be carried out as soon as an outbreak occurs’.

 

NEW LABOUR – NEW LIFE FOR ANIMALS

 

Before the 1997 election, the Labour Party published, ‘New Labour – new Life for Animals’.  The opening paragraph stated, “Labour has consistently shown itself as the only party to trust on issues of animal welfare”.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

This book is dedicated to the memory of the millions of animals that have suffered and died, not from foot and mouth disease, but from the cure, during the current foot and mouth epidemic, which started in February, 2001 – and to all the people who have also suffered and have, in some cases, tragically killed themselves. As I write this, the killing fields are still out there and animals are being slaughtered at the rate of 50,000 – 100,000 a week.

 

This book is a record of some of the letters, poems and other pieces of writing which have emerged over the last few months. These writings are amazing – powerful, heartrending and, often, quite beautiful outpourings of grief, anger and compassion, written from the heart by people whose lives have been touched, directly or indirectly, by foot and mouth disease and its ‘cure’.  I believe that, in spite of the sadness and pain, these writings are strong and life affirming and are a tribute to the human spirit. I also believe that they are a savage indictment of government policy.

 

I belong to a foot and mouth discussion group on the Internet and the writings in this book are taken from some of our messages to each other over the months, or pieces from articles or newspapers or other web sites that we have posted up for the group to read.  Contributors to our group include farmers, smallholders, vets, scientists, journalists, teachers, outdoor activity instructors, photographers, playworkers, pilots, toy makers, antique dealers, housewives, bookshop owners, publicans, artists, coach drivers, photographers, to name but a few – a very mixed bag!  It has been a group with no leader and no name, with people deciding what they can do to help and others joining in when they can. Members, who come from USA, Canada, Holland, Germany and Australia, as well as the UK, are middle-aged, law-abiding, responsible members of society, most of whom have never protested before against anything in their lives, but who have been driven to speak out against this inhumane, bungling, savage slaughter of animals – this holocaust of 2001.

 

This group is a phenomenon of the Internet age – knowledge; scientific information; up-to-date reports about which part of the country the latest killing fields are in and a rallying call for help to anyone in that area; legal advice and help packs for farmers; a list of sympathetic solicitors; useful numbers and addresses of MAFF / DEFRA officials, media contacts, MPs, etc, to use in our endless campaigning; and Internet hugs for those who need them – all available at the touch of our fingertips! This has meant that people have ended up with answers to their questions and more knowledge (dare I suggest!) than most MAFF / DEFRA officials.

 

(MAFF, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, was incorporated into DEFRA, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, after the election in 2001, partly to distract people from the mistakes that MAFF had made).

 

It should be made clear that, from the start, it was an economic and political decision to cull all the animals, and not a scientific one. In an ideal world, foot and mouth disease would have been allowed to run through the herds and flocks to build up immunity, with relevant treatment and culling only in cases where animals were suffering badly.  As a compromise, a combination of vaccinating and allowing the disease to maintain a presence could have been used – or else, perhaps the more popular choice, culling infected animals and ring vaccinating in each relevant area.  If this had been done at the start, things would have been back to normal long ago and we would not now be seeing the destruction of farming families, empty fields, rural industries in ruins, pollution of our land through funeral pyres and burial pits – and the complete devastation of our beloved countryside.

 

Because of the ‘scorched earth’ policy that has been followed (or ‘carnage by computer’), so many animals have had to be killed in a hurry that dreadful mistakes have been made. Some vets and slaughtermen have worked humanely and compassionately (and farmers have spoken particularly highly of the hunt slaughtermen), but others have failed to kill animals properly and have caused immense suffering to both the creatures and to their owners.  The fact that slaughtermen have been paid per animal killed has meant that they have worked at top speed (and often sloppily and carelessly), sometimes only stunning animals before loading them and moving them to pyres or burial pits, where they have been witnessed moving, or struggling to get up and walk away.  Young cattle have been found crawling around the yard the morning after the cull.

 

Often, ewes and their new lambs have been separated, causing enormous distress to both, before being transported live to the killing fields.  Some heavily pregnant ewes have gone into labour or given birth en route.  At home, ewes have sometimes been killed but not pithed, so that their unborn lambs have been left to suffocate painfully inside their dead mothers.  Live lambs have been killed by injections to the heart, by having their throats cut, or by having their heads smashed against walls. 

 

Animals have been killed in front of each other, causing huge panic, and live animals have had to stand amongst piles of slaughtered ones (even, in their terror, trying to bury themselves under the dead bodies).  Cows have been chased wildly, with teams of ‘cowboys’ on quad bikes taking potshots at them and even breaking their legs to stop them from running, causing dreadful, prolonged suffering to the creatures – and to the farmers looking on helplessly, but not allowed to intervene.  Some terrified cows have had their calves slaughtered in front of them to bring them back – and other wounded cattle have escaped, sometimes being left at large for hours with painful wounds.  In some cases, farmers have offered to pen their own animals but have been refused, only to then witness the chaotic and cruel chasing and slaughter that followed.  In another case, the cattle were penned by the slaughtermen, who were witnessed painfully crushing them up against a wall with hurdles pushed by a JCB.

 

In some areas, teams of soldiers have had to follow the slaughtermen through, finishing off injured and dying creatures by any means at their disposal, which have included the use of shovels and iron bars – and even throwing them into the river.  When I questioned MAFF/DEFRA officials as to who was responsible for the way that animals were slaughtered, I was told that it was the vet who was present at the particular farm, but we have heard since then that, at one time, vets were given responsibility for overseeing up to ten farms at a time (an impossibility) – or of cases where the vet was told by the team of slaughtermen to leave it to them!

 

In spite of witnesses to all the above events, not one prosecution has been made and the justification always seems to be that the vets and the slaughtermen were operating in difficult circumstances.  Not good enough!  It is certainly true that people were operating in difficult circumstances, but these circumstances were created by Government policy and by a complete lack of foresight.  The team from Imperial College led Government policy and it was their faulty modelling that proposed the 3km contiguous cull (to learn more about this, see references at back of book).  Any individual carrying out any of the above acts would find himself in court and I consider it outrageous that such cruelty and complete disregard for the welfare of animals was allowed to happen and that no one has been held accountable.  Why were there no guidelines for the slaughter teams to follow, re proper penning, slaughtering techniques, the use of tranquillisers when necessary, and so on?  (or, if there were, why were people who strayed from those not disciplined?).  In my searching, I have found plenty of published guidelines, which would also have helped to prevent the time wasted on bungled culls.

 

Slaughter has been decided by clinical diagnosis (that is, examination of the animal by a vet) and not from blood testing, which has been done after culling and, as all sorts of vets have had to be brought in to reach the necessary numbers, small wonder that mistakes have been made.  Young and inexperienced vets, vets from small animal practices, vets from abroad (who probably know nothing about, for example, hill sheep) – none of these had probably seen a real live case of FMD, but were told what the symptoms were, told it was out there and sent out to find it – and find it they did!  What a pity that, in many cases, they found instead cases of orf, footrot, wooden tongue, omagod (ovine mouth & gum obscure disease), louping ill, even blisters caused by eating thistles or salt licks and, ignoring what the farmers told them, usually proceeded to have these animals slaughtered as foot and mouth cases. No wonder the overwhelming majority of blood tests came back negative! And yet, in spite of those negative results, movement restrictions still remained on these and surrounding farms, and intensive cleaning of the properties was still carried out.

 

Although enormous numbers of animals have been, and still are being, destroyed, the government is still pressing ahead with its culling policy. DEFRA statistics do not count the baby animals that have been killed, so the real figure of slaughtered animals is probably somewhere near 10 million at present count – and at a cost to the country of about £20 billion.

 

Movement restrictions have also caused massive animal welfare problems, with creatures living, giving birth, drowning and starving to death in mud. All this from the political party that says that it puts animal welfare first and is still intent on banning fox hunting! It is small wonder that some people think that our government is following its own hidden agenda.

 

Apart from animal welfare, another aspect of this whole sorry affair is the way that human rights have been completely disregarded. Farmers have been bullied and lied to by officials, to make them agree to give up their animals, and often police and army personnel have turned up in force as well.  In a few cases, people have had their homes or outbuildings broken into – and, in many cases, both MAFF officials and vets have spoken to people in an extremely intimidating manner, which farmers have found particularly hard to bear (as some of the older ones have commented, they were brought up to have great respect for vets, and feel completely betrayed by the ones who now have badgered them in this way or lied to them).

 

It has also been horrifying to discover that (i) vets themselves were instructed to falsely sign ‘A’ notices, being told that if they didn’t the animals would be killed and the farmer would lose his compensation and (ii) until mid June, when it hit the media, farmers were being made to sign the Official Secrets Act! 

 

I have always believed that we live in a fair and democratic system and I am frightened to see just how much power this government has and just how little regard for its people, when it actually comes to the crunch.  I would like to plead with all of you who read this book to find out for yourself what is going on and to make your voices of protest clearly heard, to your MPs, the media, and so on. In the back of this book, there is a useful fact sheet about foot and mouth disease, and also a list of websites where you can find out masses of valuable information and contacts.  If you don’t have a computer, most libraries provide access to the Internet.

 

If the culling is still going on when you read this, please join us in our cry for vaccination and, also, for a public inquiry.

 

If the killing has ended, please think about the future of farming in this country and perhaps join one of the groups that will be pressing for meat that is produced, slaughtered and sold locally, that is raised in a way that is animal welfare friendly, that is healthy and safe for humans, that doesn’t involve a live export trade, or importing cheap meat from countries where animal welfare is not a priority – and that helps to preserve the small farmer and our unique and beautiful British countryside.

 

Thank you so much for reading this – any money made through sales of this book will be going towards farmers’ legal costs, or to help those others who are on movement restrictions, with no income coming in and animals which desperately need feeding.

 

I will be happy to answer any queries, to put people in touch with relevant contacts, or to help anyone I can.

 

Please get involved!

 

QUITA 

(e-mail: jacquita_a@hotmail.com)

 

 

PREFACE

 

I wrote the above at the end of the summer, 2001 and, since then, I have added a few more postings at the end of the book.  I keep finding more and more that I would like to add, but I think it is important to stop now and to try to get the book published as soon as possible, before the public completely forget all about FMD!

 

FMD is now meant to have ended, although animals are still being slaughtered in different parts of the country, presumably after blood testing.  The latest frightening thing that we are now challenging is the Animal Health (Amendment) Bill, which is being rushed through in unseemly haste, even before we hear the result of the three FMD inquiries.  It is ‘an unjust bill, it’s a disproportionate bill, an unfair bill, a bill that confers more powers on people who themselves have been found wanting, guilty of incompetence, guilty of insensitivity and guilty of bungling’ (Peter Ainsworth M.P.).  If you want to find out more about this bill, please contact me, or visit www.warmwell.com.   People like me, who own and love sheep, are also terrified when we read about scrapie/BSE/vCJD and the propaganda that is surrounding this totally unproven subject – link this in with the Animal Health Bill and faulty science (such as we have seen with FMD) and you will understand why we are so worried!

 

I couldn’t find a publisher for this book (hence the delay), so have had to pay to have the book printed myself.  Thank you so much to the kind and generous people who believed in me and in the project enough to lend me money towards this – I WILL repay you!!!

 

A final comment – I was delighted to read an article from the Sunday Post yesterday (20 January), which confirmed what we have been saying in our group (and to anyone else who would listen!) all along.  The government has consistently manipulated and lied about the FMD slaughter figures, particularly around election time but, at last, DEFRA has admitted that the real figures are far more than most people have realised.  We will probably never know exactly how many animals were killed, but the following article will give you some idea:

 

SLAUGHTER TOLL THREE TIMES OFFICIAL FIGURES

 by Craig Robertson

BRITAIN is now free of foot and mouth, but the cost in terms of livestock is far greater than the Government has previously admitted. Our investigation has revealed the number of animals slaughtered was nearly three times the figure released by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).  The Department has now admitted they neglected to count MILLIONS of sheep and cattle.

DEFRA say four million animals were culled.  However, the Meat and Livestock Commission has confirmed that nearly 11 million animals were slaughtered in the cull. The Government's official figure records sheep and cattle killed on the 2030 farms which were struck by foot and mouth plus the 5000 neighbouring farms cleansed in precautionary culls. However the number does not include beasts killed through the welfare disposal scheme, the light lamb disposal plan or, crucially, those lambs and calves killed with their mothers.

Jane Connor, chief economist of the Meat and Livestock Commission, says that a conservative estimate of 1.2 offspring per breeding sheep culled would mean four million lambs were killed but not accounted for. Lambs "at foot" of sheep marked for slaughter were also killed but the official tally would only record one animal. The same procedure operated for culled cattle. Similarly, there were 595,000 cattle culled but the official figures don't include the 100,000 calves killed with them or the 50,000 calves close to birth.

The Welfare Disposal Scheme, set up to cull animals that could not be moved because of restrictions, accounted for another 1.6 million sheep and lambs, 169,000 cattle and 288,000 pigs. Another half million light lambs were culled because there was no longer a market for them. None of these is included in the Government's total.

Jane Connor says, "We will never know exactly how many were culled but it was many more than the official figure."

A spokesman for DEFRA initially insisted the number of sheep and livestock culled included offspring killed with them However, after being told that MLC said otherwise, they checked their figures. The press officer returned to admit, "I stand corrected on that one. It seems it is standard practice to count ewes and offspring as one animal. Your information is correct."

The final toll was at least 10,849,000 animals killed.

(21 January, 2002)

 

MY MOST GRATEFUL THANKS TO:

·        every person whose writings are in this book. I have tried to ask everyone’s permission to use their work but, for those I haven’t managed to contact, please forgive me. There were a few people whose names I didn’t know, and a few more who asked me not to use theirs, so I decided not to use anyone’s names from Internet postings, except when from published articles or press releases.

 

·        Caroline Shipsey, Chris Chapman, Alex Moore and Lynda Smith for their photographs;

 

·        Cumbria Life magazine and Jonathan Becker, Loftus Brown and John Giles for allowing me to use their photographs;

 

·        Eastern Counties Newspapers for the photo of the mud-covered lamb;

 

·        Julia Melia, a very special person, who has given up all her spare time to type most of this out for me.  Cheers, Julia!

 

·        And thank you to Janet Hughes, for courageously risking all to save so many Welsh mountain sheep

 

Also, thank you, thank you to all of you who have become such a big part of my life over the last months – Mary, Joyce, Dot, Bryn, Ron, Caroline, June, Denise, Patsi, Coleen, Ley, Burkie, Janet, Elaine, Diana, Flis, Jenni, Tricia, Patricia, Lina, Tony, Mike, Melanie, Lynda, Lynne, Val S, Val L, Andy, David, Nick, Alan, Rosie, Hilary, Jane, Roger, Richard, Julian, Margaret, Sue, Susan, Sheri, Andrew, Ann, Val C, Jill, Christine, Greg, and all the rest!

 

Finally, thank you to all my dear family, near and far, who have had their ears bent by me endlessly about foot and mouth disease – and who will always, I believe, have the courage to stand up for what they believe in!

 

“That he, which hath no stomach to this fight,

Let him depart, his passport shall be made,

And crowns for convoy put in this purse:

We would not die in that man’s company,

That fears his fellowship to die with us.

 

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers:

For he that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be ne’er so vile,

This day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England, now abed,

Shall think themselves accursed, they were not here,

And hold their manhoods cheap, whiles any speaks

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day”

 

(“Henry V”, courtesy of Bryn)

(Dividers on the page show postings by different people on the same date.)

 

11 March, 2001

 

I heard this evening that we now have our first confirmed case in the Forest of Dean. It is about a mile or so away, right on the A48, which is a very busy main road. I wonder what is going to happen about the sheep? At present they are still wandering the Forest, including roads and villages, at will. Lambing is in full swing amongst them, too.

 

12 March, 2001

 

TOO PAINFUL TO TITLE

 

Dear friends of truth:

What is happening to our livestock should break our hearts, should cause us to weep some at least, knowing the tears to be the rain of the soul. I know that what you are about to read is right. When I had my home in Swaziland in the late 60s, there was a severe outbreak of foot and mouth disease.  No cattle died, nobody died. It was like an outbreak of influenza amongst humans; except that extra quarantine precautions had to be taken for it not to spread across the borders into South Africa and Mozambique. Dear friends, our animals are us down to the bone marrow. Only the spirit that is asking us to see what we are doing to them gives us our special place in creation!

 

13 March, 2001

 

This is so quite dreadful, I can hardly bear it. It does not seriously affect me personally as I have no animals susceptible to this disease, but only two minutes down the road they are tonight burning the animals which were slaughtered yesterday. The fire is at least 200 yards in length and lighting up the sky for miles around. A nightmare scenario.

 

The “Forest” sheep have gone from our village. I don’t know if they have been rounded up or slaughtered. It seems so very strange and deserted without them. They are still running free in Yorkley and most other villages round and about. John went to Coleford this afternoon and he noticed no marked decrease in the number of sheep wondering free, except actually in our village.

 

I can’t help worrying about the deer. What will become of these shy and lovely animals? Once the free roaming sheep get the disease, will there be any hope at all for the deer.

 

14 March, 2001

 

I have always been glad to live in the country, until now. The way things are at present I almost wish I lived in a city away from all this horror. The village seems so quiet this morning. Not a sheep or lamb in sight (or sound).

21 March, 2001

 

Sorry, list, to keep on about this very nasty subject but I wondered if anyone else noticed the anomalies in a statement on TV by a MAFF spokesman. He said, categorically, that the virus could only survive for 30 minutes once an animal has been slaughtered, then in the very next sentence he said that it had almost certainly been caused by feeding pigs on swill containing contaminated meat. If both his statements were accurate, then the contaminated meat in the pigswill must have come from an animal which was alive less than 30 minutes prior to being fed to the pigs. I DON’T THINK SO! Since at least one of the above statements is patently not true, how many other lies are being given to us?

 

From what I have read on the various relevant sites I have visited, by vaccinating livestock we would lose our “disease free” status --------- and consequently our exports to Japan and USA. Since we do not export vast quantities of meat to either of these countries, would it be such an economic disaster to lose these markets? (We have probably lost them anyway, for the foreseeable future, as what country will trust our meat after this?)

 

Can someone explain to me why we export our meat at all? The supermarkets are full of imported meat all the time. It often requires a search to find British produced meat. (I am talking about generally, not just during this crisis). Why don’t we keep our meat for home consumption and stop importing foreign meat? OK so I am naïve in the ways of international commerce, but the whole thing seems crazy to me.

 

I rather think that some of these politicians might think differently about this draconian “kill and burn” policy if they had to cope with the stench of burning animals every time they opened their back door. They should have been living here for the past week. It is so depressing, and I am only on the periphery, so to speak. If I was directly involved, I am sure I would be suicidal by now.

 

22 March, 2001

 

According to a news item I saw on TV they are transporting some of these animals from Scotland to North Wales to be slaughtered, passing at least a dozen abattoirs on the way. This cannot be in the interests of the poor creatures. Hours in a cattle truck just to be slaughtered at the end of it.  (But isn’t this the usual fate of meat animals in these “enlightened” times? Is this perhaps one of the reasons for the rapid spread of this disease?) Modern farming practices have a lot to answer for, in my humble opinion.

 

23 March, 2001

 

Whilst I feel great sympathy for the decent livestock owners whose livelihoods are under threat because of this outbreak, not all those affected are even deserving of our sympathy Most of the cases in this area are directly linked to one person who is a livestock dealer, not a farmer. He buys animals at any market where he can get them at knock down prices, only to sell them on again at another market as soon as the price goes up to make the trip worthwhile.

 

If they have to stay on his holding for any length of time, they are usually crammed into fields with hardly a blade of grass in them, which rapidly become like quagmires if the weather is poor. He has had thousands of sheep slaughtered (on several different sites) but, although I have every sympathy with the animals, I can’t find it in my heart to feel sorry for this person.  I do feel sorry for his neighbour who has lost a herd of well cared for pedigree dairy cattle ---- just because his farm happened to adjoin that of this dealer.

 

šššššššš ››››››

 

Damien Hurst has nothing on me!

I create ghostly pictures of death, officially sanctioned.

I have to believe this mass sacrifice of animals I love is worth it.

Or is it the farmers who are the real sacrifice?

Like the animals, they take it meekly and obediently often thanking me for doing it.

After I killed all 356 cattle in one family’s dairy herd they sent flowers to my wife.

These are the people who are giving up all, in the hope it will save others.

 

But don’t get me wrong!

I have now seen plenty of this plague and it is no common cold.

The animals suffer horribly, as the skin of their tongues peel off and the feet fall apart.

We must try to kill them quick and clean, as soon as it appears in a herd or flock.

 

The farmers’ suffering does not end with the visit of the slaughter men.

 

I must continue to do my duty in these Cumbrian killing fields, quickly, efficiently & effectively.

Yes, the official papers must all be in place.

Yes, the Health and Safety man must be happy.

Yes, the Environment Agency is only doing their job as best they can.

 

It is 6am. Today I go out to kill again.

The worst is the young stock.

I thank God the lambs are not yet born with these ewes.

Today I will have to kill a calf born yesterday, the first beautiful calf from the farmers’ pride and joy – his new Charolais bull.

 

This is not what I trained for.

I hope familiarity will never make me immune from the trauma of killing.

But I do hope – for the animal’s sake – to be good at it.

 

It is the virus we are trying to kill!

With our disinfectants and culling policy, our imprisonment of farmers in their own homes.

All they have left is the telephone.

 

Perhaps today there is hope.

One soldier will meet me at the farm gate.

I hope he, not me, will quickly arrange the funeral of the animals I love.

Before their carcasses get so bloated they fall apart.

Adding more to the farmers’ anguish, trapped amongst them.

I should be free to move on quickly, find the virus and kill again.

 

Into the valley of Death drove the 600.

Or are we now 1100?

The countryside I love is bleeding to death.

Mr Blair, please help.

 

Written by a Temporary Veterinary Inspector (TVI) working with MAFF

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

26 March, 2001

 

At the present the clouds are dark all around us and the future is a nagging ache.  Keep your spirits up with all the native grit inherited from our tough ancestry. Show the world that we are true grit.

 

Ahead the clouds are lined with silver and shot through with gold. It is not the end for our dear land. We will be shown another way, a better way. It is not the end for us but a new beginning. Already the plans and help await.

 

Keep quiet faith and remember these words.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

We live in an area where we are now virtually surrounded by foot and mouth. Not miles away, but huge funeral pyres less than a mile away. Many of the carcasses being burned today were actually slaughtered two weeks ago and were so rotten they were falling apart as they were being shifted. The burning is going on right in the village. I cannot imagine what it must be like for the poor people living there. Four huge bonfires in a well populated village. I don’t know whether to cry or scream. I feel like doing both. Is there nothing we can do to stop this lunacy?

 

 

27 March, 2001

 

Sue,

My heart bleeds for you. I have no susceptible livestock myself but I live in a rural community in the Forest of Dean and so many of my friends and neighbours are in the same situation as you. Their animals don’t have the disease, but they know that it is only a matter of time before they have to lose them anyway, because of where they live.

 

These are “little people” for the most part. Tom, a pensioner, who keeps a small flock of 10 black ewes, who all have lambs at present. Viv, who gave up keeping cattle after the BSE crisis and turned her farm into livery stables and grazing, but kept some of her old cows because she was very attached to them. Then there is Enid, with her small herd of pedigree show goats.

 

Our garden backs onto farmland, owned by Robert, a small single-handed “proper” farmer who really cares for his animals. As soon as the first Foot and Mouth cases were announced, Robert moved all his animals into fields in the very centre of his holding, adjacent to his barns, feed stores and lambing sheds (with no road access). His animals have remained disease free, but he is destined to lose them anyway, because some of his fields adjoin those of an infected holding. It would seem that no account will be taken of the fact that these fields are used for crop production only, and Robert’s livestock have never had access to them.

 

MAFF has been handling this crisis about as “well” here as they have in Devon. Yesterday they began burning animals that were slaughtered two weeks ago. The carcasses were literally falling apart as they were lifting them with the JCBs and the stench in the village is unbelievable.

 

The ministry is saying that the cases directly across the river from Blakeney were caused by “airborne” infection. Might it not have more to do with the fact that for weeks the crows, seagulls and other birds have been scavenging on the carcasses left rotting in the fields, and it is less than a mile across the river? These birds commute back and forth across the river all the time.

 

Other countries choose to ignore EU directives when they believe that these conflict with their own interests. Why did we not do likewise? The whole idea of disease free status has to be a joke now, when it looks as if half our country’s livestock is to be wiped out, and we are once again the pariahs of Europe (if not the whole of the developed world).

 

It rather looks as if the disease will run its course and will be with us until the weather conditions are no longer conducive to the spread of the virus. Then the government will take credit for having “brought it under control”.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Heard Ben Gill, NFU President, saying the following on BBC Business Breakfast today:

 

*        “There’s a kind of feeling that vaccination’s a soft option, you just go and you do a few injections, you’ve cracked it, you’ve no more problems – that’s not the reality”;

*        “First of all you need multiple injections, you have a primary injection, a booster after one month and then every six months”;

*        “At the moment I do not see the case for vaccination as a solution to this problem.  We need to rid ourselves of this disease, not push it back into the wilds of the countryside where it will harbour in wild animals and be a continual irritant and depressant to our farm population”.

 

What a pity that Mr. Gill doesn’t educate himself a little better!

 

28 March, 2001

 

On a nearby farm, pregnant ewes were “slaughtered” and left in the field awaiting disposal. When the carcasses were eventually attended to, it was found that a number of these supposedly “dead” ewes had given birth. I cannot think of any comment I can possibly add to this.

 

Ever since they started the burning, I have purposely avoided going to Blakeney or the A48. Today I had to go to the dentist and could not realistically avoid the area. I was appalled by what I saw. As you drop down over the hill, the village is spread out below and in one field are 4 of the most enormous “barrows” each about 100 yards long. (I don’t know what else to call them). Three are burning, the fourth has yet to be lit.

 

They are situated right behind a little cluster of cottages ---- all occupied ---- and one of the village’s pubs. They are practically adjacent to the back gardens of these cottages, there is a pall of foul smelling smoke hanging all over the village. I can’t believe they could have elected to burn huge numbers of dead animals so close to people’s homes. Living there must be an absolute nightmare.

 

But the whole ghastly business has reached nightmare proportions now, and the Government are still saying that they will not be adopting general vaccination policies, just selected vaccination in some areas, followed by the slaughter of the vaccinated animals. (Or have I misunderstood this news bulletin)? I have just heard, also, that vaccination will only be considered for cattle, not for sheep.

 

29 March, 2001

 

Today is a very sad day in the Forest of Dean. For those of you who don’t know this area, the Forest is populated by free roaming sheep. They are not wild. They all have owners, known locally as “sheep badgers”. As in all other walks of life some of these owners are good, some not so good. But the sheep are very much a part of the scenery around here and really help to make it what it is.

 

At the onset of the foot and mouth crisis the good owners rounded their sheep up and kept them safe. The not so good let them continue to roam. Now it has been announced that all the forest sheep are to be slaughtered. Not just those which are still roaming, but all of them. They are not infected; the cull, involving approximately 3000 sheep, is purely precautionary.

 

Since the sheep and the deer roam the same areas, we are now expecting to hear any day that the deer are also to be culled. (For “culled”, read “killed”). That will not be so easy, of course, as these are genuinely wild animals, very shy and secretive. (The sheep will follow anyone carrying a bag that might contain tasty morsels). I can’t bear to look at the lambs playing on the green knowing what fate MAFF has mapped out for them in the next few days. Some of them have only been born a few days ago. And still the Government persists with this barbarous “kill and burn” policy when it should be clear even to the most obtuse, that this policy is not working.

 

30 March, 2001

 

The countryside is still open for business. (It must be, Tony Blair said so). If you are planning a weekend in the country, why not visit the beautiful Royal Forest of Dean? You won’t be able to walk in the woods, or avail yourself of the many picnic areas, bridle paths and footpaths. You can’t stroll by Forest streams and enjoy the sight and smell of the bluebells. These attractions are currently closed because of the Foot and Mouth Crisis. But there is still plenty for you to do:

 

¨      Come and watch the forest sheep being rounded up prior to being killed

 

¨      Take an educational tour of the funeral pyres which are now a feature of this area

 

¨      Visit the piles of carcasses still waiting to be put on these pyres

 

¨      Visit the village of Blakeney, breath deeply and revitalise your lungs with a dose of the acrid smoke the locals have so far had all to themselves

 

Oh, yes, we are still open for business, so don’t miss out on this wonderful opportunity to get away from it all. Visit the Royal Forest of Dean this weekend.

 

(Sorry if I sound bitter, it is just because I am).

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

My neighbour is an elderly widower who lives alone and has no family. He doesn’t relate well to people, preferring to “keep himself to himself” and has few, if any, friends (of the human kind, that is). His friends are the sheep. He doesn’t own any, but he has befriended all the ones that wander about the village. He feeds them and talks to them and fusses with them. They all tend to hang about his gate. He only has to go outside for them to all come running. I can’t imagine what his life will be like now that he will lose his only friends in the world.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

From the far end of our village we have a good view out over the Severn to Berkeley, where they are tonight burning the healthy cattle, which were killed rather than allow them to be vaccinated. The irony of the situation is that Berkeley is the home of Edward Jenner, who was the pioneer of vaccination and developed the first vaccine against smallpox, as well as others. And what did he use to develop his vaccines? Why, CATTLE, of course.

 

1 April, 2001

 

SPRING 2000

 

It’s a beautiful day. The sun is out and the cattle are grazing on the green fields. Through the day they make their way to the barn for milking. The newborn lambs frolic in the sunshine, skipping and bucking, full of joy to be alive, until they go too far and their mothers call them back. The pigs are wandering carefree. It’s much nicer for them roaming free than contained in small spaces. Little piglets squeal and run around full of mischief. They are lucky. Spring has sprung.

 

SPRING 2001

 

The sun is out but there’s smog today in the countryside, and a smell. It comes from the big fires. The cattle are in the fields ……… burning, and the sheep and pigs. Those yet to burn are lying in the barns rotting. No milking today. There are no newborn lambs frolicking or mischievous piglets having fun. Were they ever born? Did they have a day in the sun? Fate had something else in store. Foot and Mouth has sprung!

 

2 April, 2001

 

Living in an infected area does influence ones outlook on the F&M crisis. Yesterday I had to go to London. To my great surprise, once we left our own locality, for the rest of the journey there was virtually no evidence of the crisis at all.

 

Once we had left our area’s deserted fields everything looked perfectly normal; sheep and cattle grazing in the pastures, no dead animals, no funeral pyres. Just normal English countryside.

 

It made me realise that we cannot honestly expect people from these unaffected areas to appreciate the horror of the situation for those of us unfortunate to be living in the midst of it. I hope and pray that those areas which are free remain so.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

One of my customers is a “sheep badger”. (That is someone who exercises his commoner’s right to graze his sheep in the Forest). He doesn’t run many sheep. Compared to some of the other “badgers” his is a very small flock, but he cares for them diligently. His were rounded up at the very start of this crisis and have not roamed free since. When it was agreed that the Forest sheep were to be slaughtered, he refused to hand his over. (They had already been inspected by a ministry vet and passed as healthy).

 

He is an elderly man, but prepared to stand up to MAFF and has told them that if they want his sheep they will have to get a court order, and that he will fight them every inch of the way.  And these are not even valuable pedigree animals. Just crossbred “street sheep”. He says that if they were infected, he would let them be slaughtered, but as long as they are healthy, no way will he let them go. I am keeping my fingers crossed for him.

 

3 April, 2001

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF CUMBRIA

From Annie Mawson, Cumbria Woman of the Year 2000:

 

I write at the request of many dear friends throughout Cumbria and, especially the Valley of Eden, who have helped my charity, Sunbeams Music Trust over the last 8 years, never failing and always supportive to my people with Special Needs. And now they have very special needs of their own, and they need OUR help and support as, one by one, the small rural hamlets of North Cumbria are wiped out.

 

I write this as a Cumbrian Farmer’s daughter, with an aching heart for all my farming friends, and for my cousins and my own dear brother and old friends in West Cumberland, who are living with the Sword of Damocles as the FAM insidiously gets nearer to their farms. And I write this, as a resident of Tirril, who has lived behind closed curtains which mask the biggest individual fire in the country, still burning after 27 days. Nobody could have prepared us for the smell, for the stench of death invading every room, through the ancient cracks, under the doors, down the chimneys, as we checked the wind direction, hoping for a reprieve, albeit for a few hours.

 

But our discomfort was nothing compared to the inexorable heartache behind the lists of affected farms read out by Radio Cumbria. But herein lies my incredulity, as I naively presumed everything really was under control (long before Nick Brown uttered those immortal words which will no doubt come to haunt him). It did strike us in Tirril that the animals awaited slaughter a long time, that the fire took a long time to prepare – 8 days - that the carcasses lay a very long time – and, we never dreamt then that the fire would burn for 27 days.

 

We all thought this would be an exceptional case. But no, horrifyingly, this first outbreak has been the rule rather than the exception. We didn’t dare ask, what’s to stop this tragedy happening again? One presumes that “they” are, really are, investigating the causes, so that this disaster will never happen again. It seemed obvious to us in Tirril that infected pigswill and imported meat from countries where FAM is endemic, were to blame.

 

By now, there is well-documented evidence of the slowness in reaction by the government, and their failure to bring the spread of the disease under control. BUT – my point is that we in Tirril were talking of these factors FOUR WHOLE WEEKS AGO. I was naïve to believe that the Government would have the answers. But the Government strategy seems to have been in disarray since the discovery of the epidemic, impeded by bureaucratic centralism and a reluctance to use all available help from the onset. It is heartbreaking that the discussions about the disease which now prevail in the media were the ordinary topics of conversation in our little village where the greatest number of animals were cremated in the whole country.

 

Now, in the fifth week, they are chasing the disease, instead of containing it.

 

Where is evidence that “they” have learnt from the 1967 outbreak and the resultant Northumberland Report? Why was the initial reaction from the Essex outbreak so complacent? Why was movement of livestock not prohibited immediately? Why didn’t the Government take the situation sufficiently serious at the beginning? (Indeed, during the second week, the Cumbrian situation scarcely made national headlines on television). Why is it a case of always seeming to be “locking the door after the horse has bolted?” Why do “they” seem to be always caught on the hop? Why is there no proper Government strategy? Why do the different helplines give differing information? Why are we still crying out for a reduction of time between detection, slaughter and burning/rendering?

 

The television reports speak daily of the shortage of vets, slaughtermen, valuers – I believe there is a shortage of veterinary surgeons trained in the country, due to a reduction in successive Government funding for veterinary education (Liverpool University).

 

Why? Why, in our naivety have we considered strategies four weeks ago, which are only now being implemented? We presumed that it was so obvious that the army had to be utilised, and waited to see them in Tirril …… and waited …… and waited.

 

QUESTIONS BEGGING TO BE ANSWERED

 

¨      VACCINATION: Confusion over its use helps to feed our feelings of frustration and despair; misunderstanding over its efficacy or does it “mask” the disease, and thus make diagnosis difficult?

 

Who do we believe? As I write, we await the decision, but every 24 hours condemns another 20+ farms, plus the ones in the 3km zone. And what gives us the faith that the practice of vaccination will be carried out efficiently and to the farms in crisis, when some farms within the 3km zone still haven’t received any confirmation from MAFF anyway that they are in a restricted area? And when my friends in Stockbridge were told that their sheep will be slaughtered ‘tomorrow’ when in fact they were cremated 3 weeks ago? Why should we have faith in MAFF any more when the goalposts keep changing?

 

¨      Emotions run high at rumours of sheepdogs killed; and was it rats in their thousands that are spreading the disease? Who do we believe? There is mud running alongside my house for 20 feet and within six inches of my steps, from the wagon wheels carrying diseased animals to be rendered. Is it infectious? Yes, says Chief Veterinary Officer Jim Scudamore; No, say MAFF.

 

¨      DISINFECTED MATS: In Tirril, from March 1^st onwards, we awaited their appearance on the roads …… and we waited …… and waited. On ringing the Cumbria County Council Helpline, I was told that “it is not policy to place disinfected mats in areas already affected”. WHYEVER NOT? I would have thought those were the very areas where they might have prevented the spreading of disease, however minimal the help. Only now, thanks to Margaret Lee of Tirril has a mat been put down.

 

¨      CLOSURE OF ROAD: The side roads in Tirril could easily have been closed with only a very small inconvenience to several houses. But no, this also needed Government legislation. WHY? Could emergency legislation not have been brought in? Compare the efficiency of France. ANOTHER POINT DISMISSED BY THE CCC HELPLINE – ONLY ADDS TO OUR SENSE OF IMPOTENCE AND POWERLESSNESS.

 

¨      FUNERAL PYRES: Do the fumes from the pyres carry the infection? Do small amounts of virus particles escape? Is there a risk? And if there is even a very minimal risk, then surely it is a risk too great. And if the Northumberland Report concluded that burial rather than burning of animals should be carried out, why wasn’t this adhered to? Is there identifiable danger from burning carcasses? Does anyone REALLY know?

 

Why do we instinctively check the prevailing winds when we get up, and hope that for one day we may be released from the gloom and the stench of death and decay …… was this what it was like in the middle ages with the relentless onslaught of the plague? …… this living on a knife edge, living to the relentless sound of the JCBs. And did the ghouls really have to bring their picnics and watch the fire be constructed and then lit? And why did people still walk their dogs within ten yards of the infected farm?

 

¨      More sinister – why was the timber availability checked BEFORE the outbreak was first announced? - as confirmed by Baroness Hayman on BBC’s Question Time, as being part of an ongoing EEC directive – and yet the first time in 34 years by the timber merchant when asked.

 

Why don’t the Government have the answers? Why don’t they have effective contingency plans? What use are the spin-doctors now? Do they understand the countryside? Do our urban neighbours care? But then, as Tony Blair is continually telling us “let’s get this into perspective – we are only talking of less than 1% of the country’s livestock”.

 

How many of our heartbroken farmers are dismissed so arrogantly in that one sentence? Don’t they care that the whole traditional way of life on the fellsides is under threat? We naively forecast three weeks ago, the effects of FAM on the heafed sheep; the lack of a clear policy for saving pedigree, rare breeds, and important breeds for the national flock; the disastrous effect on the whole rural infrastructure and tourist industry. Do these issues not bother them? My admiration and respect for a farmer’s wife normally so quietly spoken, who defied bureaucracy, and wouldn’t be fobbed off until she had told Nick Brown’s secretary that “he has written off the Lake District”.

 

Many farming friends have given up ringing MAFF. Total despair at their incompetence at coping with the inexorable spread of the disease, and at the lack of information. I have heard some wonderful reports of individual officials, but equally, there has been confusion and despair and distress by the MAFF paralysis in general. Farming friends ring at their wits end, no idea whether their animals are to be killed or spared; where the 3km boundary runs from – the farmstead or the nearest field to the outbreak? The arrogant assumption that all farmers have computers, let alone access to websites. Never will I forget that fateful afternoon when my brother phoned me and told me of the 3km cull, and the awful repercussions that entailed for so many of our friends. Kitchen tables were taken over by OS maps and compasses as we all tried to work out the boundaries and which farms would now be condemned by each new outbreak.

Thank goodness for Jon Snow of Channel 4 who seems determined to keep us on the National screens. And thank goodness for the outstanding service provided by Radio Cumbria and for the compassion yet pragmatism of ALL the presenters. And not forgetting Fiona Armstrong’s tenacity and persistence in her interview with Nick-don’t-shout-at-me-Brown, when he did his U turn on the culled animals. (I wonder how many farmers collapsed with shock in those three awful hours).

 

As I write, my phone has been ringing from friends in Lazonby, Great Salkeld, Little Salkeld, who talk of their pain and distress for the children, in particular, who still look out onto hundreds of animals lying in the gutters, in the farmyards, in the fields – some after EIGHT DAYS, despite Tony Blair’s assurances.

 

Messages come from friends who are quiet gentle people, full of kindness and concern for their well-loved animals, and who are now taking on the Ministry, even Nick Brown’s office and their MPs to tell them what it is really like, living on this knife edge, watching the goalposts change with stunned powerlessness; watching the relentless ravaging of the disease across our beautiful Valley of Eden, whilst the Government has dithered for four weeks, watching their beloved flocks putrefy as they themselves douse their dead animals in daily disinfectant, whilst a MAFF person stands guard at their yard.

 

“BUT THE FARMERS AREN’T IN QUARANTINE” says Margaret Beckett, Leader of the House of Commons. Has she not heard of all the split families up here in the Eden Valley, in North Cumbria? Of those children not living at home, so that they can still study for their A levels, and not allowed back on the farms, in case they spread infection?

 

One friend wrote, “A cruelty of this disease is that we cannot go and put our arms around those who are so heartbroken”. Is it true that human contact can spread disease for up to 5 days? How long have I to wait until I resume my workshops with my Sunbeams people, making sure none of them live on farms. When can I see my own family, and know that it will be safe to go over to my brother’s farm in Copeland? MAFF tell me I must wait 5 days after the last outbreak. I am prepared to do this, but is this a figure plucked from a report? Why are we becoming so cynical?

 

Another phone call from a dear farming friend in Great Orton, hanging in there, despairing like me, that the lambs were separated from their mothers on their last journey to their mass grave. Why? What sort of a decision was that, and for what reason? I can’t believe this is real. At least she said the Major himself is ringing her about her concerns over the incessant transport through the village and her fears of the disease spreading.

 

Every farming household has a story to tell. Many of them are distressing beyond words. But out of all this farming holocaust in our beleaguered county, there has to be a ‘reckoning-up’ time; there has to be something positive. The Government has got to address the reasons why this tragedy happened. We have got to bombard MAFF, the NFU, the CCC, the MPs with our opinions, and we have got to believe that this time they will be listened to. The issues which I believe need addressing are now part of normal telephone conversation:

 

¨      the 412% mark up by the Big 4 supermarkets,

¨      the differentiation between farmers and dealers,

¨      the need to think small and local,

¨      the return of the local abattoir and local meat outlets so that Cumbrians can have the assurity of eating Cumbrian meat,

¨      why is the illegal meat trade so difficult to police? Why is it such a low priority when the effects are so devastating?

¨      and uppermost, that the sources of infection of FAM should be eradicated from our country, so that this tragedy will never be repeated.

 

I haven’t the scientific expertise to discuss this disease with authority, but my telephone has been red-hot for the last four weeks, and what I DO know is, that it is the women of the communities who will get their men-folk through this tragedy. Several vicar friends have all spoken of their farmers being crushed, disempowered and heartbroken, and it is their women who will give them back their dignity, and self-worth and confidence. It is our lovely fellside women who will be strong, and farming folk reading this will understand what I am saying and know that it is nothing to do with feminism.

 

I have great faith in the human spirit, and know that it abounds in our beautiful County. I have sung in almost every village hall / church / W.I. now affected by the tragedy. I have met hundreds of the lovely folk who are now suffering, and as a farmer’s daughter, with a dear farming brother and cousins in West Cumberland, my heart goes out to them all. I have written to many, and know that underneath the stoicism and bravery there are some very despairing and frightened farmers. One friend summed it up, saying, “it is like living on a time-bomb, as this awful infection creeps nearer”.

 

I would like to share this message, which someone sent me at the beginning of this nightmare. I hope it will give heart to those who are feeling they can hardly cope.

 

“We are hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed;

perplexed, but not in despair;

persecuted, but not abandoned;

struck down, but not destroyed”.

 

2 Corinthians 4 v.8.

 

In my recitals, my favourite song is “Ca’ the Ewes”. It will never be more poignant, as we look out on our bare fields and fells. God alone knows when I will have the strength to sing it again. I have always compared the Herdwick sheep to men like my dear Dad, who once farmed the Wasdale fells. Just like them he was wise and hardy, strong and sensitive, gruff and gentle and, for the first time in 10 years, I am glad he is not alive to witness this hell on earth.

 

4 April, 2001

	What we can learn from India:   UNHOLY MESS, by Vandana Shiva (The Guardian, 4 April, 2001)
	In Britain, we see the army mobilised to kill a million or more farm animals and bury them in mass graves merely because of a suspicion that they might be carrying a disease that is neither fatal to humans nor animals. In India, the cow is held sacred, and from my philosophical and religious perspective, parallels can be drawn with ethnic cleansing in Serbia and the blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in Afghanistan. This war against farm animals reflects the insanity of those who promote globalised, industrialised food systems which create, promote and spread disease, but who simultaneously want a "disease free national herd". This zero tolerance for disease has led to a zero tolerance for animals. Farm animals and farmers have been made the "endemic" enemy. The countryside has been turned into a war zone. Just as the silent Buddhas had to be demolished for a false sense of security and pride by the Taliban, so our hoofed neighbours are being slaughtered and burnt for a false sense of security and safety by the British government. Animals are killed on the basis of unjustified exaggeration of the impact of foot and mouth disease, which has been called a "fearful plague", "a demon", "a serial killer" and a predator at large. But, as we know, FMD is actually quite harmless, though highly contagious. It does not harm humans, and it only rarely kills animals. The virus takes a toll on productivity, but not generally of life. The disease lowers milk production and reduces the working ability of animals. In a month they recover. Animals can, however, die of other diseases like haemorrhagic septicaemia when their immunity has been lowered by FMD. In India, 400 animals have died in the past couple of months not of FMD but haemorrhagic septicaemia, which infects the throat and blocks the respiratory tract. FMD is endemic to India, and used to be in Europe. It has been traditionally treated through indigenous veterinary medicine. Vaccines are also available and have been used. Nowhere in the world have entire herds been exterminated. In India, we hold cattle sacred, because without them we could not renew our soil fertility. Ecologically, the cow has been central to Indian civilisation. Both materially and conceptually, Indian agriculture has built its sustainability on maintaining the integrity of the cow, considering her inviolable and sacred, seeing her as the mother of the prosperity of food systems. The integration of livestock with farming has been the secret of sustainable agriculture. Livestock perform a critical function in the food chain by converting organic matter into a form that can be easily used by plants. Can you imagine a British agricultural minister saying, as KM Munshi, India's first agriculture minister after independence, did: "The mother cow and the Nandi are not worshipped in vain. They are the primeval agents who enrich the soil - nature's great land transformers - who supply organic matter which, after treatment, becomes nutrient matter of the greatest importance. In India, tradition, religious sentiment and economic needs have tried to maintain a cattle population large enough to maintain the cycle, only if we know it." The sanctity of the cow as a source of prosperity in agriculture was linked to the need for conserving its integration with crop production. By using crop wastes and uncultivated land, indigenous cattle do not compete with man for food; rather, they provide organic fertiliser for fields and thus enhance food productivity. Within the sacredness of the cow therefore, lies this ecological rationale and conservation imperative. There are three aspects to the reaction of the FMD epidemic that make me terribly uneasy. First, while it is clear that globalisation of trade and increased movement of animals has spread the disease, the UK government continues to support increased liberalisation of agricultural trade in the World Trade Organisation. The half million livestock being killed are a ritual sacrifice to the gods of global markets. Shutting the countryside down while keeping borders open to trade will not prevent spread of disease - either coming in through imports or going out through exports. Second, the export obsession that is an intrinsic part of globalisation also leads to a blindness to the welfare of animals and farmers. Thousands of livestock can be annihilated, hundreds of farmers ruined to maintain the "vaccine free" status of exports. Neither the farmers nor farm animals count in the calculus of free trade. That is why farmers are committing suicide in thousands in India, and animals are being killed in thousands in the UK. Third, the same agencies that refuse to act in the public interest on issues of food safety related to GMOs are willing to cull farm animals infected by a non-fatal disease. These are double standards. On the basis of the precautionary principle, the UK government should ban GMOs instead of killing harmless animals if it is concerned about safety of food and agriculture. The crisis in the UK should make us all think more seriously about globalisation of food and agriculture. We need to explore what is the most reliable way to produce safe food, protect human and animal health, build immunity and resilience in our farming. The crisis needs a systems response, not military operations. The problem is not the occurrence of disease and infection, but vulnerability to it. The very idea of disease-free animals and disease-free people fuels the appetite for genetic engineering. It decreases our levels of tolerance and resilience. It breeds fear, anxiety and paranoia - the kind of fear that is moving the military might of Britain to declare a war against its hoofed inhabitants. This paranoia suits the genetic engineering industry perfectly. By exterminating farm animals, the option of small organic farms is eroded. By creating a fear of disease, a new market is created for Dolly, and Polly and Tracy and all their clones. We should stop this war against farm animals. Without them we will never be able to build a sustainable farming future. Dr Vandana Shiva, a physicist and ecologist, has in India established Navdanya, a movement for biodiversity conservation and farmers' rights.
5 April, 2001

 

I have just heard that the man in our village who is refusing to hand over his small flock had a visit from MAFF people today and was told that he MUST hand them over. I haven’t spoken to him myself but his next-door neighbour told me that he is distraught.

 

I wrote to our local MP last week but so far she has not even given me the courtesy of an acknowledgement. Perhaps I came on too strong! What a mess it all is. 

 

Have you noticed that the BBC is giving FMD practically no coverage at present? Have they been told by the Government to keep it “low profile” for fear of upsetting those in the tourist industry?

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Now we know why we don’t go out!

 

GOAT KILLED WHILE POLICE DISTRACT OWNER

 

Mrs Elizabeth Walls, proud owner of Misty, a 1 year old goat, was last night distracted by police, while a vet and MAFF official broke into her stable and killed the frightened animal – without any written or verbal permission whatsoever from Mrs Walls.

 

Mrs Walls, who also owns a pony, 2 dogs and a cat, kept Misty in a stable at the bottom of her garden in Mouswald, Dumfriesshire. Misty used to regularly accompany the family and the dogs on walks in the surrounding countryside.

 

Vets and MAFF officials have been attempting for several days to convince Mrs Walls that Misty posed a risk to health, on the grounds that Mrs Walls’ back garden borders a farm, which has recently had all its cattle destroyed. Mrs Walls today voiced her suspicion that the cattle on the neighbouring farm possibly didn’t have F&M anyway, and certainly had all the appearances of being perfectly healthy.

 

At around 9pm on the evening of Thursday 5^th April, a vet came to the door and stated bluntly “I’m here to dispose of the goat. If you don’t agree, I’ll get the police.”

 

Mrs Walls asked him if he had any proof that Misty had F&M and he replied that he did not. She asked him if he would take blood tests of Misty. He would not. He was even asked if he could prove that the neighbouring farm had F&M. He could not. Again he stated, “If you don’t let me dispose of the goat, I’m going to get the police to arrest you”. Mrs Walls replied, “Well I’m not prepared to give you permission”.

 

The vet left and almost immediately the police, who must have been lingering nearby, appeared on her doorstep. There was a man and a woman and the policewoman said to Mrs Walls “I don’t want to arrest you”. However it was claimed that the Animal Health Act 1981 gave them authority to arrest Mrs Walls if she attempted to prevent the slaughter.

 

While the police were speaking to Mrs Walls in the kitchen, the vet was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, Mrs Walls was alerted by screaming from her daughter, Kirstine, who was returning home from work, “Misty’s dead! Misty’s dead!”.   As Mrs Walls tried to rush out, one of the police officers attempted to stop her, saying, absurdly, “You can’t go out of the house, it’s an infected area!”.   “Don’t be ridiculous” replied Mrs Walls. The officer shot back, “Well, why to you think we’re all dressed up in this plastic clothing?”. However she did get outside, only to find a strange man standing around in the dark. “Who are you?” she asked, and he promptly turned his back on her. “Excuse me, don’t turn your back on me. Who are you?”.  “I’m only the driver”.

 

It later transpired that he was the MAFF official. He had also tried to stop Kirstine at the end of the driveway when she was coming home, and had followed her down the road saying, “Your mother’s going to be arrested, and the police will soon sort you out”.

 

While the police had been keeping Mrs Walls speaking in the kitchen, the vet and the MAFF official had sneaked around the back, broken into the padlocked stable, and killed Misty. They did this without obtaining any written or verbal permission whatsoever from Mrs Walls. A horrified Kirstine was told by the policewoman “Grow up, this is the real world, not Disneyland”.

 

8 April, 2001

 

Annie,

I hope you are lucky and escape FMD where you are. It has been awful living here. I got so mad last week when one of my customers said he was glad to see the back of the forest sheep, and hoped we’d never get them back again. They are as much a part of the Forest of Dean as the ponies are of Dartmoor. Sure, they cause trouble sometimes. They can (or could) smell an open gate from a mile away and were total wreckers if they got into the garden. I have been victim to their vandalism more than once, but for all that I would not like to see them gone forever.

 

It is not totally silent here yet as the Farmer whose land backs on to our garden still has his sheep. Every morning the first thing I do is check his fields for the sheep. So far, so good!!

 

9 April, 2001

 

The elderly couple who were resisting MAFF, who wanted to take their healthy little flock of primarily pet sheep, finally succumbed to the “bully boy” tactics that MAFF seem to be using. Their animals went yesterday, including two little lambs that they had been bottle-feeding. The lady was in tears when she came to get her pension today. Her husband has kept a few sheep continuously since he was 11 ……… and he is now in his 70s. She said he is devastated.

 

I was told today that a lorry carrying sheep carcasses to an incinerator service that has been set up locally, dropped 3 carcasses on the Golden Valley Bypass, near Cheltenham, when the back of his tipper truck came open. The driver had to stop and summon help and equipment in order to get them back into the lorry. The source of this story was a friend of the lorry driver concerned.

 

A friend of ours was on his way to work on Sunday morning, at about 5.00 am and saw a truck dripping blood-like noxious liquid all over the road. Since the trucks are not that common on small country roads at that time on a Sunday morning, he suspects that the cargo was animal carcasses.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Fighting the previous war

 

If Algeria and Macedonia can get rid of F&M disease with vaccination, surely a backward country such as ours can do the same? This is a classic case of the generals fighting the previous war.

 

Surely the notion of being F&M free is rather old hat now. Let’s move into the 21^st century and vaccinate everything now before it’s too late.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

VACCINATION LEFT TOO LATE

 

I think that the decision to vaccinate should have been taken immediately, as it was by the Netherlands. In this way, hopefully hundreds of thousands of animals could have been saved.

 

The country is in mourning, for its animals and for its farmers. We all feel the pain, no matter how far or near we are to farming. We all feel the injustice. If vaccination had been adopted from the start, perhaps we could have ring-fenced this before it got this bad.

 

There is a general feeling in the public that this government tried to treat the public as fools, not understanding the issues. There are many of us now in industry and business who clearly remember the outbreak in the 60s, and this again has been ignored. We are not children who know nothing of this – we have lived it before.

 

I feel that a gross injustice has been done to farmers and to the animals.

 

We have a zoo not far from here. If it cannot open after Easter it is doomed. The rare species in it are doomed also, because no one would have them afterwards.

 

I will never, repeat never, forget this, or forgive this government for doing so little, so late, for things we hold so dear.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Is the Foot and Mouth fight worth it?

 

CONTRARY to popular belief, is the UK community putting millions of pounds and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent animals for little more than catching a cold to secure animal exports, a poor priority?  If, as we are told, farming contributes less than 4% to the GNP, of that 4% even less will be in exports. Surely we should be protecting the more important industries like tourism?

 

I have suggested to the Dartmoor Tourist Association that, “All open countryside that supports livestock running free should give that livestock added value over and above the market price. It is their very presence on that land that makes it appealing for visitors. It harks back to a time before enclosures when all countryside was common land and the shepherds or herdsmen followed their stock wherever they wandered. It represents freedom in our ever-more-restricted and overcrowded country”.

 

I believe all livestock in such situations should be vaccinated and all rights of way that do not cross farmland or go near infected farms should be opened to let the blood start flowing back through the countryside.  This slaughter policy showed it didn’t work for over 70 years after it was first introduced. Technology, vaccines and tests have advanced so much that there are at least four tests that can distinguish between vaccinated animals and diseased.

 

We have a small flock of pedigree sheep trapped among infected farms, luckily just too far away to affect us. These animals are part of the appeal for visitors to our Devon B&B, that no longer come.

 

F&M has affected the local cycle shop (people don’t buy bikes they can’t ride in the country); the local caterer who has lost business through cancelled conferences; the tyre company that has no tractors to fit tyres to; the management training company that cannot use the countryside for team building exercises; the canoe and hang-gliding company that was about to open a shop next door – the list goes on.  When will the authorities realise it is affecting everybody except those that live on a different planet.

 

11 April, 2001

 

A note from a Forest of Dean resident to say just how devastated I am about this whole affair. I can’t believe so many animals are being slaughtered needlessly when vaccination is such a viable possibility. The Forest is a very sad place indeed. Where I live, normally there would be sheep and lambs outside my front gate (and often in my garden given the opportunity) at this time of the year, but instead there is just silence. Even the birds don’t seem to be as vociferous as usual. The trees are slow to show their buds, as if in mourning.

 

What MAFF has done here is the biggest obscenity imaginable. Blame for infected free-roaming sheep has been laid at irresponsible sheep badgers, but I wonder if they were infected at all, or is this another of MAFF’s LIES to justify their action.

 

The badgers were instructed by MAFF and the Forestry Commission, at the outset of this outbreak, not to round up their sheep and enclose, because the risk of disturbing the herds of fallow deer in the Forest was too great, and it would be better to let them carry on roaming. In 1967 the sheep were enclosed until the end of the outbreak and there wasn’t a problem. Then MAFF (in their wisdom) decided to round up the sheep and tiny lambs in order to slaughter them. Disgraceful behaviour. They have wiped out hundreds of years of tradition that has shaped the Forest and given it its character.

 

My Grandfather was a Freeminer and ran his flock of sheep on the Forest a hundred years ago. He will be turning in his grave at this utter disrespect for both animals and people in the name of economics. Of course the tourist trade in the Forest has and will suffer more. Soon without the roaming sheep, ramblers will find the paths and tracks overgrown and impassable and there will be less of the unique quality they come to enjoy in the Forest.

 

Oh, but I almost forgot! We have a new Tourist Attraction! A nice new incinerator, to dispose of thousands of slain animals within 1 mile of our little Forest town of Coleford. That sight and smell should encourage the visitors to come in their droves and if we are very lucky it will be able to double up as a BSE disposal unit when MAFF have stopped the spread of FMD because we have animals left.

 

Sorry this is so long – Diana – Vaccinate not Eradicate – and go for it all you people out there who are saying NO to MAFF’s intention to slaughter the animals.

 

13 April, 2001

 

We took the opportunity to have a private talk with the MAFF veterinary officer present at the meeting, discussing all the issues surrounding vaccination. He was personally in favour of vaccination and vividly portrayed to me his anguish at the nightmare of the present slaughter policy.

 

He and his colleagues were working round the clock, with three or four hours sleep a night, killing animals when their training and moral judgement cried out against it. We suggested that he and his colleagues were in a position to refuse such orders and left him to consider his ethical standpoint.

 

He studied our prediction of five and a half million animals slaughtered by the end of April and accepted it as broadly correct on the figures available. He promised to raise this at higher levels because he quickly grasped the significance, namely that MAFF will be unable to cope with these numbers of carcasses when they are already overwhelmed right now. But the depressing message he gave us was clear – that the slaughter policy was politically motivated, not scientifically based, and that only political pressure could reserve it.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

SHEEP SHOT AT RANDOM – From “Powys County Times”

 

Mr David Owens, of Trelystan, Leighton was horrified last Saturday when ministry officials and a ministry vet began to slaughter 160 sheep under the “dangerous contact” directive within 20 yards of his home.

 

Mr Owens said: “Under the dangerous contact directive, 160 sheep, not belonging to myself, were gathered into an inadequate, makeshift pen within 20 yards of my home. So-called, licensed slaughterers then proceeded to shoot these pregnant sheep at random. Live sheep were able to trample over dead. This was carried out under the direct supervision of Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food officials and a MAFF appointed vet who took sole charge of the operation”.

 

When Mr Owens protested about the slaughter taking place outside his door, he was told it had to go ahead there as they only had six hurdles in which to kill the 160 sheep. He said, “They stopped the cull at once when I protested, they were killing inside a pig wire fence immediately behind the parish notice-board in full view of any passers-by, because inadequate road closures had been made.

 

“Neighbours later phoned me to say they had driven past and were distressed by the sight. We received no notification or communication from MAFF prior to the slaughter opposite our home. No thought was given about children living in the vicinity and therefore able to witness the event”.

 

To stop the cull being carried out by his home, Mr Owens lent the MAFF officials his own sheep hurdles so that they could carry on with the cull away from the road. He said “As a flock owner caught up in this crisis I appeal to farmers who, unfortunately, have to go through a similar ordeal, to gather as much evidence as possible concerning the slaughter of livestock. Photographic evidence of the Trelystan kill has been retained by myself”.

 

“While every effort is being made to control the disease through a slaughter policy, it must not be at the expense of the welfare of our livestock. The ‘professionals’ must not be desensitised by their actions but must be held accountable. Every effort must be made to ensure our animals die with respect and dignity.”

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Urgent – Read Now:

 

I though you should all see this immediately. It comes from today’s Farmer’s Weekly, page 7 for those who want to check:

 

VACCINATION MOVE BLOCKED

 

A bid by the Prime Minister Tony Blair to implement a foot and mouth disease vaccination programme has been blocked by the supermarkets. A government official said that Mr Blair, cabinet ministers and senior scientific advisors were agreed that a limited vaccination programme was now the only way left to tackle the spread of the disease. MAFF planned to override the opposition of farming unions to make the announcement on Wednesday (Apr 11) of a firebreak vaccination programme. Government also hoped to sanction the voluntary use of the vaccine for rare breeds.  But as the deadline for the announcement approached the supermarkets stepped in and blocked the move saying they would not sell F&M vaccinated meat products and government was forced to “backtrack”.

 

Who is running this country? I believe that this could give us a real focus of our protest. People standing outside supermarkets with pictures of dead animals and mud-drenched lambs could be powerful stuff. Cars with the sheepdrove posters – “Jab not Cull”, “Cull MAFF” and “DANGER! Government incompetence” parked prominently in the car park. What do you all think about this? If nothing else, we need to question our local supermarkets what their problem is, as we already eat meat vaccinated for other diseases which are FATAL to animals and no one suffers from that – F&M isn’t even a fatal disease!!!!!

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

I can’t understand the attitude of supermarkets not wanting a vaccination policy. They are happy to bring in meat from countries where animal welfare standards are dubious and where the risk of bringing in disease is high – in the interests of cheap food.

 

I am a British dairy farmer who has “kept up” with all the UK standards of welfare, pollution, etc at a high cost, but it has left me uncompetitive. If my farm escapes F&M, I might have to give up through lack of profit anyway – making way for more cheap imports.

 

Farmers for Action tried to get Government to ban imports from F&M countries last November but was ignored – in the interests of cheap food? Doesn’t look so cheap now does it?

 

14 April, 2001

 

BELTANE AND THE ANIMALS

 

The ancient Celtic feast of Beltane is nearly upon us. At this time, the ancestors prayed for the safety of their herds, lighting enormous blazes on hilltops as part of the springtime ritual.

 

Today we see the urgency of prayers for the healing of animals and our relationship to them, as well as for the planet itself. Please join in the ceremonial re-lighting of Ireland’s ancient Beltane Fires, the Fire-Eye Festival, in your own community.

 

*Light a Beltane Fire

 

From April 27 through to May 1, place a light in your window to signify your solidarity with the animals and those who tend them. The soft flame of a candle is a tiny echo of those ancient blazes (for safety reasons you may want to use an electric light). As you light your Beltane Fire each night, join us in this prayer:

 

Prayer for Beltane

This is the season when, in ancient times, great fires were lit upon the hilltops to signify the coming of spring and to pray for an abundant summer.

 

At that time too, the ancient Celtic peoples drove their herds near the Beltane Fires, praying for the health and protection of the cattle.

 

Now, in this time of desperate pain for animals and farmers, we light again the fires of spring in our hearts and our homes, in our windows and our spirits. As we do, remember:

 

The health of the herds is the health of the people

The health of the herds is the health of the earth

The life of the herds is the life of the people

The life of the herds is the life of the earth

 

Lighting the flames of the Beltane, we pray for healing:

Healing for the animals

Healing for those who care for the animals

Healing for the land

Healing for us all

 

*Join us in daily meditation:

At 12 noon and 6pm, pause for a few moments and send your thoughts, energies, prayers that our relationship with the earth, and especially with earth’s other animals, be healed. The people of Europe whose herds have been recently devastated will especially welcome your prayers and energies.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

EASTER LAMBS!

Hi all,

I am a smallholder on the Welsh Borders totally surrounded by F&M and the stench of funeral pyres. We are an island in the middle of it all. Disinfectant has been in place from day 1 and have been in self-imposed quarantine, urged all my neighbours to do the same, some said I was overreacting, but by day 3 were with me.

 

I remember it only too well from the last time round. Guess this present Government didn’t, as they ignored the advice on their own MAFF website, which recommended that the Army be brought in immediately to dispose of infected carcasses and ring vaccination be used. That report has since gone from the Site, Hmmm!

 

Resisting here but in a very lawful way! My neighbour farmer, Dennis, had eighty cows culled this week; they were at a pasture at a nearby farm, which became infected. He faced the loss of all his animals as MAFF put him as direct contact case, as he had been feeding them, albeit from the road, and no contact elsewhere. He fought to have them tested and they came back negative. Those cows were still slaughtered, but the rest of his herd and flock below me are still there and healthy.

 

I today have taken up the email Bambi Blair campaign, have also mailed all supermarkets and mailed a load of people all over the world to do the same. I cannot go very far to protest, still in my self-imposed quarantine, the Silence of the Lambs campaign seems to me a great way of making this known, it is very quiet in the fields all over the UK.

 

Thankfully, for me tonight is a celebration. My ewe, Hops, finally gave birth to her twin lambs; tonight I will sleep well as my lambing is over. They are healthy, as is the rest of my flock, not so silent here!

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Location: Vancouver, Canada

 

We Scots overseas are heartsick for you. I was a farm boy in the Highlands. I saw Foot and Mouth when I was a child, yet can scarcely imagine how you must feel, given what we see over here on TV about the government’s incredible incompetence. I can’t say anything that makes a difference, except that a family here is praying for you.

 

Beannachd Dhe leibh – God’s blessing with you.  Michael from the Isle of Rum

15 April 2001

 

AN EASTER MESSAGE

 

Returning home this morning after church, I gave the dogs a quick run and then made a cup of coffee and sat down to watch ‘Landward’, the Scottish TV programme for farmers. It was simply dreadful. Showing as usual pictures of devastated Cumbria, Dumfries and Galloway. The whole landscape devoid of livestock and the smoke from the burning pyres filling the sky. It included an interview with a young dairy farmer at Newcastleton, in the Scottish Borders. He described how his animals had been his life and said he could tell us the history and character of each one that he had cared for on the farm, single-handed.

 

Then he described how he had witnessed the slaughtermen and two MAFF vets herd his beasts into a small shave of land on his farm and shut the gates to prevent their escape. The slaughtermen then proceeded to shoot them with rifles as the vets stood and watched. He said, “The dead and dying lay heaped on each other, with calves stood among them”. Then, obviously close to breaking down in tears, he added, “They shot the bull three times and I don’t know if he was dead then”. The interviewer asked him “Didn’t they use a captive bolt, they’re supposed to use a captive bolt, aren’t they?” “No”, he replied, “There was no captive bolt used here”.

 

On this ‘Easter’ day, I’m sorry that I feel compelled to relate such a dreadful story but we are witnessing a ‘crucifixion’ of another kind, the murder of millions of innocent animals and the destruction of our farming industry. The only consolation I can offer is the hope that the more people who know what is happening the more likely we are to get it stopped.

 

The ‘Judas’ in this modern saga is our Government.

 

The ‘Romans’ compare to MAFF and the ministry vets.

 

It is up to us, ‘the people’ to cry, “Stop the slaughter” instead of “crucify him!”

 

Happy Easter!

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Kill, Kill, Kill

 

I copied the following from yesterday’s Newcastle Journal:

 

RARE BREEDS EXPERT “BLOCKADED WHILE FLOCK WAS KILLED”

 

The bodies of some of the rarest sheep in Britain were smouldering on a funeral pyre last night after the woman who had vowed to protect them says she was kept away from the round up.

Retired dentist Dr Frances Fish was served with a Government A-notice yesterday morning. It declared that nearly 200 of her rams, ewes and new lambs were being culled, because they were in an infected area within three kilometres of two Border farms where foot and mouth was confirmed last weekend.

 

Dr Fish says the notice was pushed through the back door letterbox of her home at Eckford House, near Kelso, by two officials who then left as two uniformed policemen blocked the drive. Within minutes a civilian team began the round up of the Fish flock six miles away in fields which the 58-year old rare breeds expert rents near Hownam.

 

Gosforth-born Dr Fish said last night: “It was like something from a police state. It was obviously worked out to make it impossible for us to get to the fields in time. “The police car was blocking the drive preventing us from getting our car out. The officers said we were free to leave but the only way we could do that was by walking. They stayed around 45 minutes and I regard it as nothing more than a blockade”.

 

Last night Lothian and Borders Police denied that Dr Fish had been blockaded in her home. A senior office at the Tweedbank emergency command centre said, “Two officers were at the house to escort the officials serving the notice and explain the process to Dr Fish. She and her husband were not around initially so they stayed parked for some time at the bottom of the drive after the officials left and until the Fishes came back. They then spoke to them and explained what was happening. The exchange was perfectly cordial. There seems to be a misunderstanding here because Dr Fish at no time asked the officers to move away from the drive. Had she done so they would have complied”.

 

Dr Fish believes her rare sheep should have been exempt from the pre-emptive cull.

 

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department said, “We have to act in the wider interests of all farms.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

V IS FOR VACCINATE – A MESSAGE FOR TEENAGERS

 

This is the message my teenage daughter sent out – perhaps we could all get our teenagers to send something serious out for a change:

 

‘Here is an excuse to take one minute out of your joyous revision whilst having the peace of mind that you have helped make the difference. All you need is:

 

-         one strong opinion

-         one pinch of principles

-         one minute of your time

-         and a piece of white ribbon

 

It’s right here, right now and it’s all around us. Foot and mouth. On our television, in our newspapers, in our view and in our lungs. Some even say they wake up to the sweet sound of gunshots. Each and every day we watch the herds of cattle and sheep disappear into thin air – or should that be thick smoke? Those of you who watch the news will know that even in our home county the most primitive immoral acts are taking place as I write this plea for your help and your voice.

 

The race to kill every animal carrying foot and mouth is a slow and unsuccessful one. When will the indiscriminate killing stop? Science supports vaccination, politics and greed support the mass slaughter of healthy animals. Which do you support? Decisions, decisions, here are some quick facts:

 

1.            Mass slaughter of every animal within 3km of the disease whether or not it was perfectly healthy. Mothers, fathers, newborn lambs and calves, so that all that is left is rotting carcasses and a foul smell. Why? To earn more money in the animal production sector through exports of meat and milk products.

2.            To vaccinate the healthy animals immediately when foot and mouth is found nearby, and lose the attractive bonus. Why not? I appeal to every individual with decision-making responsibility to plead for a vaccination policy for those diseases that can be prevented by a vaccine in order to show that we do have some remnants of civilisation.

 

Make YOUR voice heard! Please help as a person with responsibility, conscience and morals, follow this simple 3-step guide to make the difference and to make the change:

 

1.            Forward this message to as many people you know: friends, family, neighbours and random people.

2.            Wear a white piece of ribbon in the shape of a ‘V’.

3.            Print out the poster attachment and make sure it’s SEEN.

 

SHOW THAT YOU CARE!

 

Thank you for your time.’

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

DESPAIR AND HOPE

 

After reading letters from a 15 year old and a 60 odd year old, it doesn’t seem to matter who we are or how old we are, there are feelings of despair and hope. I hope this may help:

 

We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror of what comes out of the future. 

 

We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations about the future.

 

We must look forward with absolute equanimity to everything that may come … and we must think only that whatever comes is given to us by world direction full of wisdom.

 

It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely to live out of pure trust … without any security in existence. Trusting in ever-present help of the spiritual world. Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail.

 

Let us discipline our will and let us seek the awakening from within ourselves every morning and every evening.

 

RS …………… Blessings to you all at this Easter time

 

In the evening:

 

I carry my sorrow into the setting sun

Place all my cares into its radiant womb

Purified through love, transformed through light,

They return as strengthening thoughts.

As powers for deeds of joyous sacrifice.

 

16 April 2001

 

Easter Monday:

 

Woke to clear blue skies and sunshine. In a normal year this would give me a real buzz, with summer just around the corner. None of us feel quite that way this year; it’s almost as if the burgeoning spring is rather tactless and indecent – like wearing a party frock to a funeral.

 

However, once the sheep, disinfectant, etc, were all done, we spent the whole day working outside, cutting and sorting this year’s willow crop (a bit late really) and getting some grass cut. We neither saw nor heard the news, we enjoyed the sunshine, played with the dogs and almost pretended things were normal. It seems so hard to believe that the green fields, the lambs scampering about across the river, the first swallow and the warm sunshine were actually real. In a weird way, now it’s dark, all that seems like the dream, and the worry about unseen germs, the white boiler suits, the awful suffering is the real world. Maybe there is something to be said for heads in sand after all.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

 

Dear All,

Our organic farm is just outside the 3km cull zone near Whithorn, Dumfries and Galloway. I think that it’s just a matter of time before we go down. We have given all our stock Boron30.

 

If the worst comes to the worst I do not wish to give permission to have our stock culled. This might mean that we will lose compensation for our stock and therefore our future and that legal expenses are likely to amount to many thousands of pounds.

 

I would like to know if you know of anybody, organisation etc, that might be willing to contribute or fund this and also come here to add moral support to us, as we are under great strain and feel worn out with worry and we are still lambing which adds to the strain.

 

We are long standing members of the Soil Association, Scottish Organic Producers, of which I am a former director, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth and others. Many of our stock are home bred and they are my friends, I feel that I cannot defend them myself.  Please help.

 

17 April 2001

 

I expect most of you have seen bunches of flowers, and other floral tributes left at the side of the road at the site of a fatal accident. Well, here in the Forest of Dean such floral tributes are appearing under the trees all over the place, a tribute to the sheep killed by MAFF. I don’t know who is placing them. Maybe the owners, or perhaps just animal lovers, who were so sad to see the sheep go like this. I find it rather moving.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

I cannot protest, I’m sorry.

 

I have seen it twice here in Cumbria; I could not find the words to even point them out to Duncan. On Saturday I heard my neighbour’s sheep being rounded up for slaughter. The noise of the lambs as they were separated from the ewes was sickening. Hours before I had been listening to them bleating in the morning sun.

 

I have been asked to go and protest outside a local abattoir on Monday as the wagons roll in full of healthy sheep. I cannot do it. I do not have the courage to go and see all those sheep going to their death. I am finding it hard to live and accept what is happening all around me and to see nothing but empty fields. I’m not brave, just very sad.

 

šššššššš ›››››››

 

I keep rare breed sheep, not commercially, so I haven’t got a livelihood to lose … just a way of life. This massacre in my view is one of the most traumatic things to have been inflicted on this country in decades. It’s chaotic, inept, brutal, dishonest, nihilistic (if I’ve got the right word), diabolical and futile. It’s targeting the family farms and hill farms, in other words the kind of agriculture which is welfare friendly, environment friendly and community friendly.

 

I know all this has already been said. I can’t remember a time though when the whole population was so unanimous about something. So where’s the democracy gone? Why are we letting this happen? Why are we putting up with the lies, all the spin, all the bulls..t? If we don’t do something to stop it, will we be able to live with ourselves afterwards, in the wasteland that’s left?

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

LITTLE GIRL’S SORROW AFTER PET COW IS DESTROYED

 (By Mike Parker, PA News)

 

The tragedy of the foot and mouth crisis has been chronicled by an eight-year old girl, who kept a secret diary, in which she wrote of the heartache of losing her favourite cow.

 

Jessica Cleminson is scarcely old enough to understand the magnitude of the disease but her thoughts and feelings, as shown in the diary, graphically depict the trauma caused when Ministry of Agriculture officials ordered that her 14-year old pet cow, Caroline, was to die.

 

News that Caroline and the rest of Jessica’s father’s herd were to be culled came the day after the little girl wrote that the prized pet was expecting a calf.

 

Last Friday, Jessica wrote: “Dear diary, today I found out that we are in Category D and that is bad. That means I cannot leave the house much and it isn’t fair”. Alongside a colourful drawing of a cow she added, “My favourite cow Caroline is having a calf, maybe twin calves”.

 

But the following day, Jessica wrote a note in which she could not bring herself to say the word ‘killed’.

 

It read, “We have foot and mouth. Caroline has to be …… I can’t even say it and she has to be …… with her baby inside”. “Please Lord, how come you did this to us?”

 

The diary, which was found under Jessica’s bed at her home in New Hummerbeck Farm, West Auckland, County Durham, is perhaps one of the most poignant images of the disease, which is ravaging the farming community.

 

The youngster even wrote the diary using coloured pens to reflect her mood, with red, yellow and blue writing on Friday showing she was still upbeat. But on the Saturday, the day the cattle were condemned, she wrote her diary entry in black and circled two smudges with an arrow indicating ‘my tears’.

 

Her father, Stephen, told PA News, “We didn’t know about this diary until my wife found it under Jessica’s bed. We were heartbroken when we read it. The cow, Caroline, was a cow in a million – I have never known a cow like it. She was as friendly as a dog. The children would ride on its back. She would stand for ages with her head in your arms”.  He added, “The cow was almost human, she used to cry at times. Caroline cried when they came to put her down. She was within 24 hours of calving, which made it all the worse, because the expectation in Jessica was that she would have a baby. That was a terrible blow”.

 

The Cleminsons had to get special MAFF permission for Jessica and her sister Laura, 13, to be allowed off the farm the day before slaughtermen came to cull 172 cattle and 18 pigs on the New Hummerbeck farm and the family’s other farm at Kirk Merrington, near Spennymoor, County Durham. Mr Cleminson said, “An army solider led my daughters down the lane with tears rolling down their faces. It was an awful situation”.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

YOU SEE, I LOVE SHEEP

 

I woke at 7.00am this morning, drew the curtains and there were sheep, and as it is spring there were lambs. Twins, most of them in their playgroups. There were sheep, and their lambs, when we moved to this, our home thirty-one years ago. There are always sheep somewhere to be seen from our home.

You see, I love sheep.

 

There would have been sheep, carrying their lambs, around the cottage where I was born, in Bitterley, Salop, on a day in January, 1931. In the spring of that year, there would have been lambs too, as I sat in my pram in the garden. There were no sheep or lambs three years later, when my Mother, leaving my countryman Father, returned to Birmingham.

I must have missed those sheep.

 

And then, I was sent away to Cheshire, a sad time in my life, but I do remember the sheep. The sheep that I saw as I walked with all the other children to and from school, twice a day. No school meals in those days, there was school milk, horrible, never liked milk since. And so, on the 28^th October 1940 I am returned to Birmingham to my Mother. But there were no sheep. Parks, but no sheep. The Luftwaffe tried to kill me.

I know I missed those sheep.

 

And then in 1941, to Lincolnshire, to Caythorpe, my much loved Caythorpe. There were sheep, and in the spring, the lambs, and I could help with them. Do you know the excitement for a young boy of being allowed to help, to be there when a flock of sheep are dipped, to help shepherd them? Oh why did I decide I wanted to be a Wireless Man, like my big brother?

You see, I love sheep.

 

And, while I am an apprentice, apprenticed to be a Wireless Man, I am given this fluffy little collie, my Mother was furious, but he stayed. Spike was his name, he grew to be a handsome tan and white, black saddled collie. And he and I loved one another, he was a perfect dog, he could work sheep.

You see, he loved sheep too.

 

And then, in 1948, my Mother decided she had to return to Birmingham. Boys did not disobey their Mothers in those days, and so I went too. And Spike went too, there were no sheep, he and I missed our sheep, and our lambs. So I became a Wireless Man and then a Television Man, just sheep on the telly. Spike and I used to go for walks along the canal and sometimes in the park.

But there were no sheep.

 

And then, I met Joyce and in a while we started ‘courting’, we walked the canal, with Spike, he did not like her too much. Perhaps because she wasn’t a sheep. We planned our cottage in the country, with Spike, a cat and six children, I didn’t tell her about the sheep. We married, bought our first house. Spike fell in love with Joyce, traitor. And I was introduced to country holidays. Fancy going on holiday to the country, the country is the place where you live, surely.

So Spike and I found sheep, again.

 

Spike died, aged 14, a calm death in his sleep. He was buried under an apple tree. We moved, I now a Broadcast Television Man, a Councillor and a Trade Union official. Our two girls arrived, sheer joy. We had our troubles, but we had our caravan. And so we had many holidays in our caravan, farms were preferred, we had our Siamese cat.

He did not like sheep.

 

We moved to Cornwall, found our beloved Carvabyns, a large house, a wild house. Nearly nine-hundred feet above sea level. South-westerlies blew you off your feet. Wonderful views, the Cornish ‘Alps’ at St Austell, Roughtor, and the sea ten miles away. Lots of sheep, hundreds of sheep, following their shepherd along the moorland road.

Lost job, had to leave sheep.

 

And, in 1970, to Cumberland, to Bewcastle and Clattering Ford, and sheep, lovely sheep. And, seven weeks old came our son. At 27 he likes sheep. Sheep were here when the Legions crossed the Ford that gives our house its name. They were here when this was the Welsh Kingdom of Rheged, they were reived by the various clans, there wasn’t much to tell a Scot from an English man in those days. Talk about ‘cattle movements’ - they were a daily occurrence, by the Steel Bonnets.

Each day I could see sheep.

 

We own the land now that the sheep and lambs graze on, we do not own the sheep. But they are ‘our’ sheep. When they go away to be sheared, or dipped, we miss them. Understand that while they are with us, our friend, their owner, cares for them, helps lamb them, treats them when they are sick.

You see, we all love ‘our’ sheep, farmer and friends, all.

 

And the rest, that is yet to be told ……………………

 

As I see the flocks leaving Bewcastle, in the murderous cull, I felt I had to write this in their memory. ‘Our’ flock is still here (17.4.01). Without that miracle I believe in, it will not be for long.

 

Ron, a very sad old Quaker, living in the beautiful but sad Parish of Bewcastle. I should not hate, but I am afraid I do, I hope I will be forgiven.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Speaking of ‘Chilling’ Biblical references see Deuteronomy 28v31

 

“Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but will eat none of it.

 

Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned.

 

Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no-one will rescue them”.

 

For more like this, read the whole of Deuteronomy Chapter 28, particularly from v 15.

 

18 April 2001

 

So they are going! The sheep and lambs that I love

 

So they are going, the sheep I love and the lambs. We arrive home from the shops and there are the sheep and the lambs, and I do not understand how farmers, who rear, tend and nurse, when sick, their animals, can with receiving one telephone call, timed with an intention to allow no time to think, no time to stop this murderous cull, pen them, pen them, to go. To go, the sheep and the lambs that I love.

 

I am angry because in their haste to acquiesce to this evil power, they could not come to me, to say they have to go. The sheep and lambs that I love. Dear God, let there be sheep and lambs in Heaven. You see I love sheep.

 

Is this the end?

 

As someone who, for almost all of my adult life, has fought for causes with the risk of losing my career, our home and, at least once, physical risk to myself and possibly my family, cannot understand how farmers, who have raised and cared for their animals all their life, can give up those very healthy animals to be murdered. Especially as they must be aware that it will not help the so-called fight against the disease. Countries that have F&M endemic must regard British farmers as being completely mad.

 

A very sad, tired old Quaker, living in the Parish of Bewcastle. There are very few sheep.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Flis,

We still have a few sheep here. So far, those of the farm which backs onto our garden have been spared, but who knows for how long. This farmer always lambs late and his flock have just started giving birth. My two-year-old granddaughter is entranced by the new lambs and keeps going down to the hedge to look at them. She gives us a running commentary on what they are doing.

 

I feel so sorry for the elderly couple who had to surrender their little flock of primarily pet sheep. They are wandering around the village like spare parts. Their sheep dog doesn’t know what to do with herself either. She is very reluctant to go for a walk, as if she can’t see the point, with no sheep to take charge of.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

June,

I saw the picture on the front page of the Forest Review. I have to drive in the Forest sometimes and its ghostly and I have seen the flowers and the crosses, it’s a good idea, I think I will put one up in St Briavels, before the election posters go up.

 

You probably know that there has been a 5^th confirmed case here. MAFF and the army swept through here like a whirlwind last week, about 75% of the sheep and lambs were killed. Two farms left and two small pedigree sheep smallholdings. All the others have gone.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

 

BUNGLED SLAUGHTER MUST BE STOPPED

 

As a senior animal welfare inspector for over 21 years, I am disgusted at the way some stock have been destroyed. I can only go by what I see on the TV, as we have not been present when the slaughter takes place.

 

No, I am not as some farmers call “one of the pussy people”; I have worked in the farming community most of my life, and I am a trained slaughterman. In fact in the last outbreak in 1967, my cows were slaughtered.

 

I know that this slaughtering is an emergency, but that is no excuse not to do the job properly. There is no hurry when carcasses are left for days. Even on the farms, all animals should be pithed; the captive bolt only stuns.

 

I would ask MAFF to get their act together and ensure that these animals are killed correctly with as little stress as possible. Remember the slaughter regulations, they are there for a reason. If some of these so-called slaughtermen were killing my stock, I know where I would be pointing the gun, and it wouldn’t be at the sheep.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

CITY FARM IN BRISTOL – WHAT A COCK UP!

 

Most of you will remember about two weeks ago a city farm in the centre of Bristol was diagnosed with FMD. The farm had some rare breeds, it served the community helping needy children and other great animal awareness issues. The farm was miles from the countryside and 30 miles from the nearest outbreak. It had been completely sealed off since the outbreak.

 

MAFF killed the lot, goats, sheep, everything, the kids were distraught. Now blood test results revealed that they did not have FMD at all.

 

What a good job they didn’t vaccinate them eh? NOT!

 

These MAFF vets, they are like Daleks, I have the view in my mind of them screaming “EXTERMINATE!” repeatedly whilst shooting everything in sight. If ever a case needed careful diagnosis, this was it. In the middle of a city, miles from an outbreak. Animals that were kept for caring, not for slaughter.

 

“Sorry” is not a big enough word, but MAFF won’t use it anyway.

 

20 April 2001

 

Sorry, list, for bringing this horrible subject up again, but I am so upset and shaking with anger. The MAFF murderers are in the fields which back onto my garden. They have been chasing the sheep and lambs all over the fields trying to round them up. They are now shooting them. There are three big trucks in the road practically outside my house, waiting to cart the dead animals away.

 

They are not infected. They are being slaughtered as part of this sick government’s culling policy.

 

They have lived their entire lives in fields with no road access in any direction. Since this epidemic began the farmer has not even been taking his landrover onto the land but has been leaving it at the gate and walking up to attend to his stock. The lambs have only been recently born. Robert has spend whole nights in his lambing sheds bringing them into the world. For this!!

 

I have been down and tried to speak to the MAFF men but they refuse to answer me. They just look the other way and ignore me. I have tried to ring our MP. Needless to say she is not available. She stays well away from the killing fields. I feel so helpless. What can we do to stop this barbaric slaughter?

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

ANGLESEY – MORE HORROR STORIES

 

Where is the sense of it – what’s it all about?

 

Yesterday MAFF allowed 243 sheep to enter the infected areas of Anglesey (under official licence) having been driven in from an uninfected area on the mainland. They are now in a ‘cull’ (murder) area and it is rumoured that they are considering killing them all today! Has everyone gone mad!

 

I also have it on very good authority (the person does not want to be named in case he loses his job!) that the original outbreak in Anglesey that took place at an abattoir was not actually positive in the sense we were led to believe it was. The blood tests on the lambs in question did come back positive BUT ……… ONLY SHOWING POSITIVE TO ANTIBODIES!! If this is the case (and I have no reason to doubt it) then this is yet further proof that FMD has been around for a lot longer that we have been told.

 

Animals are being killed not only when they don’t have any disease at all, but also when they have got over it!! It now looks as if the large majority of sheep that have been killed in Anglesey have been killed without cause.

 

The Anglesey six are brave and continue their fight. I am forwarding all your messages on to Toni and Mike. They value your kind words of support.

 

23 April 2001

 

From the very beginning of this outbreak I’ve been deeply concerned about the wild deer, which roam freely throughout our area; having a cloven hoof they too are susceptible to the virus. However, almost nothing has been said on this subject until yesterday, when a TV item reported briefly that a deer had been identified as having the disease.  Today’s newspapers speak of “sinister veterinary reports” and a “full forensic cull”, but with no explanation of the implications.

 

We’ve noticed in recent weeks that the absence of traffic and the quiet fields have made the deer much bolder than usual; generally we see very little of these timid creatures, but lately there have been more frequent sightings, and they are far less fearful at your approach.

 

The problem they present is that they range free across the whole area without fear or favour; they know nothing of land boundaries, quarantine or avoiding infected areas, and certainly won’t walk obligingly across disinfectant mats!  I’ve dreaded the news that these fey and beautiful creatures might have to be culled, but now that it is being suggested you begin to wonder how on earth it could be achieved? You have to find them first (using deerstalkers?) and even shooting using silenced guns would surely startle the herd into full flight. After all the losses of recent weeks, I find myself hoping against hope that in this bare and empty landscape the deer will somehow survive.

 

24 April 2001

 

A poem from a farmer’s wife about the loss of her Swaledale sheep:

 

Foot and mouth isn’t a joke

Although it’s not that funny it’s harming folk

 

All our sheep all those years of breeding

Down to the pet lamb that we’re bottle-feeding

 

MAFF say give us more, more, more

Wait until they come knocking at your door

 

We stand around and swear and cuss

They are getting what they want, rid of us

 

They always knew how to get it going

Now it’s jumping about to-ing and fro-ing

 

The experts told them if they light a pyre

It will move even faster with the heat of the fire

 

And when it comes to the time when they make it end

It’ll be alright for them but we’ll never mend

 

They are in full control I don’t think they lied

And our slaughtered sheep think we took the wrong side.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

SUBJECT:  “A VOICE FOR THE ANIMALS”

 

The Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, Air Chief Marshall Lord Dowding, GCB, GCVO, CMG, fought equally hard for the exploited animal kingdom, being vegetarian, after visiting slaughterhouses, and being deeply opposed to cruel experimentation on live animals.

 

Several years ago, in part of a long speech delivered in the House of Lords, he stated: “I cannot leave this subject without some reference… to the place of the animal kingdom in the scheme of things, to man’s responsibility to animals, and to the results of man’s failure to meet this responsibility… All life is one, and all its manifestations with which we have contact are climbing the ladder of evolution… It is an important part of our responsibilities to help them in their ascent, and not to retard their development by cruel exploitation of their helplessness…”

 

“What I am now saying, if people would realise it, is of very practical importance because failure to recognise our responsibilities towards the animal kingdom is the cause of many of the calamities which now beset the nations of the world. Nearly all of us have a deep-rooted wish for peace – peace on earth; but we shall never attain to true peace… until we recognise the place of animals in the scheme of things and treat them accordingly.”

 

Lord Dowding was instrumental in saving this nation during those dark hours of World War II, and I fully believe that if we heed his warning and change the ways we treat the animal kingdom, the dark and bleak hours facing us will be lightened, after the terrible slaughter and the exploitation of the innocents.

 

25 April 2001

 

The expression “lies, damned lies, and statistics” comes to mind, but we have nonetheless been keeping track of the daily number of cases in the county. (The overall total is something just too terrible to contemplate). It may be both wishful thinking and clutching at straws (for which I make no apology), but it does seem possible that the numbers are levelling out. 10 days ago the tally of new cases daily was well into double figures, once or twice topping 20; the past few days we’ve been into single figures. It may mean nothing, could be a “blip” but we need hope so desperately, some clear sign of the beginning of the end.

 

On the other hand, let’s put the numbers into perspective; every individual case is a tragedy for the farming family concerned. The end of weeks of anxious care, the beginning of an agonising process not unlike bereavement. More than that, their immediate neighbours as “dangerous contacts”, and those within a 3-mile radius, all face the slaughter of their animals and the lengthy process of disinfection.

 

When you consider the ripple effect of even one case, then you begin to understand the implications of the figures; and the weight of pain and distress which goes with them. Still think I’m clutching at straws or hoping against hope when I look at those numbers every day?

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

 

 

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

 

What do I see from where I lie?

Green grass, tall trees and a clear blue sky

Fresh air I smell my senses reel

A wonderful feeling of life I feel

What do I see from where I lie?

Snuggled warm to my mother’s breast

Men in white and army dress

My mother jumps, she tries to run

She knows so well the sound of the gun

 

What do I see from where I lie?

Men in white take aim and fire

Another statistic for the funeral pyre

 

What do I see from where I lie?

Men in white, am I to die?

I cannot run my legs are weak

No one can hear for I can’t speak

The men in white aim at my head

Bang! goes the gun, now I lie dead

You say its foot and mouth disease

So can you answer me this please?

High on life not diseased or ill

So why did you label me for the kill?

Why did I die so young and small?

Can anyone tell me, I ask you all?

 

My body now lies with my Mother

Waiting to be burnt on the funeral pyre

So when the fires are burning bright

Please spare a thought for me tonight.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Just found this on the Sky News website:

 

PHOENIX BREATHES AGAIN

 

Phoenix, the calf that survived the cull which wiped out her mother and the rest of her herd, will be spared, Downing Street has announced.

 

CORPSE

 

The Ministry of Agriculture reconsidered the fate of the white heifer, after she made it on to the front pages of several newspapers. Her owners had feared she would still be put down despite cheating death once, and threw MAFF officials off their land.

 

The 12-day-old calf spent five days huddled next to her dead mother, who was slaughtered along with a herd of 15 cattle and 30 sheep at the farm in Membury, near Axminster, Devon, because of an outbreak on a nearby farm. It is thought Phoenix survived because she was tranquillised, but never shot.

 

KING HEROD

 

Farmers Michaela and Philip Board said the calf had become a symbol of hope for their farm. Mrs Board, 35, said, “The calf is still alive. Nothing has happened. We have asked them to leave our property and get a court injunction. We have told them unless they get a court injunction they cannot kill it. They are going to do that. We feel very strongly about it”.

 

National Farmers’ Union spokesman, Anthony Gibson, weighed in on behalf of the beast, saying Phoenix should live and that the fuss surrounding her future “makes King Herod look like a humanitarian”.

 

GOOD CAUSE

 

A MAFF vet who left the farm on Wednesday, but refused to be named, said “We have been here to investigate the situation”. Mrs Board said Phoenix should be spared because she is showing no signs of the disease and there are no surviving animals in the area to infect. “When Phoenix was discovered alive, one of the vets said they would be out to cull her, but I said I was not happy with that decision. None of our animals had the disease, and the calf is healthy, so hopefully we have got a good case”.

 

27 April 2001

 

The end of British Farming – OFFICIAL:

 

“THE ROLE OF RURAL ENGLAND AS THE FOOD PROVIDER FOR THE NATION IS NO LONGER AN ESSENTIAL ONE ”

 

Quote from the first paragraph of ‘The Government Rural White Paper’ [The Seventh Report of the Environment, Transport and *Regional* Affairs Committee, Vol. 1, 2000.05.03].

 

Wait for it, the next time you hear a farmer say: “When we restock”, or “We must keep F&M Free Status”, or “To rebuild”, or “The export market in the future”, you will know he has either been asleep or he is completely self-obsessed!

 

The British Livestock Farming Industry is PLANNED by the EU to follow the British Fishing Industry into oblivion. The British Livestock Farming Industry has all the likelihood, now that Britain is directly ruled by the EU, of survival as The British Steel Industry.

 

P L E E E E Z wake up and realise that BRITISH FARMING IS FINISHED.

There is only ONE hope for the industry and that is for Britain to leave the EU – don’t let the traitors like Ben Gill, Nick Brown, etc, bribe you or buy you off with clap trap logic of restructuring – that is just propaganda speak for DESTROY.

 

Defend your farm, defend your animals, defend your rights and protect your freedoms and your Country, LEAVE THE EU.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

I’ve read Brown’s whitewash and hogwash he spouted in the Commons and would respond thus:

 

Ref: House of Commons, 26th April 2001

 

The statement made by the UK’s ludicrous excuse for an agriculture minister was full of hypocrisy and back pedalling word play. How can he dare have the brass neck to use words like, “welfare”, “discretion”, “refinements”, “partnership”, “marketing orientated”, “environmentally sustainable”, and the indefensible “environmentally responsible” is the epitome of a man deluding himself in a whitewash of Whitehall poppycock and drivel.

 

“Welfare” – From the very outset he and his MAFFia have never given one bloody hoot about the welfare of the farmers or their suffering animals, sometimes left in quagmire conditions of the most appalling kind to give birth to lambs that then drown because his barbaric rules forbade movement. Welfare is not in your vocabulary, Mr Brown.

 

“Discretion” – Like the farmers could assist with ‘authorising’ their healthy animals to be slaughtered or they could not; it would be done anyway! Discretion, Mr Brown, you don’t know the meaning of the word.

 

“Refinements” – How do you refine an animal holocaust? How do you refine numerous burial pits the likes of which the WORLD has NEVER seen? How do you refine the lack of excuses for UNLAWFULLY slaughtering a million plus healthy animals? Refinement, Mr Brown, is something you and your nerds need a lot of.

 

“Partnership” – Like the one between the police, who help engineer access and condone by their inaction and impotence, numerous cases of brutal and inhumane killing of pet animals. Like the one whereby vets who turned a blind eye to their basic instincts and sworn duty to save and heal the sick animal, to one where they were employed to locate and destroy MILLIONS of healthy animals. A partnership that induces a trance and evil undertaking without justification, Mr Brown, is what you have delivered so far. A partnership where the Army, who are meant to defend us from evil, have to wipe the face of the earth clean of your filthy deeds. Lions led by donkeys.

 

“Market orientated” – What market would that be then? The one that you have done your damnedest to wipe off the face of British agriculture, or is it the EU one (off our ISLAND, mainland Europe) that you have been told to protect behind closed doors, and nurture by the ludicrous and insane Blitz Kreig caused by a little virus that can’t harm the human, but gives our hoofed sentient beings a little bit of a hard time to some of them.

 

Or is it the South American market where we import about 80,000 tonnes of VACCINATED beef from each year – the one that has FMD, but sort of controls it with the vaccine you are scared to death of using? The one where Zoning is practised, and border controls are so strict that BSE never gets past them – unlike the German experience (is it three times now that the UK has found spinal cord material from German cattle?). We don’t say “boo” to their goose, do we, Mr Brown? Still importing from there I see!

 

Maybe it is the import market we support from Argentina, Uruguay, Namibia, Zimbabwe (Mugabee!), Botswana, Swaziland, South Africa, Thailand, Panama, Paraguay, Croatia or Poland you want to protect, other than the HOME MARKET we could and SHOULD be supporting.

 

Maybe it really is the £310 million/year UK meat market you are trying to defend, by spending in excess of £20 BILLION of taxpayers’ money in the stupid process in just over 9 weeks. What sort of fool government plays that game? I’ll answer my own question ……… the same bloody idiots that spend £750 million on a stuffed porcupine down in Greenwich and then can’t sell it after a year; not even after spending £60 million plus of taxpayers money advertising their political expertise as Olympian failures!

 

I am running out of superlatives for your total incompetence, Mr Brown, but one final parting phrase I hope will stick in your gullet for a long time is that 24 carat golden lie, “environmentally responsible” cheap shot.

 

“Environmentally responsible” – What right have you to even think of that phrase, when you have been the obscene architect of the world’s largest holocaust of animals, killed in the most barbaric fashion, burned in the open and blackening the skies – and your reputation – with filth that will never be repeated anywhere in the world!

 

You, Mr Brown, and your undisputed world champion cock-up artists in MAFF(ia) will be responsible for untold environmental backlashes that mother earth has yet to regurgitate, having been forced fed with two million and more unfortunate innocents.

 

You and the government should be in the earth with them.

 

28 April 2001

 

John Woolman on Sheep  (John Woolman was an eighteenth century Quaker):

 

How Greed Does Material Injury to Posterity

 

Sheep are pleasant company on a plantation, their looks are modest, their voice is soft and agreeable; their defenceless state exposeth them a prey to wild beasts, and they appear to be intended by the great Creator to live under our protection and supply us with matter for warm and useful clothing. Sheep being rightly managed tend to enrich our land; but by sending abroad great quantities of grain and flour the fatness of our land is diminished.

 

I have known landholders who paid interest for large sums of money, and, being intent on paying their debts by raising grain, have by too much tilling so robbed the earth of its natural fatness that the produce thereof hath grown light.

 

To till poor land requires near as much labour as to till that which is rich; and, as the high interest of money which lieth on many husbandmen is often a means for their struggling for present profit, to the impoverishment of their lands, they then on their poor land find greater difficulty to afford poor labourers, who work for them, equitable pay for tilling the ground.

 

The produce of the earth is a gift from our gracious Creator to the inhabitants, and to impoverish the earth now to support outward greatness appears to be an injury to the succeeding age.

 

(from ‘The Wisdom of John Woolman’, Quaker Home Service, London 1972)

 

29 April 2001

 

A COUNTRY VIEW OF THE DEVASTATION

(Taken from an article by Jenny Flemming, published in “Our Cats” magazine)

 

On 28 February I visited our local vet in Longtown to be told that Foot and Mouth disease (FMD) had been detected in that village – this was just a few days after the original outbreak at Heddon-on-the-Wall in Northumberland – just 50 miles along ‘the wall’ from our home. A general feeling of doom and gloom sets in for we all realise the implications.

 

On 1 March, MAFF arrive at the front door and tell me that all the household moggies have to be kept indoors and the dogs can only be exercised in the garden. The dogs were sent to kennels for a week, by which time it had been confirmed that cats were not likely to spread FMD and could be allowed out. Dogs could be walked on tarmac roads but not on fields. Notices were posted everywhere closing off all the footpaths including the Roman Wall, which is probably the first time it has been closed to walkers since the Romans left!

 

TO BE CULLED!

 

The first weekend in March I was off to Belfast for the Northern Ireland Show, the usual food, drink and fun. I arrived home to discover that the 250 assorted sheep gaily eating the turnips in the field in front of the house are to be culled. They belong to a farmer in Longtown who has the disease in his stock. The sheep came off a Scottish hillside and had been purchased at Longtown mart a few days earlier. The sheep were culled on 7 March and were removed immediately because the Department of the Environment would not allow burning adjacent to the Roman Wall. The sheep lay at the Longtown farm for a week before being incinerated!

 

HARSH CRITICISM

 

On 27 March I attended a protest meeting organised by “Farmers for Action” at the Shepherds Inn, Carlisle. The meeting was addressed by Dr Richard North, the Independent Parties Epidemiologist from Brussels, who advocates the vaccination of cattle and allowing the sheep contracting the disease to be left alone. This would increase the antibodies in those sheep and make them less susceptible to contracting the disease in the future. He described the MAFF as “… the ministry of death who were advocating culling because they didn’t know what else to do and didn’t have the logistics to carry it out if they had”.

 

1050 GUN SHOTS!

 

On 31 March, the day we had all been dreading, there was scheduled to be a precautionary culling of 1000 sheep and 50 head of cattle at “our farm”. The ewes and lambs were penned in a crush for 13 hours before culling with no food or water. The lambs escaped onto the road and a neighbour and myself had to return them to the field, as the farmer and his wife had gone away for the day as they couldn’t face the culling – I had to – 1050 gun shots.

 

The cattle were shot in front of one another (at a slaughter house no animal sees another being killed). One beast jumped over the barriers and bonnet of an army landrover and legged it down the road to the next village and on to another farmer’s land. It was driven all the way back and then shot.

 

DISTRESSING SIGHTS

 

Ewes and lambs and young lambs were not given lethal injections. Dead sheep and lambs lay in the field for three days. Cattle lay in the lonning where they were killed for six days. Blood, urine and other liquids ran down the lonning and across the main road. No one cleaned up. The smell of pyres was like lavender water compared to the stink of dead animals.

 

On April 2 a friend telephoned but could hardly speak, as she had walked past a field filled with culled sheep from the previous day. She had spotted movements in the abdomen of sheep, which showed that the lambs were still alive even though their mothers were dead. The sheep had been shot with the bolt but had not been pithed – a relatively quick way of killing unborn lambs by cutting off the oxygen supply. Lethal injections were still not available.

 

RATS FIRST!

 

In a letter to the local newspaper a farmer’s wife wrote of a barn she had passed containing carcasses of slaughtered cattle culled the previous day. One was dragging itself across the floor still alive. The RSPCA were called in. At another local farm cattle carcasses were left for seven days. A pyre was built but the animals could not be burned as it was infested with rats and the environmental health inspection would not allow burning until the rodent population was destroyed. If animals were put on the pyre the rats would just run away. The smell 14 days after death was unimaginable.

 

FITTING EPITAPH

 

Perhaps the most fitting epitaph for the whole episode are the posters now appearing on traffic signs throughout the country, “Cull the MAFF”. Farms, local authorities, vets and all businesses connected with the tourist trade are totally convinced that what has been, no doubt, the most serious economic disaster to hit Cumbria this century, has been made unbelievably worse by a government department that was totally incompetent to act in the emergency caused by this epidemic.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

After a quiet spell, we have just had our worst week ever, with a cluster of new cases in the parishes. You might imagine that such news could become almost routine after a while, but it’s never like that, and every confirmed case is an individual and deeply felt tragedy, both for the family concerned and their neighbours.

 

Some local farmers have also finally surrendered their sheep after battling against the cull. In a perverse way anger and resistance sustained their strength; now, with nothing to fight for, their sadness and emptiness, not to mention inactivity, is all the more heartbreaking.

 

We were almost undone by an entry in the book at one of our churches in which visitors can make requests for prayer. We know that the authors lost their battle against foot and mouth a few weeks ago, and they simply wrote, “Pray for our animals who served us so well”. For many farmers their herds and flocks are like “family” and it was a poignant reminder that real grief is felt for these dumb sacrifices.

 

I suppose the question we all ask is … do they know? Do the animals sense what is coming; are they afraid? Does our God who loves everything he has made, welcome back to himself those creatures who have to be sacrificed in the cause of fighting this dreadful disease?

 

A few weeks ago my husband was asked to bless a little flock of sheep and lambs, who were doomed to die under the cull. As he stood among them their bleatings and calls filled the air, but when he began to speak they stood unnaturally quiet and still. The tears flowed down his face in the midst of the stark reality of “innocent lambs to the slaughter” and the strange sense that they already knew their fate.

 

1 May 2001

 

BLIGHTED SPRING

 

Low banks of fire despoil our pastures green,

Malevolently turning spring’s sweet gift,

To char and spiteful smoke.

No living flame, no spark of hope,

No joyful children dance.

Just figures clad in white,

Their boxes ticked, their forms complete,

Self satisfied in their repugnant work.

 

Poor innocents that trod the fields but hours or days before.

Who saw the diggers come to wrench the earth

And wondered at the change.

Their trusting eyes beheld the men and means;

Dispatched.

Their sorry grotesque forms now taunted by the satiated flames.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Below is the text of a letter I have just written to our caring PM:

 

Dear Prime Minister,

 

WHY? – An open Letter

 

Why, do I sit here in sadness in this village where I live?

Why are all the gates and barn doors locked?

Why, oh why do I fear the sound of a strange car pulling up outside my gate?

Have I committed some unspeakable crime, or refused to pay the bills?

Perhaps I am a terrorist on the run – why am I sitting here writing this feeling bitter, angry, and afraid when I should be enjoying the day, my life?

 

If it was not so terribly sad, it would be funny – but my husband and I have done nothing more than refuse to let MAFF take our sheep – they are only 5 in total but numbers don’t come into this. We are just some of the many innocent people caught up in this mess – who only want to save our animals – and be treated fairly. We are among the over-sentimental, so it is said – who give our sheep names. When did that become a crime?

 

It is hard enough living in the countryside – there is little support and amenities for rural people. We are the forgotten. These days there is even less, and soon if this KILL regime carries on there will be NO ANIMALS. A countryside with no animals, it’s like trying to imagine a seaside with no sea! What would be the point?

 

Since hearing from MAFF on Good Friday and replying and doing what they asked we have heard nothing – nor have the other people in our situation. I expect we are being left to stew – that is how great a risk we pose! Will we all be mopped up at the end – in some final euphoric victory before the retreat? Just more statistics to be buried and forgotten.

 

You, Mr Blair and those that carry out your orders, have violated and raped the countryside – it will to me, NEVER be the same. Where have our rights as individuals gone? We are not asking to keep diseased animals, just a chance to prove that they are fit and healthy. Is that so wrong? You have force-fed and led the farmers down a road of total destruction and made them believe that sheep, goats and pigs are the ruination of the countryside. Owning and protecting any one of these animals has become a crime in some parts of the country! You would think we were harbouring mass murderers – not innocent animals.

 

Before all of this I thought this country of ours was an upholder of people’s beliefs and that we ALL had a right to a fair and democratic hearing. That intimidation and blatant misuse of power were regimes more in keeping with countries run by dictators not ELECTED Governments. I no longer hold those views. How sad to feel that about one’s country.

 

They say that life has to go on, and when MAFF have gone we all still have to live in these rural communities. People will never forget where thousands of animals have been burned and buried, and watercourses polluted.

 

I ask, please, why has Cumbria been left to bleed? Surely in order to carry out such an evil regime there had to be a reason. Why? Please don’t let the answer be – “it’s because we can”.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Hi all, this came to me this morning:

 

AWAKENING

 

Quick music in the tender leaves, thin voices call their riffs:

I’m here, I’m here,

The light is coming back, the day is near

When will we fly and feed our young again

This is the hour of birds and monks

A single star pricks out the grey blue sky

The one that guided lonely prophets

 

Nestling in their desert consciousness

Swathed in the knowledge of their God

An awesome blue intensity throbs in their bones and brains

Calling, I am, I am nothing, but love exists

Lost in the shrinking woods a wild cat screams

Lost in the turmoil of the towns a million voices sob their harsh reply –

There is no God. Another day of emptiness

 

Struggling to live, longing to be known

Jerked out of sleep by clocks

The governors of our fate stir in their satin sheets

And thank their lucky stars they’re not as other men

They set the rules, give orders, tend the machine

It’s hard, but must be done

 

I must sell death so that this life goes on

Stench of his rotting beasts torments a sleepless farmer

His stomach turns with that

And with the thought of generations’ care that ends with him

The image of a frayed blue rope

That beam within the barn

We still have choice

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

I forwarded a copy of Anne Mawson’s letter to a friend and had this reply. Just one more person’s helpless grief:

 

My cousin, who owns a farm in the north west of Cumbria, near Cockermouth, e-mailed me last week to say the sheep had just been culled there. Every week she didn’t tell me this dreadful news, I dared to hope that by some miracle they might escape. Last November, just a week after we’d been there, the farmer’s only son was killed in a car crash, same age as our own Charlie. Now this.

 

I lie in bed at night and imagine no sheep on the fells. I feel numb and useless for being ‘down here’ and cheerfully getting on with my life. I wish there were an alternative to this rotten arrogant, shambolic government so that, on voting day, I could make my own little protest, rather than – as I feel at the moment – just not voting at all.

 

Cumbria, the quiet north west in particular, is where I go to refresh the spirit. It feels Closer My God To Thee. I hold a vision of it in my head, so that when life is noisy and people are crass, there’s a refuge. I know my father felt the same way.

 

 Like Annie Mawson says, I’m just glad my parents are dead.

 

2 May 2001

 

Thanks for the email address, I have just sent this:

 

Dear Rolf,

Would it be possible to for you to draw the public’s attention to this crisis and the awful cruelty involved? A quote from a slaughterman in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph puts it into better words than I can.

 

He pointed out that many of the ewes that were being killed were heavily pregnant, therefore they had endured a journey to the killing fields of Cumbria, then in his words “the odd one or two lambed after they were shot, [a captive bolt only stuns, does not kill], and the lambs were pulled from them to be injected by a vet”.

 

So the lambs probably never knew what hit them but for the ewes, the cruelty was immense. Travelling while in labour, queuing to be shot while in labour, and giving birth while unconscious …… how many got burned or buried in that state…… is this what is meant by New Labour? Please Rolf, speak out, people listen to you.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Some excerpts from an article by Tyll van de Voort, a gardener at Oakland Park, in the Guardian:

 

Picture: MAFF OFF: pointed sign on the Oaklands barricades (sign reads “Only when the last cow has been killed and the last sheep slaughtered will we realise we cannot eat money).

 

On April 18, the agriculture ministry sent the community farm at Oaklands a fax: “I should be grateful if your clients would co-operate in allowing us to organise the valuation and slaughter of Foot and Mouth Disease susceptible stock at Oaklands Park Community Farm. Yours sincerely, the MAFF Disease Centre Manager”.

 

The Kafkaesque psyche of MAFF astonishes me. How can a huge bureaucratic machine, kept churning presumably by red-blooded human individuals, behave like a monolithic behemoth – seemingly without any internal discussion or dissent on an issue as controversial as the mass cull policy? In week nine of the epidemic, the machine has found its rhythm of robotic kill, burn and bury, leaving behind death and ashes, fields of silence and sorrow.

 

Finally the MAFF machine had arrived at Oaklands. Our village community of 116 people – effectively under house arrest for two weeks because of quarantine restrictions imposed on us for being next to an infected farm – gathered again to protect our healthy flock of ewes and lambs, a herd of 60 shorthorn cattle and the children’s pet goats.

 

As a Camphill community, Oaklands works with handicapped people; and its philosophy, based on Rudolph Steiner’s work, is simple in the way life is simple: give and you shall be given. If everyone makes it his or her focus that the other one is “looked after”, logically all will be cared for. If all grab for themselves, the weak and vulnerable will go empty.  We live on, with and from a large farm: the waste goes for compost, we help with the harvest, support the farmer, celebrate the seasons and enjoy the animals and gardens. The surprise for me was that love, far from being a romantic idea, is a principle of order – the only logical principle of order for our time.

 

Love behaves like money in reverse: the more you spend, the more you get. It’s the same with all creation – love is the reverse of entropy. So, the only appropriate attitude to nature is reverence and care. If they are there, abundance is inevitable. If they aren’t, poverty, starvation and dejection ensue.

 

A healthy social organism is impossible without a respectful, reverential attitude to nature. If we treat soil, plant and animals like commodities and waste, we will treat each other likewise. The laws of life are inherently different from the laws of industry. Land cannot be “owned” and consequently cannot be “inherited” as property. Nor can it be an object of speculation.

 

Finally, on the economic level, we have to realise that agriculture is intrinsically local, and thus needs trading arrangements other than those pushed by the WTO.

 

The solution of mass culling brought by the men in white coats is part of the problem. The problem is the industrial approach to agriculture – and to life and to people. The American psychologist Abraham Maslow put it well: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you treat everyone like a nail”.

 

However, back to the barricades! On Thursday morning MAFF walked into the clenched fist of people power. By nine o’clock more than 200 people – friends, children, neighbours and distressed farmers – had turned up to celebrate and witness the power of community over bulldozers and stun-guns.

 

But MAFF never came. Several police officers did, one of them asking if we would allow MAFF’s men in. We declined. Would we be willing to talk to a MAFF official? Yes. They went away and hours later the media, not MAFF, told us that the ministry would reconsider our case. It became clear that MAFF had backed off and our healthy animals could live.

 

What saved us – and other farmers in Anglesey and elsewhere – was a spark of resistance and the support of other farmers, members of the public and solicitors. They helped us restore our belief that sanity can prevail – if we so want, if we speak up and if we listen.

 

 

3 May 2001

 

Well done, Joyce.

 

Maybe if Rolf answers you could also add this ……

 

“Then they started slaughtering the pigs, running them on to a trailer in 20-30 batches and shooting them with captive bolts. That was working well, but in the middle of the afternoon, they ran out of ammunition and starting using 12-bore shotguns. Shooting into the trailer packed with pigs (with the vets actually standing by watching them) they actually managed to shoot the window out of the Massies’ Case tractor, which was attached to the trailer.

 

David was bringing the sheep in and told them that he wouldn’t allow them to kill the sheep with 12-bores. He insisted they got more ammunition for the pistols, which they did, but it was not until 10pm that night that slaughtering finished, leaving most of the dead bodies overnight”.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

A STRONGER POINT OF VIEW

 

Again, another letter to Berwick advertiser, written by a friend of mine, also fighting the cause:

 

Current slaughter policy is doomed to failure.

 

SIR, - MAFF vet Dr Stuart Renton said recently, “Long-standing foot and mouth lesions are being found in sheep nationally, indicating the disease was probably present before the initial outbreak in Heddon”.

 

This confirms what many of us had suspected – Bobby Waugh’s pig farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall was not where it all started and the current slaughter policy is doomed to failure because the disease was already out of control before the first case was identified. The only logical conclusion of the present slaughter policy is to wipe out the entire national flock and herd. What a marvellous solution! Britain will be forever guaranteed foot and mouth free as there will be no animals to get it and Ben Gill will triumph over the export problem, as there will be nothing to export.

 

Strange indeed, that on the day the government triumphantly announced the number of daily outbreaks had fallen below 10, farmers were able to identify 24 new outbreaks on that day in Cumbria alone.

 

The frenzied wholesale slaughter of sheep that is currently underway in Northumberland is the final gamble (the multinational food conglomerates wouldn’t let Nick-puff-in-boots-Brown use vaccination) in order to protect the more valuable and vulnerable cattle before they are turned out to grass, which will be any day now. All because Tony Blair wants to have his election on 7 June without images of dead cows all over the media. A gamble indeed.

šššššššš ››››››››

 

The experts in the field of FMD seem to have been ignored and one school of thought only has been listened to, one expensive Australian computer modelling system (with out of date and irrelevant data input).  Professor Fred Brown, a laconic Lancastrian – given the OBE for outstanding work in the field – who now works as a visiting academic in USA, says that the policy of slaughter is nonsense as a means of controlling this particular outbreak of the disease.  From very early on he was advising ring vaccination.  In March he offered the MAFF a simple kit that made testing for FMD possible on the spot.  MAFF turned it down; they preferred to kill first and then do a test.  Amazingly the BBC did report this – in an edition of Farming Today, aired very early in the morning.

 

Dr Paul Kitching – who is also pre-eminent on FMD at Pirbright, the Govt. own animal disease research establishment, was mentioned in a leaked memo – front-page news in the Sunday Times April 29 – saying that the slaughter policy should be abandoned at once.  He’s off to a new job in Canada.  The memo itself was also available.   I read it closely.  It was clear that Kitching said at the meeting with the National Sheep Association on April 20^th that one in four of the farms said by MAFF to be infected did not show positive. Results after the animals had all been slaughtered.  This means that all the hundreds of animals around those farms were in no danger whatsoever of becoming carriers.  They all died though.

 

Kitching says in the memo that the disease is very mild in sheep anyway and the risk of their passing on the disease to cattle is very low.  With proper risk assessment (vets using blood testing kits) it would be negligible.  He deplores the way that MAFF based all policy on outdated and irrelevant models.

 

A blood testing kit is available – and it works.  Pirbright are now – at last – evaluating it (Wednesday 2 May).  It has already been evaluated in French tests as 100% effective.

 

Meanwhile, today the killer squads carry on – with apparently grim satisfaction.  The media are virtually silent, especially the BBC.  The Govt are now desperate to get tourism back to places like Devon, the Forest of Dean and Cumbria.  Chris Smith has been waltzing around Canada saying that the disease is no big deal at all.  Tourists will never see fires.  Paths are open.  This would explain why they want ALL the sheep killed.  The leaked memo from Pirbright (see Magnus Linklater’s article in the Guardian) likened the culling to the deliberate lowering of motoring accidents by removing huge numbers of motorists.

 

It will be a new Disney type countryside where lots of money can be made by farmers who are prepared to sell ice-cream and ‘diversify’.  A bit like the pretend ‘show’ mines with their nice clean coal exhibits.  There will be an abundance of snowy white calves I imagine…

 

4 May 2001

 

“WHAT IS MAN WITHOUT THE BEASTS?”

 

What is man without the Beasts?

If the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit.

For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man.

 

All things are connected.

This we know. The earth does not belong to man; man belongs to the earth.

This we know.  All things are connected like the blood which unites one family.  All things are connected.

 

Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth.

Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.

Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself”.

 

Chief Seattle’s Testimony, 1854

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

 This story appeared in the Forest of Dean & Wye Valley Review today:

 

‘A Forest animal owner and the local community are outraged after Moo, the cow that thought she was a horse, was slaughtered in front of pub owner and diners last Sunday lunchtime.  Moo’s owner, Lesley Wogan, was devastated.  She had been desperately battling with MAFF officials to try to save her cow, which was in the paddock with a pregnant mare opposite the pub.

 

Eight MAFF officials just turned up and there was nothing that could be done. It was just killing for the sake of killing. Her views were echoed by pub landlord Brian Penkethman. His wife Yvonne watched in disbelief as the cow was killed by fatal injection and removed from the paddock dangling from a mobile crane in front of diners eating their lunches. People were in tears and they couldn’t eat their lunches. Mr Penkethman didn’t charge them. It was much worse than the loss of trade because Moo spent a great deal of time in the paddock beside the pub and was a pet to local children. She always came to the gate when they called her.

 

Mr Penkethman called MAFF the next day to tell them how upset he was, but they said they had to act quickly to avoid protesters. The horse and the cow used to even lie down together, so Mrs Wogan asked MAFF if they could wait to avoid upsetting the horse, but they went ahead and did it. She also asked for the cow to be tested for foot and mouth but they said it was too expensive.’

 

I was shocked to read this because I thought cattle were not going to be culled anymore.

šššššššš ››››››››

4.30pm

 

Police have now closed the road in Carolyn Hoffe’s property. All the media have been ordered off the premises. A tape has been put across the road preventing access. Nobody is allowed to enter or leave the area.  The Channel 5 cameramen, who yesterday were prohibited from leaving Carolyn Hoffe’s premises, are now being allowed to go. As Carolyn said, “apparently they are not in danger of spreading the disease today, although they were yesterday”.

 

The only people in her house now are Carolyn, and her mum and dad. She is being told that her sheep are a danger to other livestock in the locality. “Look around”, she said, “There is NOTHING left for them to infect. Everything is gone”. She added, “I can’t believe this society we’ve got”.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Bloody moronic Gestapo bastards!! (No apology for swearing). We still going to be calm, peaceful protestors?

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Just let Blair call his election, and then we can all let fly at every candidate his party has. As for him, I suggest he is shot in the corner of a field and left to rot for a week and then burnt. His sidekick and fall guy Brown can be culled and dumped in a landfill site.

 

This is not an action to stop F&M, this is MAFF getting their own back because they lost over Phoenix. Bloody minded nasty little men that they are. I really do hope that it comes back to haunt the nasty little man who is leading them.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

I’m with you both …… shared sentiments!

To shoot him is too fast.

A week in a field is not long enough …… Tower of London on the end of a pike staff.

Burning ……… would release too much nasty germs. How about throwing him to the sharks?

 

What a shit day!

 

To think I spent 12 years in the military defending this country …… ready to die for this country if required …… and what reward is this …… bloody police helping, bloody MAFFia break in to slaughter 5 healthy PET sheep …… that bloody Blair can suck up to these bastards in the EU – to whom we have signed over everything I fought for, that my Father fought for, and his Father before him …… ad infinitum.

This Government is a F*****g disgrace.

 

One really pissed off, angry ex-RAF officer.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Personally I am not a compensation animal and, as far as I am concerned, if they ever killed my stock incorrectly I will not be around to spend any more money. Her majesty will probably pick up my tab thereafter.

 

But I was told that the compensation figure for my boar, for instance, was something in the region of 4 times more than you would reasonably pay for him, assuming you were in the market for a boar, in an open market. Also, I have heard sheep being referred to as liquid gold.

 

One local big mouth was heard to boast in the boozer that he had recently placed an order for a Bentley to replace his Mercedes. It’s a bad attitude, and personally I hope his brakes fail on a cliff top. But is it any wonder with sweeteners like this, a majority of farmers are keeping schtum.

 

On a more realistic level, what can a young fellow do, he is bringing up a family and paying off an overdraft, he cannot sell anything; he has to feed everything, including the family.

 

5 May 2001

 

We are all in shock over the murder of Carolyn Hoffe’s pet sheep. As she said on the radio this morning – they were not just pet sheep they were her friends. They were living in her sitting room. From television pictures we could all see that, in spite of their size, they were gentle and friendly creatures.

 

Following one of the most perverse Court Judgements of all time, Carolyn was given leave to Appeal, but an immediate destruction order was issued. Within hours of the Judgement the police, accompanied by Army Personnel from the Ghurka regiments, broke into her home causing damage, and her healthy family pets were destroyed by a vet, willing to break the oath on qualification and employed by our Government. For such draconian action those unaware of the present situation in this country would ask the following questions:

 

Was Carolyn Hoffe a criminal? – NO

Was Carolyn Hoffe a terrorist? – NO

Was Carolyn Hoffe a spy? – NO

Had her animals seriously damaged a person or property? – NO

Were her animals dangerous? – NO

Was the Judge drunk? – Possibly

Had the vet broken a promise? – Certainly.

Why then did this happen?

Because Carolyn’s sheep might contract a mild disease.

Because they lived next door to a farm that might have this disease.

Because our Government dictates medieval measures rather than allow animal owners the freedom of choice to use proven ancient cures or vaccine available through modern medical science.

Because the EU Laws and Acts of Parliament protecting our Human and Civil rights and our citizens from 'cruel and unusual punishment’ count for nothing.

Because we put false hope and trust in New Labour and Tony Blair, who promised open Government, fairness and justice for all.

Because our Government has bent the Law to suit themselves with no regard for individual citizens.

Because we are fools and allowed this to happen.

 

When in shock we all tend to stay still, numbed with fear, unable to move. We feel sick and weakened, uncertain and bewildered. If we remain in that state we are doomed. I have to admit I have shaken with fear, wept with grief and still feel sickened by all the evil that has escalated the damage to this country in just a few short weeks.

 

I cannot afford to stay still and neither can you. We have to regain our freedom and reinstate our democratic rights and civil liberties. I urge you all to support those threatened who ask for help, and to write to Her Majesty, Tony Blair, your MP, the media and the press, both local and national. Let everyone be in no doubt that you deplore the actions of our Government. The killing of innocent animals has to stop.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Although Carolyn Hoffe lost her battle to save her animals, consider what she has achieved. Her clever and brave action of bringing her animals into her home caught our imagination and admiration. By her dignified stand, she has been able to bring the injustice, cruelty and madness of the mass slaughter policy, and the heartlessness of its killing machine, to national attention.

 

She has been able to expose the policy, and its brutal operators, in a very powerful manner. That is a very great achievement …… and a victory over the forces which have been ranged against her. She stood up for what was right, and she retained her quiet dignity throughout.

 

She is an inspiration. Respect to Carolyn.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

 

Andrew,

Can you possibly use your contacts to find out exactly what the hell is now going on in North Devon please? Yesterday we tried to contact our vet about one of the ponies and were told by his practice that EVERY vet there had not been seen all day as they were out on farms, and that ministry men were swarming everywhere.

 

There is now zero information emanating from MAFF in Exeter.

 

Since 8 this morning we have heard something being shot every 30-40 seconds. It’s been going on for about 40 minutes. Isn’t this thing supposed to be under control and on the wane?

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

To the PM,

After last night in Dumfries and Galloway, the whole world is holding its breath to see what brutal insanity the British Government comes up with next in its shambolic response to the FMD outbreak. Millions of healthy animals have been sacrificed to save your blushes. Whole communities have been brought to their knees. Law and order has become a music hall turn.

 

I receive an average of 200 emails every day dealing with reports of cruelty and chicanery by MAFF and its circus, and they are not diminishing. You may win the election – by default. But make no mistake, history will judge this business and may decide that it has been the most bungled, dishonest and destructive episode in British life for several hundred years.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Dear John,

Life is rarely simple and straightforward, is it? I think one of the heartbreaking aspects of this nightmarish three months is the way that hope has gradually, inevitably leaked away from many farms. At first there was fear mixed with anxiety mixed with disbelief. Then came a growing feeling of loss of control, of being at the mercy of forces with unlimited power, and then the sight and sound and smell of death, and the awareness of a growing unease among the animals, as if their owners’ sense of helplessness had become transferred to them.

 

Each one of those owners has a different background, a different outlook, a different set of priorities, but among young and middle-aged and old alike there was a strong fine thread of gold that held many together. It was their intuitive belief that there was a relationship of trust between farmer and animal that must not be destroyed. This was something beyond financial measurement. It was priceless.

 

It made many determine to refuse to allow the slaughter of their healthy animals, and all expected to be able to use the law to protect their animals and themselves. But the machinery of power was gathering speed, oiled by the sense of its own impregnability and driven by its chosen fuel of Confine, Cull and Compensate. Days and weeks brought increasing stress to animals whose lives were becoming dangerously restricted; their owners’ lives too were being stretched to breaking point for the confinement was on them too.

 

Torture rarely breaks a man’s will because of its variety of pain; what breaks him, if he breaks at all, is the continuous probing of the same raw nerve.

 

To see one’s ewes stranded in mud and unable to bring them home to lamb; to see the ewes whose confinement meant that their pasture was so poor that when they gave birth they had no milk for their lambs; to see those lambs with jaws frozen with the cold so that they had to be wrapped in cloth and put in the oven to defrost their jaws so that they could be bottle-fed; to search for a ewe to adopt the lamb whose mother was too weak to feed her own.

 

The constant feeling of being unable to look after one’s animals as they should be cared for and the nagging doubt that lies at the edge of one’s mind: ‘Am I doing this for them or myself?”

 

Yet the farmer and his animals are really inseparable if he is a true farmer at heart. He cannot imagine life without them; without them he is nothing. Yet, day by day and week by week, farmers were told that their knowledge of what their animals needed was irrelevant. Tried and trusted treatments for FMD and preventative treatments too were not even considered by those in power. The word ‘vaccination’ was unthinkable because it might reduce the value of a sheep. Death was preferable; compensation would more than cover the sheep’s value; one can always rear more sheep.

 

The more one looks at the two sides of this confrontation, on one the farmers, on the other the suits, the clearer it becomes that there is no contest. The reality is that the sheep in the end faces slaughter. It is for that that the sheep is raised. How can the farmer, who has learnt to accept the death of his animals as inevitable, be taken seriously by those that have no contact with such animals except on a plate?

 

If only we had had from the beginning a small farm livestock farmer of imagination and sensitivity in charge of the situation, there would have been a totally different approach to the outbreak, however and why ever it happened. The main difference would have been that he would have had respect for the animals. Those in power in charge of decisions had no respect at all for the animals. They regard animals as so many farm products.

 

With this attitude, any treatment of animals is unthinkable. And that is why hope leaked away from so many. Not only were those in power ruthless, some farmers that tend to think as the powers-that-be think were equally ruthless and others less courageous than the ones that hoped and determined to protect their flocks from the cull, were resentful enough to endanger and compromise their neighbours’ flocks.

 

People behave badly or well, but most of us behave differently at different times. We need to understand even the barbaric notions of the cull and cull again brigade, because we have to change their way of thinking about livestock. There will be other outbreaks in the future. After 1967 people wrote wise words about measures to be taken, including vaccination. For the sake of the animals that we breed for our use we must create a climate of farm animals.

 

Farmers found guilty of neglect or mistreatment of animals should be banned from working with or owning animals. Only when we have a Minister whose primary function is the health and welfare of all livestock will we be able to ensure that the appalling events of the past three barbaric months are never repeated again.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

The following is taken from “This Green and Unpleasant Land”, by Alistair McConnachie:

 

ANIMAL WELFARE  

 

Leaving aside the fact that animals with a curable disease are being killed, and perfectly healthy animals are also being killed, it’s the case that many have been killed in conditions of chaos which are in flagrant abuse of the guidelines.

 

For example, we have been passed photographs of over 60 cattle killed with a rifle from the back of a moving pick-up at a specific farm in Cumbria.  The bodies litter the fields and the tyre tracks are clearly visible round the animals’ bodies.  It’s hard to believe these circumstances can possibly be legal.  But then again, it’s hard to believe that any of this is happening, today, in our society.

 

THE LOCAL ECONOMY

 

The rural and tourist industries are losing billions because people are, understandably, scared to move.  They don’t want to spread the disease.  However, it is not the disease itself which scares people, but rather the draconian response of the authorities to the presence of the disease.

 

If we have a draconian slaughter policy we cannot expect people to feel comfortable moving about the countryside.  If there were no death sentence there would be no fear of the disease, or of it spreading.  If there were no slaughter there would be no scare.  It would be just like any other livestock disease – which the public never hears about and doesn’t care about.

 

 

ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH

 

The main fuel for the pyres is coal, and railway sleepers (containing oil and bitumen).  The smoke plumes contain particles which can cause asthma and heart disease.  They contain carcinogenic particles (PAHs, Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons) and carcinogenic dioxins, which are also hormone disrupters.  The pyres are creating more pollution than all the factories in the UK, according to the Independent on Sunday, 22-4-01.  Moreover, the burial of these animals risks polluting the soil, ground water, springs, rivers, reservoirs, coastal waters and our drinking water.

 

ABUSE OF STATE AUTHORITY

 

The abuse of authority affects us all.  If the State can walk onto a farmer’s property and destroy his animals, his livelihood and his life’s work, then it can walk into your home and destroy whatever you care for.  The State is engaged in a gross abuse of its authority.

 

ANTI-GLOBALISATION AND PRO-LOCALISATION

 

Many smaller farmers could be driven to the wall by this slaughter policy.  The land could be taken over by bigger and bigger farms, or by agri-businesses, and by corporate interests.  That raises issues around corporate control of the land and the food supply.

 

Anyone who wants to see a move to localisation, that is, local production for local consumption, could use this issue to highlight the risks of globalisation, such as the dangers of dependence on the export markets, and the problems of increasing corporate control of the land and food supply.

 

Anti-globalisation protestors could advocate the development of farmers’ markets, which can exploit domestic demand as an alternative to relying on the export markets.

 

OUR RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

 

One of the most concerning aspects of the slaughter policy is the restriction of movement which this policy demands, both voluntary and involuntary.

-         Restrictions upon livestock movement mean animals are floundering in legally imposed conditions which would normally be regarded as cruel

-         The D-notice restrictions severely inhibit people from moving around their own premises and the local area.  The justification is to stop disease: where does that end?  It is almost equivalent to Martial Law, even though there have been no emergency procedures passed in Parliament.

-         Self-imposed restrictions are followed, to an extent, because we don’t want to be blamed for spreading the disease.

 

However, it’s not really the disease itself that we’re afraid of spreading, it’s the death sentence which is imposed on any animal with, or near, the disease.  If there were no slaughter, then there would be no scare and we would all feel free to move normally again.  The countryside would truly reopen for business.

 

Furthermore, if the virus is spread by humans, then that’s proof that we should not be slaughtering because, if it’s that easy to spread, then everything is going to end up dead – if we continue this slaughter policy.

 

TIME TO TAKE THE GAS MASKS OFF

 

Remember the film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’?  There’s a scene where a group of people is being held in the back of a van, which is travelling past Devil’s Tower Mountain in Wyoming.  They’re all wearing gas masks because they’ve been told that the area has been infected with poison gas.  Outside the van, the area is swarming with men in white suits and gas masks and guns.  They’re disinfecting the area, turning back cars, and preventing access.

 

The lead character in the back of the van becomes suspicious.  He pulls off his gas mask and takes a deep breath.  In a second, he realises the air is clean, and there’s nothing to fear.  The whole set-up is an elaborate hoax to prevent people from entering the area and finding out what’s actually happening around the mountain.  So he bursts out of the van and makes his break for freedom.

 

Well, it’s time to take our gas masks off.  It’s time we lost our fear of this disease.  It’s time to face the facts, which are these:  this is a disease from which almost all animals would recover; after recovery, the animals would be immune to that strain of the infection; there is no risk to human health from the disease itself; the meat is fit to eat; and vaccination can be used to hasten the end of the disease.

 

Therefore, the least we should be demanding is:

-         an immediate stop to the slaughter of healthy animals

-         vaccination to be made available

-         a reassessment of the policy of killing animals with an illness from which almost all would recover anyway.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

 

Dear Quita,

Thanks for writing and I wish you all the luck in the world with trying to get something published which can express the sorrow and shame of this hellish Spring 2001. I would be very happy for you to use anything I have written. Mostly I sit and read and often cry at the stories emerging and feel just as hopeless as anyone else. I will send you on some more bits and pieces if you like, which people have put in the local papers relating to our situation here in the Forest. Also, perhaps some photographs might help to illustrate our particular loss.

 

As you drive around the Forest in various places, people have made little tributes to our lost free-roaming sheep, which are really very touching and expressive of the general sense of loss in these parts. There are yellow ribbons tied around trees with bunches of daffodils and cards with messages of sorrow. Someone placed a beautiful wreath at the foot of a large oak near the sight of the mass slaughter in the heart of the Forest. The message on the card accompanying said, ‘RIP Forest sheep and lambs murdered in the name of Tourism’.

 

There is still a great deal of sadness and heartache and sense of loss. I haven’t heard the cuckoo this year. Usually I hear it around 24 April. Perhaps it too is sad and has decided not to come this year.

 

Here we have formed the Forest of Dean F&M Action Group and I personally have found great comfort in being involved. It helps to feel that I am doing something to actively prevent this obscene slaughter of healthy animals. Our efforts in blockading and peacefully protesting at local farms and smallholdings has caused MAFF to reassess 3 of the holdings concerned and downgrade their A notices to D notices. The plan in the Forest was to carry out culls on 36 holdings and then test the animals afterwards as an experiment to determine how the disease had spread in the FOD. Sadly 9 farms have been taken out but the others are asking for our help, so hopefully, if they stay disease free we can save them too.

 

We had an excellent public meeting with John Gouriet present and got the local head MAFF vet to admit that he was in favour of serological testing to establish infection, so we have taken a petition to Government to ask for a change in policy for the Forest. We are not holding our breath but hope that it will save more slaughter of healthy animals here. It is great to feel that you are able to DO something no matter how small.

 

Of course, I share your sorrow at the thought of more and more lost lives in the Exmoor area now. I just wish we could do more, and more people would listen. It took a while here to get people to listen and ask for help. The whole business makes me feel sick to the stomach. Healthy animals, pets, nothing seems to be safe from the MAFF killing machine. But we take cameras and video cameras and notebooks and ask for names and do our best to be as intimidating as MAFF.

 

They even tried the stunt of arresting one of our number on a charge of causing criminal damage to a MAFF vehicle and carted her off to Gloucester for 4 hours. I think nothing will come of that because there was a lot of press and TV crews about at the time, so I would think they will be on a loser there. We seem to be getting them rattled anyway, which is good news. They have been sending in vets to check the animals and check boundaries etc, so at least that is some progress for the “kill first – check after” policy. Trouble is I don’t much trust them, do you?

I was talking to a neighbour yesterday who runs an animal feeds business in Monmouth, and he was telling me that a big stockholder not far from Monmouth, who shut himself and his family off from the outside world at the start of this epidemic, has now been confirmed as having FMD. Now his children haven’t even been to school and no one has been in or out of the farm (except guess who)?

 

So if he is infected the only place it could have come from is MAFF vets checking his animals. What can you say?

7 May 2001

 

Of course there is an alternative to the mass slaughter policy

 

There are many ways to get from A to B, and just because you end up at B eventually, does not mean you went the quickest way, or the straightest way, or the most logical, human, economic, or scientific way. If the mass slaughter policy ends up eradicating the disease, for the time being, then it will be a Pyrrhic victory, which has been gained at too great a cost.

 

It will have been gained only after the most horrendous abuses of animal welfare, a paralysed countryside, a run-down local economy, the abuse of people’s right to their own private property and freedom of movement, and the creation of the most frightening environmental and health problems.

 

Juanita Wilson, at Mossburn Animal Centre, is making a principled stand against this cruel and abusive policy, and she should be supported by everyone who knows there is, and always has been, an alternative, everyone who values animal welfare and basic human rights, and everyone who never again wants to see the countryside subjected to this trauma.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

Thanks again for the continuing messages. I too feel ashamed to be British (English) at the moment, as Carolyn (Hoffe) said on the Radio 4 news interview on ? Monday.

 

It brings to mind the ‘political definitions’ I learned at university:

 

                   Communism:  you have two cows, the Government takes both, shoots  

one and gives you the milk

Fascism:  you have two cows, the Government takes both and shoots you.

Capitalism:  you have two cows, you sell the milk and buy a bull.

 

There are other variations on this, it seems to me a new definition is required,

 

e.g. MAFFism:  you have two cows, the government shoots both and imports milk and beef which you have to buy  (something like that anyway).

 

As I am a cynic and believe in conspiracy theory, I am now wondering what MAFF and the Government are trying to achieve; the destruction of small scale traditional farming?  Or is it a (not so) subtle exercise in people control to test how compliant the UK population is?

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

I enclose a letter I wrote at the beginning of March, our local paper printed it in full, the Daily Express missed out the personal comments:

 

Subject: FMD

 

Global trading is a fact.

 

Foot and Mouth Disease is already an epidemic

 

The wanton destruction, mass killing and burning is reminiscent of the holocaust, both have been featured prominently in the last weeks newspapers. This behaviour does not belong in a humane and so called civilised world.

 

Blair is fiddling with an early election while Britain’s heritage burns.

How very convenient to have the election while the countryside is crippled, hiding the fact that Britain can no longer protect, clothe or feed itself.

 

How very convenient to get rid of the bothersome livestock farms living on subsidies so that Joe Public can have complete freedom to roam.

 

How very convenient to conceal the systematic destruction of the UK so as to be more dependent than ever as an offshore island of mainland Europe.

 

How very convenient to have an election before the people wake up to see what a personally privileged despot we have elected as leader.

 

Britain led Europe into this mass slaughter policy but does anyone have the guts to admit this is wrong and to lead the way out of it?

 

8 May 2001

 

Hi Quita,

We solved the problem, the MAFFia amount which was a recalculation of our Countryside Stewardship payments, underpaid for several years, came to almost £225, so £100 to Juanita, £100 to Freedom-in-Action and £25 to the Welsh Farmer.

 

We think it is cynically funny that MAFFia money should go to fight the bastards. It leaves our funds with something else to help when we have given it a little thought.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

SPRING

 

Letter to TB:

Today in Suffolk it was a perfect Spring scene, the blossom is hanging heavy on the cherry trees, the primroses and violets abound, in the field the lambs are playing ‘king o’ the castle’ on the old oak tree stump, just as they do every year. This has always been my favourite time. Not any more.

 

I am seeing it all now through a haze of blood and tears. I will never to able to feel that joy again, each new Spring will be filled with the memories of carnage and cruelty, of terrified animals, burning and rotting bodies, and tiny lambs dying in the mud. I will never forgive you for the evil you have unleashed on my country. And the shame you have brought on us in the eyes of the world.

 

šššššššš ››››››››

 

 

YOU AND US TOGETHER

 

Over the last few weeks I have read some very complimentary (and somewhat embarrassing) comments about ‘incredible people’ and what I am doing here at Blackfordby and other people are doing around the country.

 

Thank you all for your comments, support and sentiments - BUT LET’S GET SOMETHING ABSOLUTELY CLEAR - it is all of YOU that are the wonderful ‘incredible people’, for without YOU we are nothing. YOU have inspired me and many others in my position throughout the country to ‘stand up and be counted’. I could never have done it without YOU.

 

Many people have asked if I am nervous, scared or even just plain frightened witless – well, of course I am, but it is YOU who give me the courage to continue. Without YOU I am just a plain ordinary coward who would never in a million years have stood up to the might of the state.

 

When I don’t sleep - I think of YOU.

 

When I find myself being intimidated - I think of YOU.

 

When I am forced to find extra strength of purpose - I dig down to the depths and find that YOU are there to give me that extra strength.

 

When MAFF put me on the emotional ‘roller coaster’ and I feel sick with the mental torture - I hang on for grim death and see the ride through to the end because I know YOU would not get off - so neither will I!

 

When it is all over and we have won a memorable victory - it will be down to YOU - ALL.

 

I think YOU are wonderful and I hope you have got this message - WITHOUT YOU I AM NOTHING - and I am sure I speak for everyone else taking part at the sharp end.