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The Burnside Farm Video

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Transcript

Farming Today for December 16 2004

Synopsis from Farming Today website

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are urging the Government to launch a fresh inquiry into the 2001 foot and mouth outbreak because of a video they say may amount to new evidence.

The video, shot by trading standards officers, shows conditions on Bobby Waugh's farm in Northumberland where the outbreak's believed to have started. It was taken the day after foot and mouth was confirmed in his pigs. The video wasn't sent to the inquiry led by Dr Iain Anderson which focussed on lessons to be learnt.

The Tories' farming spokesman, James Paice, tells the programme it could help us understand how the outbreak started. But the Animal Health Minister, Ben Bradshaw, says the video contains nothing significant.

Farming Today

transcript of part of the programme

...The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are urging the Government to launch a fresh inquiry into the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak because of a video that they say may contain new evidence. Shot by Trading Standards officers, it shows conditions on Bobby Waugh's farm in Northumberland where the outbreak is believed to have started.

It was taken the day after foot and mouth was confirmed in his pigs. The video wasn't sent to the Inquiry led by Dr Iain Anderson which focussed on Lessons to be Learned.

In a moment we'll hear from the Animal Health Minister, who says it shows nothing new.

But first the Tories' farming spokesman, James Paice, believes it may well be significant.

JP - "Most people didn't know about this video until it emerged a couple of months ago and all the questioning of Ministers have served to increase the confusion about it rather than resolve it. The Minister, Ben Bradshaw, produced a letter to me, a statement in the House of Commons, on Monday which basically catalogues a series of errors and confusion; bits that DEFRA didn't know what other bits of DEFRA did know what they were doing, whether they had copies of the video or if they hadn't - so it raises the question as to why it wasn't presented to the Anderson Inquiry looking into Lessons to be Learned.

Most people who have seen that video believe that there is a picture of a dog pulling at what looks like a dead sheep or part of a dead sheep in a mound of decomposing material which raises the question which many people have asked as to how the disease got to Burnside Farm and it's no slight on Professor (sic) Anderson to say his report does not actually address how it got there other than saying it came in untreated swill. And all this video evidence now I think increases the need for an explanation from the Minister as to why the video was not given to the inquiry, who made that decision or was it actually never considered, was it an omission rather than a commission. And in the light of it to redouble our calls which we have been making for some time for there to be a proper public inquiry."

Well the Animal Health Minister, Ben Bradshaw, issued a statement denying that there has been any cover-up over this video. The video, he says, is inconclusive, it doesn't clearly show a dog tugging at a sheep's carcass, and anyway, the video was publicly aired at Bobby Waugh's court case.

JP - But not all the video was, only extracts, and the Minister himself says that Ministers - he refers to Elliott Morley and Lord Whitty - both saw extracts on the news. That's pretty irresponsible from the Minister for Animal Health. He appears not to have even seen it himself. He's working on what he's been told. I think that's irresponsible but I also know that most people who have seen that video take a very different view. But the key thing is that fundamental question that has never been asked - or answered properly - is how the disease got to Burnside Farm. Whether it came in untreated swill - which may be the case- but what effort was made to trace the source of that untreated swill, where it came from. The real issue is to make sure this disease does not come back and unless there's a real effort to get to the bottom of that we will never be sure that we an prevent it happening again.

You believe this video should have been shown to the Anderson Inquiry. There isn't a single fact that we know about that has come out of the video though that would have changed the direction of the Anderson Inquiry.

We don't know anything conclusively, of course not, but if professor Anderson was not given all the evidence then how can you guarantee that his conclusions are those he would have come to if he had had all the evidence. And to me the fact that he wasn't shown a pretty significant piece of visual evidence, as opposed to receiving just written and verbal evidence - is quite damaging. I think he needs to be allowed to see that video, or a proper inquiry needs to see it so that we can actually get to the bottom of the fundamental issue which is how the disease got to Burnside Farm and more importantly how it got into England, bearing in mind that we should never have had any foodstuffs in this country from countries where that particular strain of foot and mouth is endemic.

Well, joining us now is the Animal Health Minister, Ben Bradshaw. A significant piece of visual evidence, says James Paice, surely of great interest to anyone inquiring either into the origins of the outbreak or the lessons we should learn from it.

BB - Yes, and shown widely as you said in your questioning at the time by the media at Bobby Waugh's trial. I have now seen this video and I've seen I think probably a different version from James Paice, a better version than the one he was shown by the pigswill campaigners, which was I understand rather grainy and I can't identify what was being pulled out and neither can the deputy chief vet or any the experts that have viewed it as well.

There were only extracts seen in the media at the time. You say the video constitutes no new evidence but given the important to all of us of learning as much as we can about this outbreak and where it came from, why not ask Dr Anderson to make, to pass judgement on whether it is significant or not.

BB - Well we have and he said he doesn't wish to look at it. he doesn't think it does contain any evidence, any new evidence so it's not me saying this, it's the people who were there at the time who personally talked both to the vet Jim Dring and the other officials who were there at the time who gathered painstakingly the evidence on which Bobby Waugh was prosecuted for breaking the law and endangering the health of not only his own animals but the whole country and they say that that evidence they gathered was all given both to both Anderson and to the trial and that the video contains nothing new.

The farm had been inspected and licenced only a month earlier by a government vet and the Conservatives suspect that the government's regulatory system may have been at fault here . Evidence which may or may not show that surely needs to be judged independently.

BB - Well, vets and animal health experts tell me that foot and mouth is a highly virulent disease that spreads very quickly and that pigs in particular deteriorate extremely fast and as came out at the time when not just the Anderson Inquiry but the other inquiries took place, the conclusion was that it was perfectly possible for the time between Jim Dring's visit in the January and his visit a month later for the pigs to have deteriorated to that extent shown not just in the film but in the evidence given both to Anderson and the Court case.

Both the Conservative and the Liberal Democrats argue that the video evidence together with the note taken form the government vet you mentioned, Jim Dring, who inspected Burnside Farm in which he wonders if he should have granted it a licence, both these things taken together justify a fresh inquiry. It is hard to argue against.

BB - Well it's not.There have been so many inquiries. Jim Dring made quite clear at the time that he was writing that memo with the benefit of hindsight. What did happen at Burnside Farm we know with the benefit of hindsight. He says as well in that.. in that.. in his memorandum that at the time in January he saw nothing amiss and he did a proper inspection. I don't think anyone is suggesting that he didn't.

Finally and briefly, underlying this is a suspicion in some minds that infection may have been present elsewhere in the UK earlier than at Burnside Farm. Now is there any form of evidence - conclusive or not - that that was the case? Briefly if you can.

BB - No. And Anderson looked into this. James Paice was quite wrong to say that there had never been an epidemiological study. There was and Burnside Farm was the first outbreak and no sheep were found on Burnside Farm.

ends

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November 20 - 26 2004 ~ "whether or not there were other things that we should have asked for and did not, I do not know.."

Alun Evans, the Secretary of the Anderson Inquiry, gave evidence to the Public Administration Committee (see also below) on 22 June 2004
" .... how do you know you have got all the evidence and all the facts at your disposal, and that is almost an unanswerable question, apart from the fact everything we asked for we got from government. We had to do a bit of digging at some stages to get it and whether or not there were other things that we should have asked for and did not, I do not know....I cannot say we did not find that people lied to us (sic) but we have no evidence that people were not telling us things that they should have done..... ...."
In other words Mr Evans and Dr Anderson had to know what to ask for and what to ask about. Dr Anderson told the EFRA Committee in July 2002 "I do not believe that any information that is material has been withheld from me." To Colin Breed's question: ".. it is not impossible that notes were re-written and others lost?" he replied, "Obviously nothing is impossible. I simply say I have no evidence which supports that."
Neither the video of conditions at Burnside nor the lengthy statement by the SVS vet Mr James Dring were volunteered by MAFF/DEFRA. While the Anderson Inquiry had " full access to the Cabinet papers" they were not allowed to remove them and had to make notes there and then "rather than if we had judicial powers for some of the notes of the meetings we wanted."
Mr Evans said, of Lessons Learned, that
"... as well as being shown to be a robust inquiry it also had something of a cathartic effect on the community that had suffered, and I think Dr Anderson did that well. .."
Words do rather fail one. Read more

November 20 - 26 2004 ~ All party Welsh AMs watch Burnside video

"....All who saw the footage were appalled at the state of the farm and were critical of Trading Standards officers and ministry vets who had granted Burnside Farm, Heddon-on-the-Wall, a licence to operate.
Former farm protest leader Brynle Williams - now a Conservative AM - questioned how the farm had been allowed to continue to trade." See FWI article

November 12 - November 19 2004 ~ "Michael Jack MP, chairman of the EFRA select committee, told FW that he would hold a viewing of the tape in the coming days.... "

Mr Bradshaw will not watch it, DEFRA denies there is anything new - but many politicians have now seen or want to see the FMD video and are asking why it was not shown to Dr Anderson's Inquiry and why, if the outbreak really originated at Burnside Farm, the fact of the video's existence and that of Mr Dring's statement should have been withheld from Lessons Learned. Mr Waugh was made to sign the official secrets act - but the government was free to say what it liked. On the 13th February 2001 sheep at Ponteland, five miles from Burnside farm at Heddon on the Wall, were found to be infected. Government actions let it be assumed that Waugh's pigs were the source - yet the video suggests the possibility of the presence of infected sheep carcasses on the farm premises even as an "inspection" was taking place. Jonathan Riley's report in last friday's Farmers Weekly shows that many MPs and senior veterinary figures have now seen, or have asked to see, the video taken at Burnside farm.
"The state of the farm in Feb 2001, just four weeks after it had been approved in a government inspection, was made clear in a showing of the video organised by FARMERS WEEKLY (News, Oct 29). It left vets and MPs shocked and appalled and has prompted a barrage of parliamentary questions ......answering Mr Paice's question, junior DEFRA minister Ben Bradshaw said his department had first obtained a copy of the video on Sept 30, 2004 ...... A cross-party group of MPs saw the video Thursday morning (Nov 11) in London, and Michael Jack MP, chairman of the EFRA select committee, told FW that he would hold a viewing of the tape in the coming days. A group of senior vets has also requested a copy of the tape to hold a behind-closed doors viewing. And the Welsh Assembly's plans to show the tape next Tuesday (Nov 16) are well advanced. The Association of Swill Users has planned its showing for Sat, Nov 13." Read in full

November 12 - November 19 2004 ~ DEFRA says no sheep found at Burnside...

The exact wording of Written Answers to parliamentary questions is always worth examining. From Hansard for November 15th: Mr Bradshaw ".... There is no new evidence that indicates that the disease was present anywhere else earlier than at Burnside Farm." and " Defra found no dead sheep on Burnside Farm either on 24 February or on any other date in 2001" Neither statement says definitively quite what it implies. "No new evidence" is not the same as "no evidence" and "Defra found no dead sheep" does not mean that there were no dead sheep.
Jason Groves' article in Wednesday's Western Morning News reports that
"the Government denied that dead sheep had been found on the Northumberland pig farm where the epidemic is thought to have started - despite video evidence to the contrary... The emergence of the video prompted the Shadow Agriculture Minister Owen Paterson to table a number of Parliamentary questions asking whether the sheep had been tested for foot and mouth. In his reply Mr Bradshaw, who has refused to watch the video, said the department "found no dead sheep on Burnside Farm either on 24 February or on any other date in 2001" Read in full
The article also quotes Andrew George: "It is a poor quality video, but I saw a sheep carcass there. Maybe the carcass was alive and walked off....
... it seems that all relevant papers went to Dr Anderson except for the most juicy, most relevant ones....
....It is all very well blaming Bobby Waugh, but the fact is that his farm was allowed to get into that state and still given a licence."

November 4 - November 11 ~ Mr Bradshaw: "Defra recently obtained copies of the video ...."

Hansard
Burnside Farm Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs when her Department was first informed of the existence of a video of Burnside Farm taken by Northumberland Trading Standards officers on 23 February 2001; and when her Department first obtained a copy of the video. [194308]
Mr. Bradshaw [holding answer 28 October 2004]: A Defra official was present at Burnside Farm on 24 February 2001 when the video of the conditions on the farm was being made by Northumberland Trading Standards Department. Defra officials saw some of the video when it was shown at Robert Waugh's trial in May 2002. Defra recently obtained copies of the video when it was referred to in correspondence received by Defra officials on 30 September 2004.

November 4 - November 11 ~ The case officer who had been pursuing the Swill feeders' case for the Ombudsman has been "promoted" away

We hear from Robert Persey: "The Parliamentary Ombudsman has promoted the case officer who was making good progress on the swill feeding case.
Surprise, surprise, he has not been replaced and so the investigation has conveniently stopped.
Is somebody pulling strings with the Ombudsman?"
It certainly looks like it. The case has been beset by diversionary tactics for months.

November 4 - November 11 ~“We’re getting somewhere now. We have a voice and the government will surely have to listen now that the Parliamentary Ombudsman is investigating our case."

See Royal Agricultural Society of England's website ".... Lynda Davies, who lives near Manchester, is the driving force behind a campaign in support of swill feeders who were severely hit by the crisis. The British Pig and Poultry Fair’s ‘British Pig Personality of the Year’ judges announced their decision to create a special award for ‘a unique contribution by a unique person’. ........Ian Bell, Director of rural charity the ARC-Addington Fund, said that Lynda had fought against the social problems caused by the crisis, which were often neglected in favour of economic considerations.
Lynda began a fight for justice after the finger of blame was pointed at swill feeders in the aftermath of FMD, and her own husband’s business was badly hit. In the three years since the government banned swill feeding no compensation has been made to the people who earned their living from it."

November 4 - November 11 ~ The smell from the Burnside bins made the postman gag...

every time he passed Burnside. We understand that Trading Standards officers spent many man hours compiling reports on their investigations into Burnside Farm at Heddon on the Wall.
Our information is that local council dustmen were interviewed about conditions outside the farm. A postman had made a statement saying that the smell from the bins in the yard was overpowering and that he actually 'gagged' every time he passed Burnside. A school cook made a statement about the waste given to Waugh. Locals had been interviewed, as well as a man who worked for BT. All agreed that the place was disgusting. One wonders whether these reports were given to the Lessons Learned Inquiry or quietly shelved.

November 4 - November 11 ~ "A spokesman for DEFRA last night said if there was any evidence to support the allegations it would start a new investigation"

Valerie Elliott in the Times on Monday "...video evidence obtained by Farmers Weekly from Northumberland Trading Standards shows that the virus could have been taken on to the pig farm, which was ran by Bobby Waugh, in the carcasses of sheep ...
...A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said last night that if there were any evidence to support the allegations it would start a new investigation."Read in full
Ms Elliott's article notwithstanding, it is the allegations concerning the scandal of the state of the farm and its being condoned by those who had the power to step in - which ought to "start a new investigation"

November 4 - November 11 ~ " There were complaints about fires burning on the site and swill being tipped at the side of the road..."

"..The place was very untidy. But at the end of the day, I pay my taxes for people like Defra and Trading Standards to inspect premises like this and see that they are kept up to standard. Their attitude to this place was very lackadaisical. If it had been policed properly this would never have occurred in the first place." Extract from the article from icNewcastle May 31 2002.
As an emailer wrote at the weekend, "Waugh was undoubtedly an insensitive farmer and his pigs were treated abominably, but pigs are still treated inhumanely, pig disease is still rife, still hidden and covered up for the sake of trade just as it was in East Anglia in the months before FMD struck. No lessons have been learned. The suggestion that there was at Burnside material that was either not noticed or deliberately not investigated is important. However sorry one feels for the overworked officials concerned, a new inquiry at which answers are demanded would now seem imperative. The questions are not going to go away."

November 4 - November 11 ~ Evidence against Waughs being the index case

Extracts
1. FMD virus was never recovered from the pig swill and there was a lot of it about - in untreated form
2. A single airborne spread event (HoW to Prestwick Hall) would seem illogical
   
3. Presence of sheep carcase(s) from Ponteland on Waugh's bonfire means that MAFF investigations as to alternative origins should have been rigorous - they do not appear to have been (video).
   
4. Ageing of lesions is inaccurate - especially ageing of old lesions (e.g. 10 days or more).
5. All 11 blue faced Leicesters treated for 'foot scald' (sic) at Prestwick Hall farm on Feb 10 and 20 were antibody positive and 3 had 'old FMD lesions' - so FMD was indeed present at this farm from late January or early February.
   
6. Anderson did not try and establish the origins of the epidemic, just as he did not test the scientific validity of the contiguous culling policy

November 4 - November 11 ~ Video raises FMD theory doubts

Source: FWi 05 November 2004 Jonathan Riley
"..........the emergence of the Northumberland Trading Standards video, taken on Bobby Waugh’s Burnside Farm in Feb 2001 (News, Oct 29), FW has unearthed evidence of a possible alternative mode of transmission.
The video shows a dog tearing at a dead sheep on Burnside's rubbish heap and has begged the question from all of those who have seen the video, "How did the sheep get there?". Speaking to Mr Waugh, FW has learned that the animal shown in the video was one of eight dead sheep, brought on to the farm on Jan 24, 2001 – four weeks before the disease was confirmed at the farm. Mr Waugh said that the sheep were brought to his farm by a man, whose name is withheld, from land near to Prestwick Hall Farm. "We put the sheep in a shed out of the way for a while because Jim Dring [the government vet] was due to carry out his inspection for my Article 26 licence that afternoon," he said. The sheep were dragged out of the shed and burned over the next few days. Bristol University professor, Sheila Crispin, said: "The presence of the sheep at Burnside Farm and the emerging details of the movements from a site near Prestwick Hall, create considerable uncertainty over the agreed transmission theory." Read in full
See also FWi page "Did the disease start in sheep?""...documented evidence – a paper published by the Veterinary Record in April 2003 – also supposed that the foot lesions seen at Prestwick Hall Farm could have been F&M lesions. (see also email received) .." See also Welsh Assembly's rural affairs committee ask to see a copy of the Burnside Farm video

November 4 - November 11 ~ Sheep tests showed disease nearly three weeks before FMD officially recognised

Sheep which had been transported to France nearly three weeks before FMD was officially identified, with health certificates signed by Welsh Assembly vets, were shown to have been infected. Once again, the names of Hugues Inizan and Marc Nozin must be remembered.
In January 2001 sheep exported from Brecon and Ross-on- Wye to France showed signs of FMD. 31 sheep were tested. 21 of those sheep proved negative, but 10 proved positive, with 7 testing highly positive. Joyce Quin, in answer to Stephen O'Brien, said in the House of Commons on May 8 2001
"The French authorities have now informed us that the seven samples that initially showed positive results have been re-tested with negative results. They have concluded that the initial serological positive reactions must be considered as false positives..."
Mr O'brien tabled several other PQs about this by MPs, as did Mr James Paice. As far as we can ascertain, answers were unsatisfactory.
( Our own researches in France met first with interest and then with stony, even frightened, silence.)

November 4 - November 11 ~ Parliamentary Questions being asked today

by Andrew George and Owen Paterson concerning the scientific test samples sent to Pirbright and results of those test samples. Read here
(We await with interest the answer to Mr Paterson's question: ".... what tests were made on the dead sheep shown in the Burnside Farm video taken by trading standards officials on 24th February 2001 to determine their cause of death; and what the results were of those tests." The dead sheep at Burnside, seen on the video but not mentioned in Mr Dring's statement (pdf), are of particular interest in view of Dr Renton's view and in view of the information we were given that the sheep originated from Ponteland where they had been "ill")

November 4 - November 11 ~ "I have absolutely no doubt that there was a cover-up" Owen Paterson

."Michael Howard has pledged to review the case for a full public inquiry into the foot and mouth disaster in the light of new evidence of a Government cover-up " is the front page news of the Western Morning News (Thursday)
" . .. The Tory leader ..... stressed that he would prefer to see those responsible held to account while they were still in office. ..
Shadow Agriculture Minister Owen Paterson: "I have absolutely no doubt that there was a cover-up. Many people in the countryside are still absolutely boiling about this - it will not go away."
Mr Paterson has also tabled questions about the fate of scientific test results taken on livestock at Waugh's farm at the time of the outbreak. ...... the test results do not appear to have been sent to the Anderson Inquiry.
..... Ben Bradshaw : "This is just a politically orchestrated campaign to try and put the blame for foot and mouth on the Government rather than on the farmer who was responsible through his criminal activity," he said..." Read in full
It really won't wash to call this search for the truth a "politically orchestrated campaign". I have updated this website - unfunded and without political interest - every day for over three years because the politicians not only refuse to face the responsibility for a terrible set of mistakes but - to cover these mistakes - seem determined to reject even now the humane, common sense measures that should have been taken. The parallels with Iraq are unmissable.

October 29 - November 4 ~ Missing Test results. It gets murkier

DEFRA maintains a loud silence over the video of Burnside. The original test results (reference) at Heddon on the Wall were deliberately removed from Dring's "memo" and never sent to the Lessons Learned inquiry. Nor was the video, eventually seen by MPs and other influential figures on October 21st 2004.
Those test results now seem crucial. Do the test results give a clear idea of when infection came to Burnside? What exactly are the discrepancies between what was said about the results and the results themselves? Were antibody positives included?
There are far too many unanswered questions in this whole matter. The tests could well show that Heddon on the Wall could not possibly have been the index case. (See also Dr Renton's words below) We hope in the near future to be able to shed more light on what level and age of infection was actually found at Mr Waugh's premises.

October 29 - November 4 ~ "... there seems very little movement by the Government to source this disease"

said the Ministry vet Dr Stuart Renton from Newcastle in April 2001 "... the infection was in sheep long before it surfaced at Heddon-on-the-Wall. And I hope you guys in the press get to the bottom of this...."
That the Government now considers the FMD outbreak to be "old news" will really not do. Too much was lost, too many lives were blighted for the truth not to matter. The heartless, arrogant government policy - one that has been defended ever since by its perpetrators - caused vital trust to be lost that shows no sign of being regained.
The video shown to MPs and others on Thursday 21 October 2004, shows dead sheep on the Burnside tip. A neighbouring farmer has apparently said that there were four dead sheep burnt on about January 20 2001and that these four sheep originated from Pontelands where the neighbouring farmer was treating his sheep for 'barley poisoning' - or was it FMD? Did the virus travel from Ponteland to Burnside rather than the other way around.?
In April 2001 Dr Renton said that he and his colleagues had come across old foot-and-mouth sores indicating the disease was present in sheep before February.
On April 28 2001 Maff 's spokeswoman claimed MAFF had never said the outbreak "definitely started" at Mr. Waugh's pig farm. "We only said it was the likely source and were not pointing fingers." Northern Echo Yet Mr Bradshaw now implies that Mr Waugh was to blame for the outbreak itself, as does the DEFRA "Origins" paper: "...the index case for the whole epidemic, is considered to have been a pig finishing unit at Burnside Farm, Heddon on the Wall." (See also warmwell chronology page)

October 29 - November 4 ~"It appears that no proper investigation into the events has ever been carried out and this video seems to confirm it"

Under the headline "HORROR FARM VIDEO CLAIMS" The Western Morning News reports that "... the video could bolster claims that failings in the regulatory system were partly responsible for the disastrous foot and mouth outbreak: "We believe certificates for this farm to continue feeding should never have been issued. It appears that no proper investigation into the events has ever been carried out and this video seems to confirm it."
...... In a report that was withheld from the official "lessons learned" inquiry by the Government, Mr Dring said the foot and mouth crisis "would never have come about" if his inspection of Waugh's farm in the weeks leading up to the outbreak had been "more rigorous".
........several farming experts who have seen the video (which was shot on February 23, 2001) believe the conditions shown are so appalling that Waugh's farm cannot possibly have been in a decent state at the time of the inspection. Any evidence that suggested Government negligence could encourage compensation claims from the thousands of businesses affected by the foot and mouth crisis. Although farmers whose animals were slaughtered were compensated, many others who faced draconian trading conditions were not. ....
... Opposition MPs have challenged the Government to reopen the inquiry.... Mr George, MP for St Ives, has written o the Rural Affairs Secretary Margaret Beckett, asking her to ensure Dr Anderson is shown the video and is allowed to comment on it. He said the video made it clear there had been a regulatory failure of some kind in relation to Waugh's farm. " read in full See also warmwell's pages on the Dring case and warmwell's view of the chronology of FMD 2001

October 29 - November 4 ~ The Daily Mirror (November 1) on Burnside video furore

Mirror "......Experts and MPs last night called for a probe into why government vet Jim Dring renewed farmer Bobby Waugh's licence despite the disgusting conditions when he visited in February 2001 - shortly before the £8billion outbreak. Lib-Dem agriculture spokesman Andrew George said: "I am shocked by the video and the conditions on the farm. The pressure for opening the file on this issue is now overwhelming." Read in full

October 29 - November 4 ~ Was the vet under pressure from the Ministry?" asked St Ives MP Andrew George

WMN
• "Were his actions being monitored?
• How did anything so patently dangerous pass official scrutiny?
  If there is one thing that farming does not need, it is further intrusive regulation, but this demanded just clear regulation and common sense. Neither, it seems, was present in 2001.
• How can the Anderson Inquiry call itself the 'lessons learned' inquiry when these fundamental questions as to the epidemic's genesis have not even been addressed?"
  No doubt the Government will prefer once more to turn its back on the problem, in the mistaken belief that lightning does not strike twice in the same place. As any rural dweller will tell them, it does. " Read in full

October 29 - November 4 ~ Defra (and the government) cannot have it both ways. It either knows or does not know the origin of FMD 2001

One of the sickening results of government bungling over FMD is that the swill feeders have taken the brunt of blame and lost their livelihoods. The government continues to imply that Bobby Waugh's swill feeding practices introduced the virus - never referring to the details of the trial nor to the licence granted to the farmer by MAFF itself and - even under pressure, weasling out of its failure to give the full facts to the Anderson Inquiry (see below).
Mr Bradshaw's answer to Mr Paice last week was; "The Conservatives continue with their historic attempt to deflect blame for the foot and mouth outbreak away from where it belongs—with the farmer who was responsible for illegal and irresponsible practices."
But, as we show below, there is a great deal of mystery surrounding the Heddon court case. The origin of the outbreak, DEFRA's report notwithstanding, has never come to light.
Mr Morley recently pointed out that the 2001 FMD crisis was "probably" caused by infected, illegally imported meat.
If the government believes it was infected meat, why do they sit on their hands over the question of illegal imports - so dangerous to human health? And why use the word "probably"? See Dirty Meat pages

October 29 - November 4 ~ A tale of two videos

See FWi article states that the distressing video was filmed on "Feb 24 2001 – four days into the crisis and just four weeks after the farm’s swill feeding licence was renewed by government agents." The FWi articlequotes Chris Price, a legal expert with the CLA who says,
"The video provides crucial evidence that the government through its agent – the vet Jim Dring – was negligent."
The footage appalled all who saw it. Conditions at Burnside were certainly very nasty on February 24 2001- but we have been told that MAFF had taken sawdust normally used for bedding to make a disinfectant mat across the road. The pigs had been forcibly "bled" for analysis by means of wire nooses, had been dragged through the pens and were covered in pig-muck. They were desperately hungry and miserable - and responsibility for this would appear to be as much that of the officials as the vilified farmer.

October 29 - November 4 ~ Policy appears to be to trust that it will not happen again, and, if it does, to kill again, with the same callous indiscrimination.

"Now a video of Bobby Waugh's Burnside Farm has been released. Shot by Northumberland Trading Standards Department four days after the outbreak of foot and mouth, it is a record of unremitting squalor, bad husbandry and conditions in which any infection would thrive. Yet this was the farm to which Government vet Jim Dring granted a licence, this the farm in which the epidemic germinated...." The Western Morning News article on the video

October 29 - November 4 ~ April 29 2004 "I would be willing to give way now to the Minister if he wanted to rise to guarantee to the House that no other information has been withheld

and that Dr. Anderson received each and every piece of relevant information relating to the outbreak. I should be happy to give way if the Minister wished to do that, but I am afraid that the fact that he is not—[Interruption.] Oh, he is.
Mr. Bradshaw: I have asked that question of officials and have been assured that that is the case.
Mrs. May: Well, we have had a lot of Ministers standing up to talk about what officials have or have not done. It is about time Ministers took responsibility for what happens in their Departments. .." Hansard

October 22 - Oct 29 2004 ~ Mr Bradshaw's answers about the video raise more questions.

He said,
"My understanding is that the video contains nothing new. All of the details contained in the video, I am told, were given to the Anderson Inquiry. .... the video was part of the trial of Bobby Waugh."
Could "all of the details contained in the video" have been given to the Anderson Inquiry when some of those details were, as far as we understand it, discredited at the trial?

DEFRA's "Origin of the UK Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic in 2001" says " ... Bins of unprocessed waste food were present on Burnside Farm at the time of the MAFF VO visit on 23 February, some of which was in bins supposedly reserved exclusively for processed waste." The cross examination on day 5 of the trial - in notes that we can only assume are accurate - would appear to cast doubt on this assertion.

October 22 - Oct 29 2004 ~ Mr Waugh was asked how he believed the disease got into his herd

(trial notes) and replied, "I don't know but its been in the sheep for a long time. I'd burned some sheep in my farm just prior to this that belonged to a friend of Mr Leadbitter." On the 13th February 2001 sheep at Ponteland, five miles from Burnside farm at Heddon on the Wall, were were found to be infected and it was assumed that Waugh's pigs were the source - but for several days at that time, the prevailing wind had been North Westerly. Dr Alex Donaldson's paper shows that it is unlikely that the relevant virus strain could have travelled in the air such a distance. The diseased sheep from Ponteland went to Hexham market where they mixed with other sheep and from there to Longtown market, where they mixed with others. Bobby Waugh may have been right; the virus may have travelled from Ponteland to Burnside farm and not the other way around. See also Chronology of FMD

warmwell.com

A site for foot and mouth comment, helpful advice for and requests for help from those threatened with 'cull', and links to many press items.

www.warmwell.com/ | Cached

Welsh Assembly watches Burnside FMD video

Assembly views FMD video. Source: FWi 19 November 2004 By Clive Betts ... officers and ministry vets who had granted Burnside Farm, Heddon-on-the...

www.warmwell.com/04nov20welshvid.html

about warmwell

November 20 - 26 2004 ~ All party Welsh AMs watch Burnside video...

www.warmwell.com/aboutnov04.html

PQs for written answer Nov 4 2004

Food and Rural Affairs, what tests were made on the dead sheep shown in the Burnside Farm video taken by trading standards officials on 24th...

www.warmwell.com/04nov4ageorgepq.html

Conservative Party

...minister Ben Bradshaw to apologise for misleading statements over the Burnside Farm video and to say when ministers first knew of the video.

www.warmwell.com/04nov18paice.html

http://www.publications.parliament....

Food and Rural Affairs what tests were made on the dead sheep shown in the Burnside Farm video taken by trading standards officials on 24...

www.warmwell.com/04nov17fmdpqs.html

about warmwell

2004 ~ Jim Paice challenges Beckett over Foot and Mouth video. Following the private viewing last week of the video of Burnside Farm taken by...

www.warmwell.com/aboutarchivetooct04.html

http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/displa...

...epidemic could have started elsewhere in the sheep population and been brought to Burnside Farm. The emergence of the video prompted the Shadow...

www.warmwell.com/04nov17video.html

This and some previous reports from Bobby's Trial, can be found on

The video-evidence taken at Burnside Farm on the 24th February could indicate the pigs were suffering from mild hypothermia because of the...

www.warmwell.com/may27trial.html

October 21 2004

...video from Northumberland trading standards, filmed four days after the foot and mouth outbreak began in 2001, of Bobby Waugh's Burnside farm.

www.warmwell.com/04oct21hansard.html

Trial of Bobby Waugh May 2001

...video evidence submitted by Castle Morpeth Trading Standards showed 24 barrels of unprocessed waste food. The video was taken at Burnside on...

www.warmwell.com/waughtrial.html

Andrew George calls for LLI to be reopened

His call came after he was shown a video of Bobby Waugh's Burnside Farm, taken by Northumberland Trading Standards Department.

www.warmwell.com/04oct24george.html

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/dis...

Now a video of Bobby Waugh's Burnside Farm has been released.

www.warmwell.com/04oct29cornwall.html

Waugh Trial

Having seen the video evidence the previous day and the extremely untidy state of Burnside Farm, Mr Dring was continually requested by JSS...

www.warmwell.com/may11waugh.html

warmwell.com on the Dring case

The video gave a false or worse, impression of what conditions were like on Burnside Farm at the time of the alleged offence...." (See more)

www.warmwell.com/dring2.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnew...

On the newly-uncovered video - obtained by Farmers Weekly magazine - two trading standards officers are seen inspecting Waugh's Burnside pig...

www.warmwell.com/04nov1mirror.html

Bruce Jobson reports on the Heddon on the Wall verdict

The video gave a false or worse, impression of what conditions were like on Burnside Farm at the time of the alleged offence.

www.warmwell.com/may31jobson.html

Video sparks calls for an inquiry

Video sparks calls for an inquiry ... 29 October 2004 By Jonathan Riley ... The footage was shot at Bobby Waugh's Burnside Farm, Heddon-on-the-Wall...

www.warmwell.com/04oct29videofwi.html

http://www.defra.gov.uk/footandmout...

Burnside Farm, the name used for it by the Waughs. Foot and Mouth ... was found on his premises in such a condition, video evidence would be ... 7...

www.warmwell.com/dringstatemt.html

National Press at warmwell.com

...especially fork-lift trucks and fore-arm handlers, said Mr Strong, who supplied the inquiry with photographic evidence and video footage.

www.warmwell.com/newarchivemay24.html

Day 9 Many thanks for all the comments regarding the proceedings

He said that he usually arrived at Burnside Farm at 9am and always ... (On Saturday 24th February Trading Standards officers took video-evidence of...

www.warmwell.com/maywaugh.html

http://icnewcastle.icnetwork.co.uk/...

...sickened trading standards officers at Bobby Waugh's Burnside Farm in ... Some produced video recordings that were screened during the trial,

www.warmwell.com/04nov8chroniclewaugh.html