Remember how Great Britain killed off almost all their livestock because a few thousand had tested positive for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). Well, apparently those millions of deaths of cattle and the deaths of farmers and the destruction of the traditional rural UK agriculture was all in vain. They have FMD again.
LONDON, England (CNN) — Foot and mouth disease has been found in cattle on a farm near Guildford in Surrey, England, British government officials said Friday, prompting Prime Minister Gordon Brown to call a meeting of the United Kingdom’s crisis panel.
-CNN
The question is: Will British authorities repeat their fiasco or have they learned not to over react? What’s your bet?
Of course, there is considerable question as to the real reason for the original British destruction of all those livestock. After all, FMD is not only curable, can be vaccinated against but it also doesn’t kill or even seriously hurt most infected animals. The logic of killing millions because of the presence of disease in a few thousand is very suspect. So if the British government has ulterior motives and is just using FMD as an convent excuse for killing off farm families we’ll probably see another pyre.
Hat tip to Steve.
Vaccinate, vaccinate VACCINATE! An ounce of prevention is worth MORE than mountains of burning livestock. When will they learn? There is a way to prevent this!
http://tinyurl.com/2jptvs
Scroll toward the bottom the vaccine has been around for years.
Prevention is the best medicine against any disease.
Comment goatster — August 4, 2007 @ 6:10 am
I think they pretty much have to do another kill off. If they don’t, it would be tantamount to admitting they were idiots the first time. Besides they really do need to get rid of those pesky farmers so the government controls all the food. England is far ahead of the US in the development of a police state. The average Londoner is photographed 300 times a day on spy cameras and their banking system is locked down tighter even than all the new regulations on ours. Their new ID cards that will track their movement through public transportation, automatic tellers and many other things is under construction.
Idi Amin said it best, “He who controls the food, controls the people,” not that our British cousins have any weapons left to resist with anyway.
Comment Patricia Hampton — August 4, 2007 @ 8:07 am
The following is on the tribute page to Mark Purdey in regard to the previous foot & mouth action resulting in the needless slaughter of 7,000,000 animals:
From South Devon: Diane & John Irwin
‘We were extremely saddened, to have learned of the parting from this World of Mark Purdy, and send our heartfelt condolences to Mark’s family and friends.
I was exceptionally lucky to have met, and also to have been greatly inspired, by such a very special person as Mark Purdy at his Kingsbridge lecture.
Mark told me this year after his operation, that I must continue with my ongoing fight, and so I will never give up, feeling as strongly as I do that other Communities must also be informed;
Kingsteignton, (Teignbridge) in South Devon was and is still subjected to the ongoing, severe pollution hazards coming from the decomposition of the mass burials of thousands of tonnes of carcases, into the household waste, at the severely problematic 7acre Viridor landfill/landrise site’s burial chamber etc, (not forgetting it’s leachate lagoons) and left uncapped until 2003, and all of this due to 2001’s Foot-and-Mouth. Since then Kingsteignton have been under attack from horrendous pollution caused at that time, first causing sterility, then abortions, central nervous system damage, sudden deaths, deformities, now the community has high asthma, (TB) cancers, Alzimers, birth defects and (800) Parkinson figures and these are the highest for the UK…..
I have campaigned incessantly, always remembering Mark’s words; ‘I must never give up because I am correct,’ my efforts have lead me to work alongside a panel of experts who also agree with Mark, that the fore mentioned problems occurred because of manganese, OP’s, formaldehyde, pesticides and funeral pyre ash etc, and this has only occurred since 2001’s FMD Virus outbreak, and those problems, are now well known to be associated with that pollution. This now is proving to be the causal link in several different areas of the country; Kingsteignton, Highhampton, Oakhampton & now Chudleigh, Highweek, Kidderminster & Worcester………………………
Mark will always be remembered: Diane & John Irwin’
Comment donna — August 4, 2007 @ 11:12 am
MSNBC is reporting it is a strain from a nearby lab. surprise!
Comment Sue F — August 4, 2007 @ 6:04 pm
sorry walter, my computer is giving me fits. Here’s the lab article
MSNBC is reporting it is a strain from a nearby lab. surprise!
Comment Sue F — August 4, 2007 @ 6:05 pm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20118069/
Comment Sue F — August 4, 2007 @ 6:07 pm
BBC News “Have Your Say”
A slaughterman’s storyt
Gordon Nixon saw enormous suffering caused by foot-and-mouth when he was a slaughterman in the north-east of England during the 2001 epidemic.
He told the BBC News website how all the horrors he saw have come flooding back with the news of the Surrey outbreak.
I have seen first-hand the heartbreak and devastation caused by foot-and-mouth disease. I now receive treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder as well as taking anti-depressants.
I was just beginning to make progress, I have been seeing a counsellor for the past few months.
Seeing all these pictures again, I can hardly bear it. I feel like I’m back at square one.
I was the only slaughterman to be employed by Defra for the whole year and I was the only slaughterman to be based at a burial site.
I was good at my job and I was compassionate. This meant I quickly earned myself a reputation as one of the good guys. As a result, I was sent to more farms than any of my colleagues.
I culled 53 farms and put 48,000 carcasses into Tow Law burial site.
I’ve been physically attacked by a female farmer, I’ve witnessed grown men break down, I’ve broken down myself.
On one occasion, I had just finished a cull. I went into the barn and then I heard something rustling. I looked up and saw a terrified calf in front of me.
The farmer begged me not to kill him, but I had to. I reported it to the vet and then I had to shoot him.
That calf haunts me every night.
Another time, I could tell a farmer was about to lose control, he was standing in front of me actually stroking a bumblebee.
I went over to him and suggested he go and get a cup of tea.
“Cup of tea?”, he said to me. “I haven’t eaten for three days”.
Later that day, he put a shotgun to his head. I had to call the police to have him restrained.
‘Not just tough guys’
Seeing the pictures on television has brought it all flooding back. I haven’t been able to watch today. I can’t even try to explain the suffering this is going to cause.
There would be eight or nine trailors piled high with sheep and cattle. It was my job to physically check them for signs of life.
Once I found a sheep that I knew was part of my cull from the night before. He had come back to life and been at the bottom of a pile of 300 carcasses.
People think slaughtermen are big tough guys, we’re not. I’m 6ft 2in and 17 stone but I’m still human and I care.
The thing that hurts me most is that farmers were just beginning to rebuild their lives.
The people who say foot-and-mouth disease doesn’t affect humans have no idea what they are talking about.
It’s ruined my life. I don’t live anymore, I exist.
Comment Henwhisperer — August 5, 2007 @ 4:57 am
Can we send “A Slaughterman’s Story” to every politician? I’m still sitting here sobbing like a freakin’ baby with that.
I’m sending it to my reps, and asking them if they’re human! This was NOT a culling. it WAS a slaughter! And it sounds like it may start again.
Comment Kim P. — August 5, 2007 @ 7:49 am
I Googled “cure for foot and mouth”. As we would expect, any government and other “expert” websites, said that there was no cure. Leave it to the folks with their feet on the ground to discover their own cures. (I will probably get some of these links wrong. If I do, I will correct them.)
“A Simple Cure for Foot and Mouth Disease”
link
“Pneumonia Cure Keeps Livestock Foot-and-Mouth Free Says Farmer”
link
“Old Cowmen’s Cure Saved Duke’s Pedigree Herd”
link
“Foot and Mouth Disease”
link
“Homeopathic ‘Cure’ for Foot-and-Mouth”
link
[Not only that but most animals will normally recover and be fine. See this post with citations from the Merck Manual of veterinarian care. -WJ]
Comment Texas Goat Gal — August 5, 2007 @ 9:57 am
Only one out of five wrong. Yeah!
link
This is a BBC article, April 4, 2001, on the borax cure (”Homeopathic ‘Cure’ for Food-and-Mouth”
Comment Texas Goat Gal — August 5, 2007 @ 10:21 am