Foot and mouth

[Nemesis]

Again. Dreadful.

Let's hope it's an isolated incident and can be quickly contained. The horrors of the last one were all around us - we were in a Blue Box area, faced daily with slaughter , piles of dead animals, and the stench of funeral pyres. The slaughter was horrific and carried out inhumanely in so many cases, and once slaughtered many farming families had to live beside the rotting carcases until they could be removed from the yard adjacent to the house. Families were isolated on the farms for months; the local school had to try to teach by long distance packs delivered to farm gates, GCSE and A level students had their studies severely disrupted.

Millions of healthy animals went for landfill.

Yes there's a period property link - most farms have a number of historic buildings, and the last outbreak caused many farmers in the north to retire. A number of rural areas will never be the same.

Many farmers simply gave up, and traditional farms and outbuildings are now converted to bijou residences which many locals can't afford. Villages changed forever.

The pressure washing disinfecting regime caused a great deal of damage to traditional outbuildings too.

 

[Penners]

I remember a visit to the Lake District during the last foot-and-mouth epidemic. Walking places were severely limited and the hillsides were completely devoid of livestock - it was horrible.

I'm holding my breath that this outbreak will have been successfully contained.

 

[worms]

I had a night flight north from London to Inverness during the last outbreak and at night the view of the burning pyres from 30,000 feet was shocking, reminiscent of old footage of the blitz.

Even if the FMD is a single incident and contained to the one farm, the three month export ban will inflict real hardship at a time when we have just got the BSE beef export ban lifted.

 

[biffvernon]

Why do we export beef? And import beef?

 

[Nemesis]

Veal calves - why do we do it?

 

[Penners]

That's the problem with a market economy. You get the benefits but you also get the ridiculous anomalies. This happens particularly in agriculture because governments can't keep their fiddling fingers off it. Subsidies here, regulations there - it all creates a morass of regulation. And there will always be those who spot a loopholes where money can be made.

 

[Flyfisher]

I've always assumed veal was largely a by-product of the milk industry.

Milk is a completely unnatural food for anyone (indeed, any mammal) beyond the weaning stage, but the market demand exists and the main by-product of milk production is lots of calves.

The UK consumer seems to generally dislike veal but it's very popular elsewhere, hence the exporting of the excess calves that are not kept for beef production.

 

[Penners]

The UK consumer seems to generally dislike veal

I suspect this is mainly because of the bad reputation of the - largely continental - white veal industry, involving penning calves in the dark.

 

[Lady_Mari]

True & IMO immature meat is pretty tasteless.

 

[biffvernon]

In the days when I kept a Jersey housecow, we would eat the male calves at about 3 months old. They would be weaned and had begun to eat grass. Very tasty.

 

[Nemesis]

In this country, 'humane' producers produce rose veal.

There is resistance to veal here because of the connection in many minds with veal crates and keeping the calves in the dark.

Shipping live animals abroad for rearing and slaughter is questionable I agree Biff.

 

[Lady_Mari]

I feel very strongly that animals for slaughter should not be shipped live but only to their nearest slaughter house.
In the days when I was involved with meat production my animals went to Belgium as frozen packages.

 

[CHRIS]

I have seen some truly awful sights in my time but when I saw that helicopter shot of the cattle being put into that pen I had to turn it off, dont know why as I have no problem with eating meat etc but maybe it was memories of last time near my Mothers house in the Peak district and the sight of the farmers watching their stocks being slaughtered.

 

[Penners]

We humans are an odd bunch, aren't we? We're horrified at the idea of piles of dead cattle being incinerated, but we're perfectly happy to admire a beef joint in the butcher's shop, then take it home and roast it.

Cue a clamour of dissociations from vegetarians.

 

[Nemesis]

I am a vegetarian. One of the saddest sights I saw last time was a huge field laid out very neatly - dead ewes and their tiny lambs, waiting for the army removal.

Many people lost pets too.

The horror stories of the last cull are many.

On Bank Holiday Monday at a village green not far from me, people were in their gardens enjoying the sunshine.

A calf, terrified at seeing the other animals slaughtered (animals are not supposed tos ee other being slaughtered...) escaped and ran onto the green from the field onto which it lead.

Its mother followed to try to protect it.

A 'marksman' ie local yoof witn gun hired to help with the mass slaughter - shot both. Not very accurately, and children witnessed this. Much shock and many nightmares.

 

[CHRIS]

Friends from the Army said this was the worst thing they ever had to do. Strange eh! They still say it even after tours in Iraq and AG.

Maybe because it is so close to home and it is things they grew up with not a dusty hole 2000 miles away.