Tail end of F&M?

[msbrown at cwcom.net]

Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 
From: LAF at anarchic.co.uk
To: the land is ours < office at tlio.demon.co.uk >

Not sure if the following is in your interest range, but thought you might like
to read an article posted by a comrade of mine on the F & M crisis recently.


The Foot and Mouth epidemic continues to spread across the UK, despite the Governments
attempt to cover up the crisis and convince the public that we are at the ?tail
end? of the outbreak.
A cull of 4000 sheep was completed today in the Brecon Beacons of Wales, a ?precautionary?
slaughter after some sheep in the flock were found to have the antibody to the
Foot and Mouth virus. The cull was called by the State body MAFF but suspended
on Friday following arguments about the monetary value of the sheep. More culls
of herds are likely soon. The outbreak is particularly feared in Wales as the
sheep are unfenced, roaming freely and in open contact with other flocks. Ironically
the culls will eliminate a whole line of sheep bred to recognise their own territory,
the factor which allows this free ranging policy. 

The great tragedy of this mass murder (the animal equivalent of the Holocaust
according to some) is that it is totally unnecessary: F & M is a harmless virus
to humans and only causes flu like illness in most animals. It’s main danger
is the temporary reduction in weight and yields of farm animals,  an alleged
economic loss to British agriculture, and threat to trade with other countries
taking a similar line.

In reality Government subsidies could easily cover any financial losses to farmers
and the cost of an intelligent vaccination program to limit the spread of the
flu like illness. But ideology prevents this subsidisation policy from the British
Government. Many other countries have an even more intelligent response to F
& M, instead of opting for the neurotic control and sterilisation approach,
they allow nature to run its course, weak animals dying and healthy ones recovering,
thus ending the outbreak and strengthening the herds (where as the chaotic cull
policy accelerates the outbreak, with piles of dead animals fed on by carrion
who proliferate the virus, or adds to the problem with toxic bonfires and burial
pits.)  With the intelligent approach agricultural revenues to the State may
be reduced (boo hoo), but are easily made up elsewhere. Argentina runs a successful
cornbeef industry on this policy, and has fed the world (including the UK) on
F& M infected meat for generations.
Of course the real problem is the source of the current outbreak in the UK,
factory farming and commercial animal trading. Animals are bread as commodities
to be sold and resold as they are hauled on mass around the country, and beyond,
while in between  being penned up in atrocious corrals more akin to concentration
camps than farms. It?s no wonder that F & M is rife under these conditions.

The culls could be used as a campaign to stop factory farming once and for all.
But perhaps the biggest irony is the lack of response from anarchist and animal
rights groups, whose failure to prevent the culls is not only a wasted opportunity
but the biggest betrayal to our fellow animals in recorded history. While they
organise mass campaigns to protect the few animals killed in hunting and experimentation
they allow many more to be slaughtered and factory farming to go on unchecked.
Whether this is influenced by a blinkered vegetarian stance (the ?they?d all
be killed anyway? fallacy) which falsely ?frees them from responsibility?, or
by simple ignorance remains a mystery. But this is a problem that needs to be
addressed. The killing must end and humane farming must begin.