VICTORY FOR CULL PICKETS
People power foils the Ministry slaughtermen
Western Daily Press, April 23, 2001 http://www.westpress.co.uk/
By Lucy Rodgers and Matt Childe
A countryside revolt was gaining momentum last night as small farmers put up barricades to
keep out the foot-and-mouth slaughtermen.
The rebellion is centred on Gloucestershire where campaigners are working together to
fight what they say is an unnecessary mass cull of healthy livestock.
Many of the protestors in Gloucestershire own sheep and
cattle declared free of foot-and-mouth disease and others are guardians of some of Britains
rare breeds.
Most support vaccination ahead of slaughter in
direct opposition to the National Farmers Union in the county, which yesterday gave
their support for a continued cull.
Smallholder Pat Innocent won a reprieve for her 11 sheep
and eight newborn lambs after about 30 supporters barricaded the gates to her land at
Homestead Farm, Lydbrook, Forest of Dean, on Saturday to prevent MAFF slaughtermen killing
her animals.
Hers was one of 35 farms in the area where animals were
earmarked for slaughter. But Ms Innocent wanted to know if her animals were infected
before she allowed them to be culled.
She said: I have been in complete isolation for five
weeks and the only visitors I have had in that time were two MAFF vets who came last
Wednesday and said my flock was in good shape.
If they have the disease, they will have to go but if
they dont I shall go on fighting.
Members of the Christian community of Oaklands Park, at
Newnham-on-Severn, continued to block the road leading to their organic farm yesterday.
The 116 residents vowed that they would not let slaughtermen near their 100 sheep, 60 cows
and two pet goats.
They are backed by growing numbers of other small farmers who are in open revolt against
Government policy.
MAFF officials said they were not prepared to confront protestors or attempt to breach
barricades.
An official said: In light of local resistance in and around the Forest of Dean this
weekend, MAFF is considering a number of options with a view to resolving the situation.
There have been no new cases of foot-and-mouth in the West
since last Tuesday.
But a further 1,600 apparently healthy sheep on 35 Forest
of Dean farms were being culled over the weekend.
Ministry veterinary surgeons say they want to check if the flocks are harbouring the
disease to decide whether a wider cull is needed.
Farmers protests raise the spectre of stand-offs
between the Army and landholders.
Gail Bennett and her husband Tim also forced a climbdown on
a cull of their healthy cattle after barricading their farm at Rodley, near Gloucester.
Mrs Bennett claimed the local NFU did not represent the
interests of smaller farmers.
They only represent big business farms which export stock I cannot understand
their attitude at all.
I have been for vaccination from the start and cannot see why we have to slaughter
so many animals with a disease which is not even life-threatening.
Other protestors met in Whitchurch, near Symonds Yat, and in Maisemore, near Gloucester,
this weekend to collect signatures for a petition against the mass slaughter.
In the Forest of Dean, friends Siobhan Spivack and Carole
Youngs have set up the Forest of Dean Foot-And-Mouth Action Group.
They have launched a ring-a-round system, calling on sympathisers to mobilise
protests at threatened farms.
Both have no connection with farming but were so enraged by
the Governments slaughter policy that they felt they had to take action.
Meanwhile, the chairman and deputy chairman of the NFU in Gloucestershire, Peter
Davidson-Smith and Henry Boughton, yesterday issued a statement to Joanna Lumley and
all our new farming friends out there.
After a lengthy defence of the cull policy, it concluded: Farmers realise that it is
very difficult for others to look at the economic implications of the disease, and not
solely the awful loss of life.
However, underlying the beauty of our countryside and
its future management is the hard fact that our livestock industry must have a future.
That must me a future without foot-and-mouth disease.