FMD Anecdotes

"It took 25 shots to kill five cattle, and Bill Norman is wondering why more people are not upset about it. Twenty-five shots, each counted by the villagers in Knowstone against a chorus of agonised bellowing as wounded animals tried to escape from the white-coated slaughter team. And that was only the start. As the bullocks stampeded across neighbouring fields they turned what was supposed to be a clinical operation to deal with Devon’s 164th foot-and-mouth outbreak into a three-day fiasco. The weapons they used were shotguns, firing cartridges fitted with a single, round shot. But with no rifling in the barrel or on the projectile, the speed of the shot and the killing range were limited. And with spooked, stampeding cattle, mistakes were inevitable. On Tuesday villagers looked down on the killing grounds to see one bullock go down twice and get up again before a third shot finished it off. Another was hit in the spine, losing the use of its back legs; it was left pitifully trying to raise itself on its front pair for five minutes until the slaughtermen returned to dispatch it."--Western Daily Press

Alan Alderson, a Yorkshire farmer, spoke this morning (June 1) on Radio Cumbria about the slaughter of his suckler herd. The cattle were spooked, put up some resistance and it seems that the the MAFF sharpshooter chased them around several acres for several hours in a 4 wheel drive. These cattle had been the result of several generations breeding.

"Then they started slaughtering the pigs, running them on to a trailer in 20-30 batches and shooting them with captive bolts. That was working well but in the middle of the afternoon they ran out of ammunition and started using 12-bore shotguns. Shooting into the trailer packed with pigs (with the vets actually standing by watching them) they actually managed to shoot the window out of the Massies' Case tractor which was attached to the trailer.

David was bringing the sheep in and told them that he wouldn't allow them to kill the sheep with 12-bores. He insisted they got more ammunition for the pistols, which they did, but it was not until 10pm that night that slaughtering finished, leaving most of the dead bodies overnight." Reference :Date Posted: 30 Apr 2001 15:59:17 by Mark Oliver

Large cull on a farm near Morpeth. All involved including police and soldiers were sickened by the open sadistic pleasure ("really sexual") exhibited by one of the 3 slaughtermen whilst killing the animals. He justified his enjoyment when challenged by explaining he was excited by the bonus he was making. Isn't this all starting to sound a bit reminiscent of the Nazis. Following
orders etc etc........................

On a sadder note, MAFF went to Dean Hall School for handicapped children yesterday (April 21) and took away their animals. The carcasses will be burnt tomorrow in view of the school. The children are being told not to come in.

Hi - I only joined this group on Sunday but I have had so many e-mails since thank u everybody. I am really distressed about what's happening here. I saw a farmer in tears becaue they had killed his animals for nothing but the worst thing was for him to find his pet dog dead in his yard. He wasn't even told about it and that was the first he knew when he found the dog.

Nothing to do with this story, but I thought it might interest you. When one of the confirmed farms in Blakeney had their sheep killed the farmer was asked if he could guarantee that his dogs would be kept in. He said he could not, so the dogs were destroyed. Also Anne Price told me that she had been warned not to let her Rottie out when MAFF came for her animals, or they would shoot him. June

During a demonstration at Forest of Dean the police arrested a woman, they wouldn't tell her why they had arrested her, and took her to Gloucester police station for 4 hours, and kept her camcorder, still not returned day later (april 25). Police would not say why they arrested her, and others say she never left the group, or did anything. Eventually told her they were arresting her for breaking an ariel off her car. TV cameras were there. Seems they don't like camcorders.

In one deer farm in Herefordshire they herded the deer into a barn and then shot them. They were climbing and banging against the walls as you can imagine.

One vet thought the cow he examined was not suffering from FMD and called for a second opinion--the London office just said cull. He persisted and eventually it was diagnosed as not FMD. If that farm had gone down it would have taken 12 contigous farms with it, and that farm would have been down as infected.

I've just watched a report on Sky News that made me feel quite sick. Apparently the recent problems with BSE, swine fever and FMD have had an enormous impact on European consumption of beef, lamb and pork. So good old Europe is now looking on horsemeat to fill the gap, huge numbers are being exported live to Europe for consumption. The report I saw included a secretly-taken video of the conditions in a Belgian slaughterhouse. The horses were being killed by a remotely-operated bolt gun - apparently it often takes 3 or 4 shots before the horse is even rendered unconscious, let alone killed. There was enormous suffering in that video, how can this be allowed to happen. If Belgium has such appalling standards of animal welfare, abattoirs in the rest of Europe are almost certainly as bad or worse. I'm speechless. --Cheryl