WishfulThinker
Well-Known Member
I just read this in my local paper, and I am sorry but it angered me as all it needs is for the DoT to make a temporary allowance!! Yet they would rather let millions of animals suffer and waste away!
CULL OF STRANDED HILL LAMBS URGED
08:50 - 19 September 2007
A Leading figure in farming called for an urgent "welfare cull" of light hill lambs as the crisis affecting Scottish hill farmers deepened last night.
As confirmation came from Surrey of the third case of foot-and-mouth disease in the latest outbreak, the vice-chairman of NFU Scotland's livestock committee pleaded for a cull of lambs stranded on hills by movement curbs.
The Department of Transport's continuing refusal to lift restrictions on driving hours means many livestock hauliers are unable to move sheep from the hills.
Robert McDonald, of Castle Grant Home Farm, Gran-town, said the early onset of wintry conditions meant that "the windows of opportunity are closing fast".
The NFUS, which is pressing for movements of animals on farms and between farms to be reinstated, has sent questionnaires to farmers asking whether they would support a welfare cull for lambs and ewes, and what payment they required.
Suggested compensation levels range from £5 to £26 per head, and the farmers were asked to respond by this morning.
Mr McDonald, who also keeps lambs on a farm he manages in Skye, said: "Condition is just melting off the lambs now with this weather and before long they will be useless for any purpose.
"It is a financial issue as well as a welfare one.
"Cash flow is currently non-existent on these farms and they were working to a very tight schedule anyway with so many sales cancelled in August and early September."
NFUS president Jim McLaren said: "We estimate there will be at least a million lambs on hills that shouldn't be there. That is generating a huge welfare crisis.
"We're continuing to work on the details of schemes to alleviate the welfare problems and address the cashflow nightmare."
Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, confirmed yesterday that a farm near Egham, Surrey, was infected with foot-and-mouth disease after lesions were found on the carcases of cattle.
The farm, named locally as The Klondyke, is owned by John and Sally Hepplethwaite. Pigs, cattle and sheep were slaughtered as a precaution after tests on sheep showed signs of the disease.
It is the third farm to be hit by the latest outbreak, and occurred within the protection zone in Surrey and near the premises affected last week. Two farms in Surrey were affected last month.
Minor changes have now been made to the protection and surveillance zones as a result of the new case and further lab tests are being done on the culled stock.
The new cases are thought to involve the same strain of the disease as that found in animals culled last month.
A Health and Safety Executive investigation found the virus might have come from a leaky pipe between a Government-run animal health laboratory and a privately-run pharmaceuticals firm, Merial Animal Health, at Pirbright, three miles from the original outbreak.
Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead met UK Farming Minister Lord Rooker in Edinburgh yesterday to press the case for the temporary lifting of limits on the amount of time haulage drivers can work.
Mr Lochhead described the meeting as "constructive". He said: "I left him in no doubt of the scale of the crisis affecting the Scottish hills and throughout the livestock sector as a result of the foot-and-mouth outbreak in England.
"Lord Rooker assured me he will take back the issues raised."
But the Department of Transport refuses to budge.A spokesman said: "After careful consideration the DfT has decided that a relaxation of the drivers' hours rules is not justified on the basis of the evidence submitted."
The issue was discussed at the weekly meeting of the Scottish Cabinet yesterday.
A spokesman for the first minister said there had been a lot of correspondence with Westminster on the issue, the latest communication being a letter from transport under- secretary Jim Fitzpatrick.
The spokesman said: "He does not agree with the argument and described the issue as a short-term local problem."
CULL OF STRANDED HILL LAMBS URGED
08:50 - 19 September 2007
A Leading figure in farming called for an urgent "welfare cull" of light hill lambs as the crisis affecting Scottish hill farmers deepened last night.
As confirmation came from Surrey of the third case of foot-and-mouth disease in the latest outbreak, the vice-chairman of NFU Scotland's livestock committee pleaded for a cull of lambs stranded on hills by movement curbs.
The Department of Transport's continuing refusal to lift restrictions on driving hours means many livestock hauliers are unable to move sheep from the hills.
Robert McDonald, of Castle Grant Home Farm, Gran-town, said the early onset of wintry conditions meant that "the windows of opportunity are closing fast".
The NFUS, which is pressing for movements of animals on farms and between farms to be reinstated, has sent questionnaires to farmers asking whether they would support a welfare cull for lambs and ewes, and what payment they required.
Suggested compensation levels range from £5 to £26 per head, and the farmers were asked to respond by this morning.
Mr McDonald, who also keeps lambs on a farm he manages in Skye, said: "Condition is just melting off the lambs now with this weather and before long they will be useless for any purpose.
"It is a financial issue as well as a welfare one.
"Cash flow is currently non-existent on these farms and they were working to a very tight schedule anyway with so many sales cancelled in August and early September."
NFUS president Jim McLaren said: "We estimate there will be at least a million lambs on hills that shouldn't be there. That is generating a huge welfare crisis.
"We're continuing to work on the details of schemes to alleviate the welfare problems and address the cashflow nightmare."
Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, confirmed yesterday that a farm near Egham, Surrey, was infected with foot-and-mouth disease after lesions were found on the carcases of cattle.
The farm, named locally as The Klondyke, is owned by John and Sally Hepplethwaite. Pigs, cattle and sheep were slaughtered as a precaution after tests on sheep showed signs of the disease.
It is the third farm to be hit by the latest outbreak, and occurred within the protection zone in Surrey and near the premises affected last week. Two farms in Surrey were affected last month.
Minor changes have now been made to the protection and surveillance zones as a result of the new case and further lab tests are being done on the culled stock.
The new cases are thought to involve the same strain of the disease as that found in animals culled last month.
A Health and Safety Executive investigation found the virus might have come from a leaky pipe between a Government-run animal health laboratory and a privately-run pharmaceuticals firm, Merial Animal Health, at Pirbright, three miles from the original outbreak.
Scottish Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead met UK Farming Minister Lord Rooker in Edinburgh yesterday to press the case for the temporary lifting of limits on the amount of time haulage drivers can work.
Mr Lochhead described the meeting as "constructive". He said: "I left him in no doubt of the scale of the crisis affecting the Scottish hills and throughout the livestock sector as a result of the foot-and-mouth outbreak in England.
"Lord Rooker assured me he will take back the issues raised."
But the Department of Transport refuses to budge.A spokesman said: "After careful consideration the DfT has decided that a relaxation of the drivers' hours rules is not justified on the basis of the evidence submitted."
The issue was discussed at the weekly meeting of the Scottish Cabinet yesterday.
A spokesman for the first minister said there had been a lot of correspondence with Westminster on the issue, the latest communication being a letter from transport under- secretary Jim Fitzpatrick.
The spokesman said: "He does not agree with the argument and described the issue as a short-term local problem."
