In the British Foot and Mouth epidemic of 2001, 7.7 million animals were slaughtered (one in eight of all farm animals in Britain). Only a very small percentage had the disease. The story is one of total incompetence, bullying and immense cruelty by the state. Here is a little story that appeared in Private Eye magazine during 2003. (For those outside the UK "Defra" is The Department of the Environment, farming and Rural Affairs).
DOWN ON THE FARM
IN JULY 2001, just when the foot and mouth epidemic was all but over,
the Welsh Assembly announced that as a precautionary measure it was going to slaughter
tens of thousands of healthy sheep around the Brecon Beacons. This so enraged Janet
Hughes, a Welsh environmental sciences teacher, that she bought 10 sheep and took
the Assembly to court.
She wanted a ruling that the cull was illegal. because the Animal Health Act 1981 only empowered the Government to kill animals when either they were infected or had been directly exposed to infection. Realising that this could be a dangerous test case for the whole of the pre-emptive cull policy under which for months it had been killing millions of healthy animals for no reason, Defra joined the action to oppose Janet’s plea.
The case reached the Court of Appeal in Cardiff, where Lord Justice Latham upheld the slaughter and Defra’s policy. Paying lawyers to fight her case had cost Janet her life savings. But there was more to come. In January this year two bailiffs turned up at Janet’s home to claim 17,000 pounds for Defra’s legal costs, even though the officials working for Defra’s Secretary of State Margaret Beckett had only joined the action of their own volition.
When the bailiffs had listed everything they could see, including the car Janet needed for her work, and a toy quad bike and jeep belonging to her 12-year old son Matthew, they said they would soon be returning to remove all these goods in part-payment of Defra’s bill. They justified taking Matthew’s toys on the grounds that a child’s property belongs to its mother.
Only when uproar broke out in the press, and lawyers pointed out that the bailiffs had no right to remove the toys, was Matthew’s property struck from the list. Janet’s appeal to the High Court in London against the possession order, was cursorily turned down — her appeal papers were returned stamped "application refused” in an unstamped envelope.
Various friends and sympathisers were meanwhile rallying to her support, contributing a further 4,000 pounds to the "Save Our Sheep” appeal fund. Last month came Defra’s final demand. If Janet would hand over the 4,000 pounds in the appeal fund, they would not trouble her further. So Beckett’s lawyers are 13,000 pounds out of pocket, which is tragic. Matthew can keep his toys. For Janet Hughes a two-year nightmare is finally at an end.
Of course the Defra officials were well aware that their pre-emptive cull policy was illegal (tests showed that, as elsewhere, not one of the tens of thousands of sheep killed on the Brecon Beacons was infected). But in 2002 they took the precaution of rushing through an Animal Health Act which now gives them powers to kill any animal they want, without having to give a reason. As a final joyous twist, under the new Act it will in future be a criminal offence for people like Janet to dare to challenge their actions. ‘Muckspreader’
People who can kill animals on this scale can also kill human beings - ed.
www.slimeylimeyjustice.org