crufts dog show

crufts dog show on Animal Planet TV march 9-11 9pm E/T
don't forget to mark your calendar for the greatest dog show

I am not familiar with that show, but have marked my calendar anyway. Thank you ! http://PetoftheDay.com/talk/biggrin.gif

The Crufts dog show is in Birmingham,UK
This year dogs from all over Europe will compete for the Best in show.In addition of the show, they have many competitions like Agility, Flyball, Obedience, Herding. And my favorite event "dancing with Border Collies

Cruft's has been cancelled to try and prevent the spread of Foot and Mouth disease in the UK. We now have 33 confirmed cases of this terrible disease in our farms and many large events are being cancelled.

Carrie, could you tell me what foot and mouth disease is? It sounds serious if events are being cancelled. On a similiar topic, i was wondering about the outbreak of madcow disease there in the UK. How serious is it? Like, do some people choose to take their chances and still eat alot of meat or is it majorly affecting everyones daily life? I've seen the news talk about the disease itself and about the cattle but i haven't really seen much on how its affecting the general population.

Foot and Mouth is a viral disease that affects cloven hoofed animals - cows, sheep and goats. It is highly infectious and has an incubation period of 10-14 days. It can be spread by almost anything! On car and truck tyres, clothing, hair, fur, body fluids, straw, hay, feedstuffs, skin, boots and shoes...etc. It is also airborne - if the farm next to you has it and the wind is blowing your way then you are likely to be the next outbreak.
Classic signs of the disease are lesions around the nose and mouth that weep and cause pain and lesions around the top of the hoof and between the two toes that cause lameness. A high fever and loss of condition and weight follow. It is not always fatal but as it is so infectious all cloven hooved animals that are in any contact with the virus are likely to become ill and of no commercial value. There is also a great deal of suffering for infected animals.
As soon as a case is confirmed all sheep, pigs, cows and goats on that establishment must be slaughtered, the carcasses burned on site and the remains buried.
BSE has had a terrible effect on the farming industry. Our Government insisted for years that there was no risk to humans, sadly there are many CJD victims that would argue this. The BSE situation is, finally, under control and no beef over 30 months is allowed to enter the food chain.

Yikes, we've seen this on the news as well. I've been wondering how one goes to stop outbreaks like this? Do you know what caused it?? We have a dear friend in Darlington, so we get to keep up on the England news! I hope everything is ok!!!!

Sadly, very sadly, everything is not OK. In Scotland alone there is another 40 - 50 farms awaiting test results tonight. Two hundred and fifty thousand animals have now been slaughtered and burned in the British Isles. Northern Ireland has it's first ever case of Foot and Mouth and the farm is only just over two miles from the border with the Republic of Ireland. That is going to be a miracle if no cases in Southern Ireland appear.
It is generally accepted that the efforts to stop the spread have failed.
We won't be considered clear of the disease until at least fourteen days after the last confirmed case comes to light.....at the moment that seems a very long and painful way off.

it sounds like it spreads like distemper does, i hope they can come up with a vaccine for it. gosh, it sounds like that Edgar Allen Poe short story about a plague, (i cant think of the name at this moment. thanks for the info, i'll be thinking of you.

Foot and Mouth is the most infectious disease known in the animal world.
France has slaughtered more animals than Britain has in an attempt to prevent the disease spreading to continental Europe.
We have 40 confirmed cases now and around 90 farms in isolation as they have animals that are suspect or have had possible contact with the infection. The countryside is totally shut. Thank you all for your interest and concern - lambing and calving time is on us and to see newborns in such terrible circumatances is heartbreaking.
(A point of interest - the USA last had an outbreak of the disease in 1929).

Carrie, do they not have a vaccine to prevent this from happening? Those poor farmers, it must be heartbreaking losing their animals in this way. If they do have to slaughter their herd, what about their dogs, cats and other pets? Our sympathies are with all of you in Europe in your fight against this dreaded disease.
Jackie

Thank you.
Yes there is a vaccine. The problem with with the whole situation is that the only way to confirm the disease is to recognise the symptoms and then confirm the symptoms by a blood test. As soon as there is an outbreak you can test healthy animals that have been vaccinated and get the same result as that produced by an infected animal. The test relies on the presence of antibodies to the disease being present in the blood to prove that the animal has come into contact with Foot and Mouth. When an animal is vaccinated, the vaccine replicates exposure to the disease and antibodies to it are produced. These antibodies will then fight any Foot and Mouth virus that enters the animals body thus giving immunity.
Such is the threat of Foot and Mouth that any animal tested that has antibodies to it is then too much of a risk - has the vaccination worked or is it infected?
On the whole animals are not tested unless clinical signs of the disease are apparent and as you can see any other testing would condemn not only infected animals but those protected with the vaccine also.
In Holland the Dutch authorities decided to test a recent batch of sheep imported from England. Antibodies were found and it was just too risky to wait and see if the disease developed or if they were a vaccinated flock and they were all slaughtered.
British scientists have stated that it would take an unlimited budget and five years research to develop a more effective vaccine, that could be detected during an outbreak, to the point of manufacture. As the world's scientists struggle with funding for Aids, cancer, MS, autism....etc, etc. this is a dream that is never going to be realised.
When you take into consideration that the area around Powys, in Wales, has more head of sheep than any other European country (if you think England looks tiny on the map, have a look at Wales and then imagine a small portion of that country!) you can begin to imagine the devastation this disease has the potential to wreck.
Dogs, cats, horses and all other pets and livestock are unable to contract the disease but the potential to spread it is enormous. If you have Foot and Mouth on your farm your cloven hoofed animals ( cows, pigs, sheep and goats) are lost. A five mile exclusion zone is put into effect (no human, traffic or animal movement unless approved and essential is allowed). You and your family and all animals left on the farm are stranded until at least ten days after the last confirmed case is reported. All workers that have been on your farm are not allowed to resume work on any farm until ten days after the last case is confirmed.

During the BSE crisis, as bad as it got, people were still saying, "At least it's not Foot and Mouth."
This is the 12th day since the first case was confirmed.

Carrie, it is so hard to believe the devestation this can cause. I can understand if the cattle have the antibodies and they test them there is no way to tell whether they are infected or they have the antibodies. When so much is at stake, it looks like someone would come up with an answer since it destroys the life of the farmer and his family and spreads so quickly. I do hope the States come up with something to help those poor people restock their herd or whatever one can do. Thanks for the information you have provided, I may be isolated, but haven't read anything in our paper. Hopefully this will end and soon.
I didn't know about the Foot and Mouth here in 1929, I'm pretty old but even that was before my time. Ha!
Jackie

We had eight new cases confirmed yesterday and already one new case this morning in Cornwall. (It's 9am)

It is heartbreaking to even consider the impact of this disease on the animals, the people, their livelihoods, and even the economy of farming regions. You, Carrie, have kept us more up-to-date than major news/media outlets here, though I am sure it is awful, simply awful for you. Thank you for keeping us informed, we hope there is soon a day with no new cases to report.

There seems no lessening of the spread as yet. Day 13 and we have ten new cases confirmed today - that's 51 farms in mainland Britain and one in Northern Ireland.
It is impossible to guess how or when the spread will be stopped as all parts of the country are now infected. A farm on the edge of Dartmoor is infected and if signs of disease are seen on the moor then the army will be sent it to begin culling wildlife and sheep.
Overcrowding on farms is becoming an issue as new stock is born and no animals can be moved out. Factories and transport companies are laying off workers in a bid to save businesses that rely on the meat trade and pubs and shops in rural situations are suffering too.
Thank you all for your support, I am passing it on to friends and it helps to know that people are thinking of them and understand what they are going through.

Carrie,
Without your imput on the horrible tragedy, I would really not be aware of the magnitude of the disaster. The news reports it, but with having someone in the middle of it, makes the tragedy hit home. My prayers are with you and your fellow countrymen. I pray for an end to the disaster quickly.
Sue

It's nearly 3.30pm here and we have just had the 60th case of Foot and Mouth confirmed.
A farm right in the middle of Dartmoor has now been confirmed as having the disease. Dartmoor is 200 square miles of open moorland that is grazed by sheep and cows, native Dartmoor ponies and Red deer. This is a tragic development among the general fear and desperation.
A farmer was stopped last night by police and shotguns were taken from him as the police feared for his safety. The pressure on the rural community is becoming almost unbearable.

Carrie, it just seems to be getting worse, instead of better. I know it is very hard for you with your friends and neighbors losing everything they worked for all these years. We will hope and pray for all, that there will be a change and a turn around of this horrible disease. Keep the Faith!
Jackie

This is terrible to write knowing that the spread has escalted to the scale it is now but our Government has decided that from tomorrow they will start to move uninfected livestock to approved abbatoirs.
Once an application has been made from a farmer in an unrestricted area and that has been approved they are given 24 hours for their animals to be put in disinfected lorries and transported to approved abbatoirs, killed and processed.(The shortest incubation period for Foot and Mouth is 36 hours, so anyone can work out that what appears to be healthy animals may be very contagious by the time they reach their destination)
In a sane world this seems like madness. It can only mean that they have lost the chain of infection and need to clear as much meat as is possible before all hell breaks loose.
They did a similar thing in the sixties - told everyone it was safe to move animals as they thought the outbreak was over - then several more cases came to light. This time we are not even pretending that the peak has been reached.
Many are seeing this as a purely financial desicion, some as a real desire to help farmers. I'd like to believe the latter but they are playing with fire....unless they know more than we do about the true extent of the situation.
Today has been the worst of all so far, I can hardly believe it myself, but we are up to 69 confirmed cases - 18 new cases in one day.
Friends of mine are 3 miles away from the case on Dartmoor and spent most of last night saying goodbye to their animals, they can't believe they will be disease free for long.
There are nearly 250 thousand sheep and cows on Dartmoor.
I just don't know what else to say at the moment - there are still people breaking the law to see the fires burning, still people breaking the law by claiming their rights to walk on common land with their dogs and still animal rights organisations prepared to march, many of them from rural communities, in protest of farming methods. I will continue to keep you updated but am running out of words to describe the situation.

I am so very sad for your friends, for the farmers, for all those whose livelyhood and hearts are literally going "up in smoke," and it seems like the government is just going to make it worse. If there was anything we could do, we would, and I hope you and those you know and love know that. What an awful, awful time for you.

My heart breaks for the people in your part of the world, words cannot express the sorrow we feel. I know how difficult it is for you to write but we appreciate the news you give us and each time we hope it will be encouraging news. Please give our prayers and love to all your friends in this difficult time.
Jackie

I too need to add how very sorry I am to hear of this devastating occurance and how the effects are such that they reverberate to so many of your countrymen, their families, their livelihoods, their animals...
One can only pray that in some way this will soon be contained.

I have passed on your messages of support and received emails, again, asking me to thank you all for not only your support but the understanding you show.
My friends on Dartmoor have had to report to the Ministry of Agriculture that they have three cows showing symptoms. Tonight they have vets taking blood samples and police sealing the farm - the cows are salivating abnormally.....in normal days it could be nothing, tonight they don't know what to do with themselves.

My friends have just emailed me to tell me that one of the older policemen on the farm has passed on a disinfected bottle of Scotch, brought them inside, lit the fire for them, poured the drinks and put on a Blackadder ( very funny comedy series) tape very loud and told them to shout when they need some more Scotch.

Carrie It must be hard to report all of this info, but we are all glad to receive it. We all are getting to rely on the fact that we can take a pill or a shot and ,poof the problem is gone. I'm not old enough to remeber past plaques but as anamail caretaker it is so important to make sure all animals in our care need to be watched ALWAYS. We have so much freedom of movement around the globe today, we forget the old diseases are still around. Small pox is a good example heard of a case in an developing nation. They would not immunice my children even though I demanded it.As a spinner I'm very concerned as you floks have some very rare breeds that could be lost forever with this problem. (I try to keep up with the rare breeds, as soon as I get my farm I'm raising several kinds of rares) All my faimlies prayers for all of you having to deal with this horrible time in history.

Carrie, I think you should have some of that scotch and blackadder to help you through this traumatic time. Hopefully you will see the light at the end of the tunnel soon.
In another vein, I have been to Europe twice and England is my very favorite place. I just didn't have enough time to visit all that I wanted to. We were in London then crossed the channel. In our archives, I found that one of our ancestors William Eddye, officiated as Vicar from 1591 to the time of his death Nov 23, 1616 to St. Dunstan's Church in Cranbrook, England. I thought that was kind of interesting.
Anyway, Carrie, keep your chin up and we do appreciate you keeping us posted, hopefully soon it will be good news. Take Care.
Jackie

St Dunstan - rings a major bell - I'll have to have a think......
Cranbrook also rings a bell - do you know what county?

I will post again shortly but the last update I had was that cases now number 71 - it's unbelievable! My friends are so amazed that people from all over the world are in touch with what is happening to them and are so concerned and thoughtful. Most of this country doesn't realise how dreadful it is for people caught up in this and they have asked me to pass on their thanks and to tell you all what a lift and spur they got from knowing you are thinking of them and their animals. You really have made a difference to them. They are isolated and to know that there are people outside of family and friends who understand and even know that they are still alive makes them stronger. Thank you all so much.
Karen ( moderater) thank you for your email - you made us all smile, my friends couldn't believe Paul knew what a "cunning plan" was and want to tell him that it will only work if it has a turnip involved somewhere.

Ok - we now have seventy four cases of Foot and Mouth throughout the country. The Government has changed it's mind and is now saying that at the same time in the sixties outbreak ( two weeks after the first reported case) there was 1,000 confirmed cases. So, apparently, we should be thankful.

The head vet in Iceland has given the go ahead to start shooting migrating swans as they may be a source of infection. Shot birds will then be tested to see if the action is justified.

A farmer's union here has called for the Government to scale up the slaughter policy and slaughter all animals that are known to have been at risk of infection ( those that have been in contact with infected animals). This has to be the most terrible thing for farmers to call for, but it has to be the only way forward. When they know where these animals are and are doing nothing to contain them you have to wonder, not only what planet they are living on, but what they are trying to achieve.

Not to take away from any updates on this deadly disease:

My friend who lives in Staffordshire, England just sent me this update.

Crufts update: The KC has now announced re-scheduled dates for Crufts.
Crufts will take place on May 25th-May 28th
unless further notice.

For full details: http://www.crufts.org.uk

So sorry I haven't been in touch, it is becoming a bit of a circus. We are being told that the peak has been reached and we are looking at the light at the end of the tunnel.
Farmers are asking for restrictions to be lifted so they can move ewes to safer lambing grounds.
Horse racing resumed today despite urgent calls from farmers, and many racehorse trainers, not to put livestock and farmers at risk in this way.
We had eleven new cases today, the first in Yorkshire were confirmed, the total farms infected now number 96.
It does seem that the powers that be are more interested in collecting the taxes from racing - the Cheltenham Festival begins next week - than trying to save animal lives or farmers. This may, of course be a coincidence, but it does make me wonder.......

It has been announced that the Celtenham race meeting has been postponed - thank goodness!

I have been a bit of a coward and have not kept you all up to date as I promised I would.
My friends on Dartmoor started to slaughter their animals last night - Foot and Mouth was confirmed yesterday afternoon. The pyres are being built and they are loading the bodies of the animals overnight.
How much do you want to know.......

I didn't want to post this but my friends said that they wanted me to - It has still taken me a while - they say they will be out of contact for a while as they try to get used to it. They say, again, to thank you all for your messages of sympathy and support and that the sleepless nights they have had worrying about the situation were not worth it - the reality is ten times worse.
I can't believe all this fear and caution can end in such a way - it just doesn't seem fair- "it can't happen to me" syndrome. They are the most ethical and caring people who farm animals I have ever met.

Carrie, I think you are doing fantastic keeping us posted under the circumstances.
I was a little worried because we had not heard from you. Words just don't come anymore! I know there is little we can do, but would a card or a note help from maybe all of us? Is it the English that say
"Keep a tight lip"? Take care, and thank you so much for your effort in keeping us posted.

Actually the saying is keeping a "stiff upper lip" though the lower lip is usually what quivers in bad situations.

Carrie, please express to your friends our deepest condolences, what an awful, awful thing to have to go through, both emotionally, physically and financially. Our hearts go out to them.

Carrie,

my thoughts are with you and your friends. I honestly don't know how I could cope with it all. It's heartbreaking to see all this happening and not being able to do anything about it.

The horrible thing is that they have found cases in Denmark and Belgium as well. I just hope this nightmare will end soon.

There's nothing to say to make it better, but please express my sympathy to your friends and make sure they know they are in our thoughts and prayers.

By luchtime today there was 16 new cases for today alone - that makes a total of 123 cases confirmed so far. We are now told that this is going to be a long outbreak and the worst is yet to come.

How awful, how dreadful, how sad
Your friends have already had
The worst part of the plague to date
Now all it seems is the country has to wait
And try to keep it from spreading even more
Through farm and town, to parkland and moors
Our country holds your hand in sorrow
In looking toward the bleak tomorrow
And will think of you all until the day
A cure is found, or the outbreak dies away

We hope the world is watching and caring
And doing its best to keep from sharing
This dreaded disease with other lands
Precautions must be taken, animal friends must take a stand
And make governments be more diligent,
And people, all people more aware
That if it happens anywhere
People and animals everywhere
Will suffer, for this earth is one that - despite borders and boundaries
We really all must share

If I'am right it seems that Animal Planet is showing the cruft show tonight.

I am confused