crufts dog show

[carrie]

We are up to 628 cases in the UK.

Several mass graves have been dug in a disused airfield in Cumbria and the bodies of up to half a million sheep are to buried there to try and clear the backlog. They are setting up pens so that animals can be brought in on sealed lorries and culled on site.

Farmers now have a choice on how compensation is worked out - they can take an estimate that every animal is worth the same as the first ten or so evaluated and be paid that for every culled animal. Their other option is to have an independent evaluation.

The Lake District reported it's first case today. The nearest case is forty miles away. Thousands of domestic animals roam wild over this area and it was thought to be out of harms way. A devastating development to say the least.

Our main headlines are now the local elections due for May 3rd. It is traditional for the general election to take place on the same day ( election for government). As the crisis becomes worse farmers are saying that to hold a national election at such a time is, at best, insensitive and at the other extreme a sure fire way of spreading disease.

The tourist industry is in a terrible state. The Government is telling people that the countryside is open as long as you stay on the roads and away from any livestock and wildlife.....

Be assured that if you are visiting England this year you are not facing a health risk to you, your family or your pets. If cities such as London are your destination then nothing has changed. If you are planning to holiday in the countryside then it really depends where you are going.

Foot and Mouth is not passed on to humans in any way - it is not usually fatal to the animals that it does infect- it does create suffering and weak and unproductive, sickly livestock.

[jackiesdaisy1935]

Carrie that is such a devestating report.
Those poor farmers, as you say they may have stock going back to their Grandfather and were proud to keep the line going. Although we feel so bad for them, we cannot imagine how they really feel unless we were in their shoes. San Diego has just begun air roundtrip from England and they are checking everyone to see if they have been in the countryside or carrying meat products etc.
I think this Country is finally realizing how serious this is for our friends in Europe. Please tell your friends we think of them and say a little prayer for them every day.

[carrie]

Day 36 and we have 729 cases of Foot and Mouth.
The army is now helping to cull sheep that are brought in to the large pits dug in Cumbria.
Vaccination is now being seriously considered as a firebreak measure - all animals that are vaccinated will then have to be slaughtered - as we are not coping with the cull and burn policy. There are around 100,000 dead animals lying in fields and yards awaiting disposal and well over that awaiting slaughter.
Nearly 500,000 animals have already been slaughtered, burned and buried.

The Government has said that around 1.3 million sheep were moved around the country between the times of the disease reaching the UK and the first outbreak being confirmed. A staggering number of animals with no record of movement or identifaction - let us, please, learn from that if nothing else.

The Government has also started to open up tourist attractions in the countryside and are insisting the financial implications of the tourism lost is greater than the risk of the disease spreading. Stonehenge is now open as is Old Sarum, both near us. Local farmers, already in despair, are astounded that such measures can be taken when they have been under such strain financially, mentally and emotionally. Nearly 300 footpaths and rights of way over farmland, in Wiltshire alone, have been opened. A Ministry of Agriculture spokesman said that as it has been two weeks since the last outbreak in Wiltshire it is a reasonable measure. We live on the edge of Salisbury Plain, right on the border with Wiltshire. The nearest outbreak to us was around two weeks ago - two and a half miles away.
Ireland has just reported it's second suspected case - the first was over two weeks ago.
Does this make sense to anyone?
Are we going to screen everyone going onto footpaths and visiting Stonehenge? (The answer there is no, in case you are wondering.)

We have felt we were sitting on a time bomb. People check their stock at the last possible moment before the light fades and then sit most of the night worrying what they will be faced with in the morning. Every morning that you have to drag yourself out to milking or to see how the lambing is going is a nightmare walk - at best you have thin cows, at worst you have dead sheep and lambs that you couldn't help despite the pain they have been through. The worst thing is not even Foot and Mouth anymore, in many cases it is a kind of relief from the constant worry about the hardship your stock is facing.

A scheme has been set up where farmers can ask for voluntary slaughter of their stock on welfare grounds. A vet must then come in and confirm that conditions warrant slaughter. There is such a shortage of ministry vets that such requests are not a major priority at the moment. Farmers that can see no way to allieviate the suffering of their animals are being told that requests for welfare slaughter will take three to four weeks to implement. Some are begining to pray for Foot and Mouth to put an end to their animals suffering as it is a quicker end than waiting for starving, drowning and ill animals to be put down.

[carrie]

At 5pm on April 1st there was 909 of foot and Mouth in the Uk.

955,000 animals have been slaughtered or identified for slaughter.

610,000 animals have been slaughtered, of which 178,00 remain to be disposed of.

There are 345,000 animals awaiting slaughter.

The numbers are staggering. Our local elections have now been pospotned for a month - June 7th - it is taken as read that the General Election will be on the same day. It is the first time since the Second World War that the date has been put back due to a National crisis.
There are still misgivings as many experts think the situation will be worse by June, not better.

This disease in our lives is no longer a nightmare. It is not something we could of imagined, even in sleep. There is no sign of an end or a slow of infection. The feeling persists that if action had been taken quickly then these scenes of slaughter, burning and burial would not be so common place that the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food could see fit to cut the reports of numbers infected farms. If you know where to look you get one update each day.

[jackiesdaisy1935]

Hi Carrie: Have been missing your posts, glad to see you are back, even though the news is still not good. It's impossible to understand the horror the people are going through seeing their animals being destroyed by the thousands and thousands. I'm sure they are in a state of shock as any caring individual would be. Did they not find the source of the foot and mouth, I though I heard something to that effect. We are all so appreciative of you keeping us posted. All we can do is hope and pray for a solution soon.

[Logan]

Carrie...all I can say is that I am so, so sorry. I continue to read about this every day, and wait for your posts as well. Please know that we continue to pray for each person and animal that is affected by this terrible, terrible plague.
Logan

[Sudilar]

When will all this end?

[This message has been edited by Sudilar (edited April 02, 2001).]

[karen israel]

I thought I read there's a vaccination but even then, there would be no way to distinguish carriers? In this day and age..no way to stop the spread? I think of you, Carrie every day-you know that-and I too am praying for an end to this. i can't even imagine. It's a living nightmare, you're right. My heart just goes out to you and everyone affected!

[Karen]

The death toll rises day by day
Not just animals are going, we fear
But pride and honor, love and heart
Are being lost to dread disease and slow action

The death toll rises every day
Never it seems, will it ever end but
How can it not, we hope we pray
For the death toll to fall tommorow

The death toll rises with every post
And still on farm after farm, they cry
And watch the morning sunrise as they sit
With forced-idle hands and sad weary eyes

The death toll rises, engraved upon the hearts
Engraved upon the minds of all who hear
And in uninfected places we watch the lambkins
With now-guarded joy, tinged always with fear

Our hearts ache for yours, across the pond
And please know that we'd do whatever we could
But for now, you and we sit, calloused hands virtually tied
And wait for the tide to ebb, and hope begin again

I'd give you my heart, if it would heal yours
I'd send you a lamb if we knew it would be safe
And if I were a scientist, I'd work day and night
To find a cure, to find a way, to save those lovely dark liquid eyes
From breaking anymore hearts, from going dull, and closing in death
I would, and yet I can't, but we will continue, every day
To hold you in our hearts, and promise to treasure those that are still safe.

[Gio]

My heart goes out to you Carrie, it's bad enough hearing about it but living right in the middle of it must be absolutely horrible.

Gio

[RachelJ]

I agree with Gio. I hate to even read these posts and I can't fathom having to live them. These numbers are staggering. My heart goes out to all your countrymen.

[carrie]

I logged on to give you all an update. I read your posts and am touched all over again at how much you all care - I have sent your messages on.
Karen you have the words that I don't and you capture every feeling exactly - it means an awful lot to people who feel - no ARE - so isolated that they feel their own families slipping away. All of you can not imagine what your thoughts and expressions of, not sympathy, but understanding mean to families that are not even headline news anymore. The crisis is but not the people and not the animals - it is a clinical war on a scale of numbers. Your human touch of feeling and the very fact that people outside of this country are thinking of the people affected is a boost that you can not even begin to understand - thank you all.

I have people on the phone and on my email 24 hours a day now and all want to know what the people on this site have to say.

Thank you.

My post is, sadly, two milestones passed in the last couple of days.
We now have over a thousand farms that are confirmed as having Foot and Mouth.

A million animals are in the catergory of either being killed already or waiting for slaughter.

It has also come to light today that an area in Sussex, usually used as a domestic rubbish landfill site, has already buried 2,500 sheep. This is an area that has shown no signs of the disease and people are, obviously, worried about the spread of disease as well as the lack of information.

Vaccination, thank goodness, seems to be off the agenda.

All sport pitches, football pitches, cricket pitches, running tracks etc. are off limits in our area now - £5000 if you are caught on any grass area!!
The Cheltenham Festival is cancelled (horse racing) as it is now within a restricted area.
The Grand National is going ahead - next Saturday - with four runners from Ireland that have no access back to Ireland after the race and will have to find stabling in England until restrictions are lifted.

[carrie]

We now have 1,138 farms that have been confirmed as having Foot and Mouth on the premises and have lost all their stock. There is still no let up and the future is looking bleak.

[carrie]

There has now been 1204 confirmed cases of Foot and Mouth.

The authorities are investigating 309 cases of alleged illegal movements of livestock. There has been some suggestions that certain farmers have faked the symptoms of the disease to claim the higher compensation rate given for diseased animals rather than settle for the lower rate given in welfare cases. It has also been claimed that animals have been illegally moved to high risk areas in order that they are exposed to the virus. This is a way of infecting their own stock and claiming the larger compensation package.
As you can imagine the farming community country wide is outraged. Farmers leaders have accepted that there has been a few cases of farmers breaking the law rather than see their animals die in appalling conditions in the fields. To think that anyone would spread this disease on purpose shows how out of touch the Government is with the real countryside.

[Sudilar]

Oh, Carrie, even more tragedy added to the situation! This is just so overwhelming!