[Jacob-list] Foot and Mouth and all that..

[MarmontJacobs at aol.com]

Hi Mary,
         I spent my first 25 years in Scotland, so have my foot in both 
camps. Hopefully FMD is on the way out now - although we are all holding our 
breath now the colder weather is on its way. Like you we are having some very 
strange weather (put some hay out today - not because the grass has stopped 
growing, but rather as the rabble have trampled it with all the wet warm 
weather). The whole thing has been very badly handled by a government with no 
understanding or interest in either agriculture or the countryside, and 
showing no evidence of lessons learnt from the 1960s' outbreak. Several 
flocks of Jacobs have been slaughtered either in their entirety or partly 
owing to where they were grazing at the time of the movement ban.
    Luckily we have had no cases here in Eaast Anglia, but we have little 
belief that our Shows will be reinstated next year even with no more cases. 
There is a 21 day rule in force, meaning that a single animal brought on 
means nothing off for 21 days which is causing major headaches for breeders 
and reams of paperwork!
    Still, there are believed to be around 30 000 Jacobs in the UK, a big 
success story for the breed. Some rare breeds such as the Herdwick sheep in 
Cumbria are in a desperate state in spite of the National Sheep Association 
and the Rare Breeds Society trying to make the best of an awful siuation by 
harvesting eggs etc to try to maintain bloodlines prior to slaughter. 
    And now the Government spin doctors are trying to convince the public 
that many of the compensation claims were fiddled...