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Petty
bureaucracy prevents the
safe burial of a dead sheep
James Irvine
Teviot Scientific, Cultybraggan Farm, Comrie,
Perthshire
Filed 08 Aug 07
©www.land-care.org.uk
A ewe died at Cultybraggan Farm today. The reason
was unknown. As every sheep farmer knows, ewes have an all too common
tendency to die for unknown reasons. Like the rest of us, old age
can be a contributory factor. There were absolutely no signs of
Foot and Mouth Disease in the animal or in the rest of the flock,
and we are some 400 miles from Surrey.
Permission has been granted by the Scottish Executive
for burial on farm, provided the site is over 50 metres from a water
course. But like many farms, the higher ground on the farm holding
is separated from the lower ground by a small country public road.
The lower ground is either subject to flooding or has established
water courses. The safest place to bury a dead beast is in the higher
ground that is both free of flooding and of water courses. But it
would involve putting the dead beast into a farm trailer - that
is going up and down the road anyway and goes in and out of the
fields where the livestock are - and taking it up to the ground
that is safe for burial.
"You cannot do that"
says the Scottish Executive
This was even although the farm had offered to
employ the farm vet to come and supervise the disinfecting of the
vehicle and of the few yards of road after the carcass had been
put across the said wee bit oroad.
"We have got to wait until the epidemiology
of the disease is better understood"
said the Scottish Executive veterinary advisor.
She offered the following advice: .
"You could bury it in the low ground provided it is 50 metres
from a water course, or you could keep it on farm until such time
as the Fallen Stock Scheme is restored".
Keeping a dead sheep on farm at any time of year
for a prolonged period is not a safe option by any standard: and
especially not in August.
It would appear that the Scottish Executive does
not have confidence in the veterinary profession to adequately supervise
the disinfecting of a short piece of road and of a vehicle.
"We have got to wait until one full incubation
period has passed without further outbreaks before the rules can
be relaxed"
she explained.
Well, that could be a further fortnight at the
very least. I reckon it will be probably much longer.
While the Scottish Executive may not want
to trust its farmers, they could get around to trusting professionally
qualified, highly experienced, practicing vets who are the mainstay
of any animal health and welfare programme. By so doing, they could
reduce the accumulation of serious knock on effects on livestock
farms from the bureaucratic application of rules without common
sense.
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