Foot and Mouth Diary 2001-2007
2001: February/March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | 2002: January | 2007
January 2002 to October 2003: the aftermath
The comments made on this page are not the political line or official opinions of any body or organisation. I am publishing what I have seen and what has happened to my neighbours, what has been felt and what has been said. It is in the plainest sense a diary -- personal, even possibly inaccurate, but just one person's record of our hopes, fears, frustrations and confusion amid major tragedies and minor triumphs.
11 January
G delivered the first load of the 2001 wool clip today. It went from farms in the Orton / Gaisgill / Ravenstonedale area to the Carlisle depot on the Kingstown Industrial Estate. Wet and dirty but delivered safely (despite the wool shed not having a high enough door for a loaded HGV to back in under cover - what did the builders think wool is delivered on, a flat farm trailer?).
12 January
I drove out with Mr T at lunchtime and saw that Brackenhill is restocked, and so are High Scales and Steps. Will the licensing continue to be relaxed as things go on?
CK came to feed the sheep in the afternoon and is feeling OK but still liable to blow up at his father who won't decide what the compensation money should be spent on (which they received for stock taken out as dangerous contacts in the summer).
Sheep on 3 farms around Penrith apparently were slaughtered on suspicion (SOS) on a restocked farm in the last couple of days; but they seem to have have had pneumonia. Now come on, if a vet can't tell the difference between Foot and Mouth and pneumonia after the experience that has been gained this last year, he doesn't deserve the title of vet........ Apparently these animals had come up from Cambridgeshire and were not yet used to Cumbria's colder damper climate. But DEFRA were nervous.
17 January
More wool going in to Carlisle tomorrow, this time from round Appleby, where there were many farms devastated. I expect this load and possibly one more will clear that area of any clean saleable wool. CH who usually takes these loads from that area has not even licensed his wagon this year. Still, all the better for us.
28 January
Stories are going round from the Penrith Spur area of more SOS culls; the sheep dealers whose Limousin herd and sheep stock burned for over a week near Tirril are said to have had sheep slaughtered in the Edenhall area where restocking had taken place.
Inquiry into Foot and Mouth: report from Royal Agricultural Society (PDF)
18 October 2003
Two men dubbed "The Foot and Mouth Burglars", Grant Curley and his son Michael, were jailed this week for a total of 10 years at Carlisle Crown Court, for stealing property worth around £80,000 during the Foot and Mouth crisis.
Lancaster University published results of its research into the effects of Foot and Mouth. A major legacy was the lasting loss of trust in official bodies, it found. There were too many unforgiveable errors and bad management decisions.
Many questions still remain unanswered, such as how did F&M get into Britain? Why were animal transport restrictions delayed so long, and no action taken till it was too late on culling and disinfection? Why has no action been taken about the illegal importation of foodstuffs and livestock into Britain?
Why is money still owed by DEFRA to people who lost stock during the culls, or who were involved in the cleaning up operations over the past two years? Nationwide this is said to amount to £50 million and within Cumbria, around £5 million.
[Summarised from reports in the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald, 18 October 2003.]
Another move:
CONTRACTORS who are still owed £10million from the clean-up after
foot-and-mouth more than two years ago, met to complain to a panel of MPs.About 40 contractors and farmers attended a meeting organised by the Forum
of Private Businesses on Tuesday, 25 November, to try to sort out why they
have not be paid by the government.Robert Pugh, from Montgomery, Mid Wales, told Farmers Weekly that he is
owed half a million pounds for his work."We get the same excuses from Defra and the whole matter is a bit grey,"
he said.[Farming Weekly: 26 November 2003]
For a damning indictment of Government maladministration over the whole period, see http://www.warmwell.com/footmoutheye.html