The dogs at Heathrow are on their way out. There are now only nine. The
government were trying to cut them without being spotted. That figures

Why? Their deployment was based on lies and a rather unreliable TV
programme and a campaign, well let's just say a very determined campaign
that will not stand scrutiny.

It was a huge hoax perpetrated on the country by a small group of people who
decided that their careers could be enhanced by making a fuss about alleged
infected illegal meat imports. I'm not going into details. The Politburo can
do some work for a change.

I would imagine that the police if not actually deployed already, will be
there shortly now it has reached the media.

They can't just let hoaxers get away with it. They used the time honoured
strategy also used by conmen - "tell them what they want to hear."

Most of the farming organisations were taken in to some extent, one, the
NFU, seemed sometimes to have doubts but were not consistent in being
sceptical.

There may not be enough for a prosecution and it will embarass Defra beyond
belief so don't expect too much, except a lot of miserable looking Defra
vets and some cheerful HMC&R officers

I hear that the HSE are issuing rabies warning to British travellers to four
parts of France.

This kind of thing worries me. The French won't like it much.

We have bats with rabies and I don't recall the French issuing warnings
about bats in our belfries, not even in the activities of the CLA lobbyists.

They might well decide to take some kind of retaliation. I don't think they
have a habit of saying much about us, except when we actually export
something nasty or flagrantly break the EU rules, like failing to own up
over PMWS in 1999. Then I think it was the former French President of the
OIE who got the complaint on the international record.

As ***Pete*** always mentions stones and glasshouses and poor Peter seems to
have them, we should as a country also be much more careful.

Stones can be painful on the way in, as well as on the way out.

The hail of stones that are going to arrive, if we don't test the pigs for
MRSA, is going to resemble an asteroid shower.

Defra are going to have to order testing and a uk.business.agriculture
determined to promote what they perceive as the interests of the CLA is the
perfect place to make a fuss that will span the world.

The "vegan" pseudo-argument on "inefficiency" is that
the resources used to produce a given amount of meat
could produce a much greater amount of vegetable food
for direct human consumption, due to the loss of energy
that results from feeding grain and other feeds to
livestock.

In order to examine the efficiency of some process,
there must be agreement on what the end product is
whose efficiency of production you are examining. If
you're looking at the production of consumer...

Pat's Note: I'll give this report in full. It is critically important for
everyone and it would be unfair to edit it in any way.

I'll also put my comments at the foot. They will be scathing.

http://www.thepigsite.com/swinenews/17215/nadis-veterinary-report-and-forecastfebruary...

Monday, March 03, 2008

NADIS Veterinary Report and Forecast-February 2008

UK - This months report from the National Animal Disease Information Service
(NADIS) says the possibility of financial assistance to help herds control
Porcine Circovirus comes too late for many as more producers are choosing to
depopulate their units. The data is collected from NADIS UK farm
inspections.

With the start of a New Year that pig producers hope to present fewer
unexpected challenges than 2007, reports from NADIS Veterinary Surgeons
attending pig farms are littered with observations of herds deciding to
depopulate and exit the industry. The availability and possible financial
assistance to control disease associated with Porcine Circovirus has come
too late for some.

Sows

The most concerning observation during the month concerned the apparent
upsurge in disease associated with PRRS both in breeding and feeding herds.
In the former, suspected disease accounted for episodes...

Bluetongue saga takes new twist
Research points to other transmission routes
By Richard Halloran
The Ulster Farmers' Union has indicated to Farming Life that tests carried
out in Northern Ireland are pointing to the possible transmission of the
Bluetongue virus from dam to calf during pregnancy.
Union president Kenneth Sharkey has told Farming Life that his organisation
supports the decision by Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew and the
Northern Ireland Executive to impose new cattle and sheep import controls to
protect the livestock industry from Bluetongue.
"We support the new import controls, given emerging evidence of new
transmission routes for Bluetongue in pregnant animals. The controls in
Northern Ireland mirror controls already in place in the Republic of
Ireland."
"A temporary ban on the import of female cattle over 12 months of age and
female sheep over six months of age from Bluetongue restricted zones is to
be put in place.
He added: "Our priority is to keep Bluetongue off the island of Ireland and
maintain our Bluetongue free status. It has now emerged that maternal
transmission is another possible means by which the disease can pass from ...

This story is almost unbelievable, but true.

I've protected the names of the people involved and the lawyers

Someone came to see me last night. After an hour or so, they suddenly
blurted out that on Friday, they were divorced.

They had not wanted to be divorced and had instructed their lawyer in
writing not to proceed, but their lawyer had disregarded their instructions
and gone ahead.

Almost unbelievable, isn't it? But it is true.

My friend had discussed divorce with the lawyer and the lawyer had advised
in writing that they should not seek a divorce, advice which had been
accepted in writing. But somehow, the lawyers had got themselves in a
muddle, applied for and secured a divorce on my friend's behalf.

Relations between my friend and the lawyer had become strained over many
months, over the usual issues of efficiency and charges and I expected her
to go crazy and sue them. She would obviously win, because the lawyer had
written, and admitted what had happened and apologised.

But in giving her the evidence, the lawyer had also defused a very tricky
situation. They explained the negative financial implications were largely
unlikely to materialise, apologised and sacked themselves.

From: Reuters
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/30145/print
Published March 1, 2008 02:38 PM

Appeals court rejects sonar waiver for Navy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal appeals court has rejected White
House efforts to exempt the U.S. Navy from laws intended to protect
endangered whales and other marine mammals by curbing the use of sonar
off the California coast.

A three-judge panel late on Friday upheld a lower court order
requiring the Navy to take precautions during the sonar training to
minimize harm to marine life.

The Navy has 30 days to file an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court,
during which time it must comply with the bulk of the precautions.

A U.S. District Court in January barred the Navy's use of powerful
submarine-hunting mid-frequency active radar within 12 miles of the
coast, protecting a strip of water that is habitat for whales,
dolphins and other marine mammals.

Call to farmers after stags saved

Two deer have been found trapped in hay bail netting causing an animal
charity to ask farmers to take more care when discarding rubbish.
East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS) was called to
free a stag trapped in netting and barbed wire, in Cowden, on
Saturday.

"It was very stressed as it was so badly entangled in the netting and
wire," said spokesman Trevor Weeks.

Volunteers also rescued a stag trapped in netting at Buxted on
Tuesday.

On that occasion the discarded material had become wrapped round the
animal's antlers.

It took almost 30 minutes to cut the stag free.

On Saturday, volunteers arrived to find the stag jumping backwards and
forwards around the barbed wire fence and had to restrain it before
cutting it free.

"I managed to throw a sleeping bag over its head, and as it tripped on
the wire, I managed to gain control and pin the deer to the ground,"
said Mr Weeks.

Classic example of CONservation hooliganism being a huge failure. The
RSPB et al, Nazi inclined obsession with alien species that has led
to the wholesale slaughter of millions of animals from ruddy ducks, to
rare black rats. From forcing unhealthy populations of red squirrels
together in man made colonies, to over breeding of sea birds causing
starvation due to declining foods. It's one big cock up and it's
costing us the tax payer millions.

Isn't it about time we gave the CONservation hooligans the boot and
put real men in to conservation?

Rats! Cull of mink causes new scourge

http://tinyurl.com/2pgjy8

IT IS a prime example of the law of unintended consequences. The
high-profile £1.5m campaign to kill mink and save seabirds in the
Western Isles has led to an explosion in the numbers of egg-eating
rats, say Hebridean crofters.
Although conservationists are claiming the rats are no more plentiful,
only bolder, locals believe that the mink were keeping the rats in
their place.