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From: "grumpy7" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology"
<[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Fw: English tragedy
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 09:08:12 -0600


----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
And we beekeepers think we have problems.

The letter below should give us a close-up view of what is going on in
England.  It is a long missive, but worth reading.

Walter Weller

From:  The Revd Jeff & The Revd Rosie Radcliffe,
The Rectory, Lilac House, Lowther Newtown, Cumbria. CA10  2HH, U.K.

FOOT AND MOUTH,  CUMBRIA,  March, 2001

It's hard to describe what it's actually like living here in this group of
country villages on the eastern edge of the Lake District at this point in
time.  The media coverage doesn't give a picture of the "siege mentality"
which has overtaken us, the news reports seem almost "sanitised" and are
careful to play down the situation.  We understand that it may be important
to do so, but in this place the reality is very different.

We are surrounded by a cluster of confirmed cases, the latest within a
mile.  The funeral pyre at Tirril, 4 miles away, has been burning now for
over a week, the column of smoke a constant reminder of the crisis.  The
smell is indescribable - not just burning flesh, but rotten burning flesh
and the creosote which is used to keep the fires going. There are thousands
and thousands of carcasses to be destroyed and the burning can't keep up
with it >all, so a convoy of covered lorries containing some carcasses
quietly slipped south a few days ago, on their way to a rendering plant.

Everywhere you go, and you do try not to go anywhere unless you must,
there is straw across roads and gateways, large signs saying Do Not
Enter, roadblocks even.  The smell of anti-viral disinfectant is
pervasive.

No vehicle of any kind can now come onto the Lowther Estate without
disinfectant being sprayed up into the wheel arches.  There is no-one
about, nothing moves, everyone stays at home except to visit the
supermarket and do the school run. The pubs are empty and local
businesses which rely on tourism are facing a bleak future.

We ran out of wood for the fire but there's no more to be had anywhere
because no-one can get on the land to collect fallen trees, so for now
we survive with a Calor gas heater.  Nothing happens - every meeting is
cancelled, many churches and some schools are closed because of exclusion
zones.

As Rector of a group of rural parishes, Jeff spends nearly all his time
on the phone to desperate local farmers and their families - either locked
in their homes because they've already got the virus, or desperately
pulling up the drawbridge and living in constant fear that they will be
next.  A neighbouring vicar was called in by a distraught farming family
to bless their land and stock, but not before his wellies had been
thoroughly disinfected.  The MAFF vet who was called to our latest case
even burned the biro he had used to fill in the form confirming the
outbreak.  Humans can incubate the disease and breathe it out for 5 days,
so we try to go nowhere, do nothing.

Behind us the lambing sheds of the Home Farm should be full of hundreds
of ewes about to give birth, but the sheep are all out in the fields and
can't be brought in because of the movement restrictions within the
exclusion zone. The grass in the fields is all but gone and if the sheep
aren't slaughtered because of the virus they may die anyway of starvation;
the land will take months to recover. The Government is now considering the
slaughter of half a million pregnant ewes who cannot safely he brought in
for lambing.  We pray that it will not come to that.

Army marksmen have now been called in to destroy as necessary sheep which
roam free on the fells - many thousands of them. They may also have to
cull the deer which range wild across the whole area. Having a split hoof
they, too, are vulnerable to this infection and cross land boundaries
without fear or favour. One infected deer could turn an outbreak into an
epidemic.

Unthinking tourists make us all so angry. Two women with dogs loose were
stopped trying to climb the stile in front of us into the park farmland...
where there were sheep!  When the notices about the closure of footpaths
were pointed out they insisted that they had a legal "right to roam".

You still see a few tourists driving about in four wheel drives, and you
want to tell them to go home, although local businesses need whatever
revenue they might bring in.  The responsible ramblers have stayed away

The Government insists the situation is under control but it feels like a
State of Emergency, in our small corner of the world at least.  Cumbria
contains one quarter of all the cases to date, mainly in the Penrith area.
We almost wish they would call the Army in because they might exercise some
control over those few people who blatantly flout the disease precaution
guidelines.   Today we've heard of one farmer who loaded up his (obviously
diseased) sheep and took them to the local abattoir, under the limited
licence to transport.  He must have known they were infected, but he took
them through local farmland to reach his destination, with the result that
all the 1,000 sheep at the slaughterhouse, including his own, must now be
killed and the carcasses destroyed.  The abattoir is fundamentally out of
business and farms on his route are at great risk.

If you're feeling heartily sick of all the news coverage about the outbreak
then think again. We're desperate for information and advice on what to do,
or not do, and the TV and radio provide what little there is. NFU and MAFF
briefings on the internet help to complete the picture. The local radio
station hourly gives out helpline numbers for desperate farmers. It can
only be a matter of time before the first suicide is recorded.

Those farm families on which the dread news of a confirmed outbreak has
fallen must sit tight in their houses while their life's work is destroyed.
Even when the animals are all disposed of, the land and all buildings must
be thoroughly disinfected, and they will not be allowed to re-stock for up
to six months, even if they have the heart and the resources to do so.

Pray for the farmers and the country people who are living with this daily-
the fear is palpable.  Many country people will have no jobs because both
farming and tourism are shuddering to a halt.  Be responsible about your
movements - we've called off a trip to see our daughter in Leicester
because we couldn't live with ourselves if we transported the infection.
By agreement, for the foreseeable future Rosie shall not be traveling the
10 miles to her job as Assistant Priest in a parish a few miles away, but
will do what she can on the home front.

Rosie & Jeff.