50 KILLER QUESTIONS

For: TONY BLAIR

16th.April 2001

Dear Mr Blair: 

Here are 50 questions we would like answered about foot and mouth disease. 

We are now in the ninth week of outbreaks. 

So far MAFF has killed more than a million healthy sheep, cattle, pigs, goats, alpacas, llamas, and bison. 

THE WELFARE OF ANIMALS AND HUMANS AND THE ECONOMY GENERALLY HAS BEEN SERIOUSLY COMPROMISED. 

We want to know why. 

You have prevaricated on the vaccination question for weeks. The NFU have asked you 50 questions about vaccination but why should vaccination be forced to meet the exclusive burden of proof? Why isn't the slaughter policy subject to similar question? 

You were elected on a manifesto promising increased respect for animal welfare yet you are presiding over the biggest animal welfare crisis in modern British history. 

National F&M Planning 

1.	.	Why is it necessary to slaughter healthy animals and to compound the apparent folly destroy perfectly good food by the 10s of 1,000s of tons? 

2.	Is there a national F&M plan, does your Government have a plan and if so will you publish it? Under what circumstances does this plan consider the use of vaccination? 

3.	Has the national F&M plan ever been simulated in an exercise involving all relevant authorities? 

4.	Has the UK ever participated in a simulation of its F&M control plan since the last major outbreak in 1967? 

5.	Is the government aware of any pan-European F&M simulations and has the government participated in any such multi-national simulations either under the aegis of the EU or bilaterally? 

6.	Is the Government or its agents in any way responsible for this outbreak, concealing this outbreak or failing to inform the people of facts which an honest enquiry would have expected them to; either for their political ends or for the gain of a foreign power such as the EU? 

7.	Prior to the commencement of the current outbreak, did MAFF take into account the conclusions and recommendations of the report on the 1967 outbreak, before embarking on the slaughter-and-destroy policy decided upon at the start of this outbreak and have they, even now learned anything from the report on the 1967 outbreak? 

8.	Did the Environment Agency plan for or simulate carcass disposal from a logistical &/or environmental perspective and list all such meetings since last August? 

9.	With whom has the government consulted in formulating its comprehensive national F&M plan – assuming there to be one and please list all meetings with and without members of the EU present since August? 

10.	Please list all ministerial meetings since last August that have in any way addressed F&M with and without representatives of the National Farmers Union, the Scottish National Farmers Union and MAFF. What proportion of farmers belong to these organisations and what proportion of them are arable farmers? Do you consider these organisations to be democratic or even representative of the majority of livestock farmers? 

FMD Operations 

11.	What information is provided on the summaries sent daily to Downing Street from the MAFF operations room and why is this not made a matter of immediate public record? 

12.	What are your average current daily disposal, designation for kill and kill rates, do they stand inspection nationwide relative to target time for designation / kill / disposal – what are these figures? 

13.	What is your average time between designation, kill and disposal across the Nation? 

14.	What is your response to allegations that pyres release Dioxins, PCBs and BSE prions plus F&M virus itself and on what hard scientific provenance is your answer? 

15.	Please list all pyre sites situated within 2 miles of any rural settlement, village or town. 

16.	How many police officers are deployed and how many arrests have been made in the course of police F&M support operations and is this expected to significantly effect crime and police work elsewhere and in what way? 

17.	How many incidents have been reported of violations of the Welfare of Animals (Slaughter or Killing) Regulations 1995 and please give the details of the independent agencies scrutinising the work of the Government agencies The Army, Maff, vets & NFU? 

18.	How do you respond to allegations of disastrous and predicted ground water contamination at Epynt Mountain and numerous other sites throughout the UK? 

19.	How many dead carcasses do you intend to transport and for what average distance, what percentage of this will be through F&M free territory? 

20.	How many incidents have the environmental health operators had reported to them on local contamination from transport spillages and what percentage of the whole is this estimated to be and many people have noticed infection follows the smoke plume of MAFF’s pyres. What independent scientific studies have you put in place to test these assertions?

Common sense questions 

21.	MAFF say the disease dies with the animal, so there is no need to burn in a hurry, MAFF has also said the disease could have come into the country on illegally imported meat and the report on the 1967 outbreak clearly states that burning can spread the disease. Which of these contentions do you consider to be a lie and on what evidence do you base that? 

22.	Did you know that Professor Fred Brown FRS, former head of science at Pirbright and now senior F&M consultant to the United States government, says it is "ludicrous" to slaughter vaccinated animals as they can be reliably tested to distinguish them from infected animals. 

23.	Do you realise that the EU is our largest single competitor for the same markets and yet they are making all the decisions how to manage F&M when it is in their interests to close down The British Livestock Industry?

24.	Did you know that MAFF is employing agents in Cumbria to seek out pet goats so they can be killed and that the entire Bison herd from a cattle sanctuary was exterminated and that police arrested a woman who came home to find MAFF’s agents killing her healthy pet goat? 

25.	Did you know that the peoples of Britain are becoming increasingly disgusted at the way the EU is running this Country and your inability to represent the majority wish to leave the EU and Govern our own country democratically? 

26	Did you know that the National Farmer's Union's president and council are not accountable to members on the basis of one-man-one vote - a principal at the heart of New Labour, nor do they represent even the majority of livestock farmers? 

27.	Did you know that when the United States, Mexico and Canada jointly simulated a massive F&M outbreak in November 2000, all three chief vets chose to employ vaccination as part of the simulated control strategy? 

28.	Did you know they did this because the computer models showed that vaccine was the most effective means to retard the outbreak, whereas it is understood that the models run in Britain on which policy is claimed to rest fails to address the facts as they are rather than as they should be and is thus fatally flawed? 

29.	Did you know that the test to differentiate a vaccinated and infected animal is just a readily available simple blood test? 

30.	The EU has approved vaccination for both Cumbria and Devon. Why has it not been implemented and do you not believe that Britain should make such decisions about a major British industry not a foreign competitor? 

F&M strategy 

31.	If you do not vaccinate, is there an upper limit on the number of animals you propose to kill or has the EU not set such a figure for you yet? 

32.	Who is invited to the daily stakeholders meetings at MAFF and who is in charge of the agenda and the decision making? 

33.	Why is no representative of any organisation opposed to the slaughter invited to these meetings? 

34.	How many comparative computer simulations are available are they based on models or on facts and what are their current reports? 

35.	What does wind plume data from the Met office 'Name' data base show about the infection plume and its spread with especial relevance to the spread of F&M and currently uninfected areas? 

36.	Why does Dr. Wang of United Biomedical Inc. report that her efforts to assist in the F&M control efforts through the use of a test kit immediately available that can distinguish vaccinated from infected animals, have been declined? 

37.	Is there a policy decision of accepting only foreign help when it offers to kill animals and to decline any foreign support that offers solutions as to how to save them? 

38.	Will you increase the frequency and sensitivity of air and water quality monitoring around environmental impact sites making the information available on the public record? 

39	Will you meet personally with local delegations to hear directly of the environmental catastrophes that have been visited upon then as a result of the slaughter policy? 

40	Will you investigate allegations of poor disinfection and unlawful conduct by government agents making it the subject of a full public enquiry by an independent body? 

F&M Economics and Security 

41.	What is your understanding of the current trading position with respect to live animal and meat exports and imports and the current position for the acceptance by the United Kingdom of meat from vaccinated animals and animals where F&M is common or endemic? 

42.	Is the government aware of any cost-benefit analysis applied to the current slaughter policy concerning its impacts on other sectors such as equestrianism, hospitality, visitor attractions, sport, retailing, transportation and education? 

43.	In terms of compensation, what is the number of farmers/operators who will receive more than £10m in compensation? 

44.	What is the largest single compensation claim in process at this time? 

45.	How many farmers/operators will receive more than £1m? 

46.	What is the average daily cost of current F&M operations? 

47.	What are the anticipated contingent costs including environmental clean up and compensation claims and how many years of meat export profit will it take to recoup this? 

48.	What are the recorded biosecurity incidents for F&M material in UK labs both criminal and accidental? Has F&M material been stored researched or mutated at more than one location and is all such material accounted for? 

49.	What is the number of countries in which vaccination against F&M is routine or the disease is common or endemic from which the UK routinely imports meat and is this Britain’s choice or an EU imposed decision? 

50.	What is the maximum marginal profit / cost to the UK export position in a comparison of vaccination versus slaughter? 

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