Save Our Shrops!

Rare Breeds Canada (RBC) was approached by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) in October, asking for a recommendation of someone who could evaluate some (undisclosed) Shropshire sheep as they were about to be culled due to ‘suspected Scrapie contact’.

You will find below a collection of links RBC has received during the last few days regarding the flock of Shropshire Sheep owned by Montana Jones in Hastings, Ontario.  To her credit, Montana has taken a proactive role, and the links below will show what has happened so far.

If you have any suggestions please do not hesitate to contact the RBC office, or myself, Elwood Quinn RBC Livestock Chair.

We will be only too pleased to share your thoughts & comments of support.

Let’s hope common sense will prevail.....it is so rarely seen these days it’s often mistaken for genius.

Montana’s website is www.wholearth.com   Her telephone number is 705-696-2256 and her email address is farm@wholearth.com

Many thanks for your time & consideration.

Seasons Greetings & All the Very Best to You & Yours in 2012.

Sincerely,
Elwood Quinn
RBC Livestock Chair

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1099413

Check out this link and pass onto anyone you can think of.

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-cfia-slaughter-of-healthy-rare-heritage-shropshire-sheep

The RBC Office received the latest edition magazine for ‘Ecological Farming in Ontario’ this morning, and it too had an article about the urgent situation surrounding Montana’s Shropshire Sheep.

Words from Montana Jones:
Dear farm, food and life friends,

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has elected to destroy my healthy flock of rare breed Shropshire sheep, despite all their negative test results.  They are not just my sheep...they are Canada’s heritage sheep.  I am opposing the CFIA because there is no evidence of any scrapie on the farm or in the flock.  I am asking for your help to preserve their genetics too.

If we lose the fight to save them, and CFIA kills the targeted 44 animals, the breed will be several steps closer to extinction with only 107 registered breeding females, 38 ewe lambs and 16 rams remaining in Canada.

Even America’s best known farmer and agricultural activist Joel Salatin is upset by the possibility of their disappearance.  “CFIA’s intent to annihilate the Wholearth flock of Shropshire sheep owned by Montana Jones is deeply troubling,” Salatin wrote to the CFIA.  “Without credible tests that empirically prove the existence of scrapie, to proceed with the planned extermination is both unscientific and tyrannical.”

I have attached a .pdf news release and urge you to forward this to as many people as you can, be they farmers, producers, animals lovers, chefs who want traditional heritage meats on their future menus, friends, animals rights organizations, agricultural groups, breed associations, etc... or just people who are starting to realize our government may be making wrong choices for us when it comes to food and farming.

Please support this cause and sign the petition to
Save Our Shropshires (http://shropshiresheep.org).

We have over 1,200 signatures in 72 hours! We’re aiming for 5,000 or more so CFIA and Minister of Agriculture Gerry Ritz will listen to your voice!

My goal is for CFIA and Agriculture Canada to implement an alternative course to the present, outdated scrapie protocol.

My proposed rare heritage breed exemption for flocks would include on-farm monitoring, quarantine, surveillance and continued selective breeding to increase breed population, while still submitting the obexes of any dead sheep (that die naturally or at abattoir) for testing.

The pilot project CFIA proposes is not an option.  With it, the sheep and genetics are still destroyed.

CFIA has advised me I have until New Years Eve to apply for a pilot project that would mean I must:
1. Declare my farm “infected” when it isn’t; (they agree it is not infected)
2. Let them destroy all rams NOW;
3. Keep the QQ ewes for now and use an RR ram for 2 years
4. THEN let them destroy all the QQ ewes anyway.  I asked why still destroy the ewes after 2 years when that time allows even more live testing and likely even more negative results!?  So I will not agree to that...not agree to killing all my rare Miller line sons, not agree to kill the ewes in 2 years, and not agree to lie and say my farm is infected when it is NOT — CFIA has found no trace of scrapie.  I’ve had my flock for 12 years, and in that time no signs, nor symptoms...nor have any folks I’ve sold sheep to.  CFIA has advised me they will then proceed with an order of destruction in early January.

Letters can be copied to me and sent to Minister of Agriculture, CFIA, local MP:
Hon Gerry Ritz correspondancem@agr.gc.ca
Noel Harrington noel.harrington@inspection.gc.ca
Douglas MacLeod douglas.macleod@inspection.gc.ca
Rick Norlock Norlock.R@parl.gc.ca
Hon Gerry Ritz gerry.ritz@parl.gc.ca
Hon Gerry Ritz Ritz.G@parl.gc.ca
Cc: farm@shropshiresheep.org

For more information, visit http://shropshiresheep.org/