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"Mad Sheep" Linda Faillace


kelpiegirl
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Incredible is a good term for it. It's a pack of self-serving bunk. There may be the odd factoid thrown in, but let's recount a few of the facts about these imported sheep.

 

When they were granted the importation license, the Faillaces (and two other farmers who imported at the same time) agreed to a condition that the USDA could destock all the importing farms at any time if any sheep on any of them showed symptoms of any transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, the broad classification of diseases that includes scrapie, BSE, and Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease.

 

They had to agree to this condition because the importation of live animals from Belgium was not allowed at the time. The reason for this concern was that the sheep were being imported from Belgium, a known BSE country with a history of using ruminant meat and bone meal in ruminant feeds -- the main way that TSE are transmitted under natural conditions.

 

Anyone who knows anything about TSEs -- and this would include the poor benighted farmers in this story -- knows that it can take as much as five years for symptoms to show.

 

About two years after the sheep were imported, there were a few sheep that showed classic TSE symptoms. These animals were seized and destroyed and the USDA began to try to work with the Faillaces to figure out how to destock the farms. NB that the import license did not require a positive test for BSE or any such. Just symptoms. And remember also at the time, the US was one of just a handful of BSE-free countries in the world. And remember also that the National Cattleman's Beef Association was concerned enough about maintaining that status that it had calculated how much it would cost per head of beef in the US to purchase and destroy every sheep in the US if it were proved that scrapie was the definitive source of BSE in cattle. And it was affordable. At the time, BSE in sheep was an absolute industry wrecker for sheep. No chances were to be taken.

 

A few years went by. Litigation ensued. The court issued an order condemning the sheep, by date certain. The USDA informed the Faillaices 48 hours in advance that it intended to execute the order. The court REJECTED the Fallaices request for an injunction, as the value of the sheep could be settled monitarily.

 

The Faillaces were offered something like $20,000 for every sheep condemned (even that punky bottle lamb that the little girl was carrying to the truck in soft-focus slow-motion) and turned it down to pursue further litigation.

 

We have the Faillaces to thank for the media attention and subsequent economic disasters beset the sheeps' milk cheese industry as a result of their case. Linda likes to say that it was a spontaneous outpouring of public support, but you didn't see the same thing going on at Houghton Freeman's farm where the same events were taking place. Somebody ginned up those protests and called CNN (which, incidentally, for several hours on the morning of the seizure reported that the sheep were being taken because they had foot and mouth disease).

 

For all her talk about science, Linda Faillace bases her entire case on emotion. The footage in this video is a prime example. Even knowing what bull sh!t it is, I have to admit I got a little choked up seeing those sheep being loaded up. Very effective.

 

Now, I have to say that the USDA has not covered itself in glory in this case either. Since the animals have been destroyed and tested, it has been very secretive about what was found. As expected, the vast majority of the sheep were healthy. But there were some cases of "undifferentiated transmissible spongiform encephalopathy." That's all it will say about the case -- at least in part because it is still tied up in litigation.

 

It should not have bowed to political pressure and allowed its rules to be bent for this importation -- and believe me, it will not be happening again anytime soon. They've learned that conditional approvals are worth the paper they are written on.

 

I agree with the USDA consultant and Patrick Leahy -- everything went wrong for these people. But they did a serious bit to drag the rest of the sheep industry down with them, and fortunately their case has not found much traction with the public outside of a small core group of supporters in Northern Vermont and some of the militia-minded whack jobs on the fringes of society.

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Bill - Didn't these folks also write a book about this? I seem to remember looking at one at work and, as it was written strictly from one point of view, feeling very sorry for them. Thank you for giving such a good explanation of what actually occurred.

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I didn't know that any of the sheep had demonstrated any signs of the disease- that puts a whole new light on it. It sounds like they should never have been able to import the sheep in the first place- if the concern was so great, then it shouldn't have happened. How has the sheep dairy business been affected by this?

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First, yes there was a book written, By Linda Fallice. Secondly, yes there were some sheep that were showing signs, but they neglect to tell you this in the book.

I had a very close interaction with these events, as the location of these sheep is just about a mile down the road from me. I feel bad for the children in this situation, as they did most of the chores and work with the animals (the youngest daughter carrying the lamb makes INCREDABLE cheese) Larry and Linda did know what they were getting into when starting out on this venture, and for some reason unbenounced to me insisted on bringing in from Belgium. We live in a very "political" area of Vermont, the Mad River Valley. People around here love to rally for the underdog against the government, and there are people who know everyone around here, that's how the media was constantly invlolved, makes it much more dramatic. What they didn't show were the farmers around the area who were also affected. My cousins who have their dairy heiffers within 1/4 mile of the sheep, and myself were approached by the USDA and were notified that if there were any concerns about our animals being in contact with the imports, we to could be in for a long haul. Also, needless to say these sheep were out constantly walking the road, but thankfully never actually got in with any of our stock. From some of the conversations that I've ahd with their son, they were offered the cash settlement, but refused, based on what they thought they could do with their business, however, the kids educations to some of the top colleges in the country are paid for and neither Larry or Linda are working other than her book tours as of now. I know that one of the other farms has started over with a different flock, and is doing quite well in his ventures, the other decided that he really didn't want to deal with farming.

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Hi Julie,

 

The effect, thankfully, was short lived despite Linda's efforts to keep the issue alive and in front of the public. What happened was that all sheep's milk cheeses and all Vermont cheeses suddenly stopped selling all over the country as people who buy them freaked out about the risk of getting CJD from them. Sales of Vermont lamb products also dipped, and so did tourism (although it's pretty hard to pin that on just one event).

 

But once the news reports faded, the markets recovered. If I recall correctly, the slump in Vermont-made sheep's milk cheeses, which was the hardest hit segment, was about six months long.

 

Kim's point that these folks knew what they were getting into is also a very good point, and one that bears repeating. Linda loves to play the naive victim crushed under the iron fist of a heartless federal machine. But she and Larry were very good at working that machine to get what they wanted initially, and it's a little disingenuous for them to act as if they were deer in the headlights when the machine played by the rules that they, themselves, had negotiated.

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PS -- I know some of what I know about the import license because I was contacted about buying a share in one of the dairy rams they were importing. They selling five shares at $10,000 a share. The biggest problem was that I wouldn't be able to have any of the offspring because of the terms of the license. If the farm had stayed clear for five years, I would have been eligible to get some of his granddaughters.

 

The alternative was to subject my entire flock to the terms of his import license.

 

Even if I had had the cash (which I didn't) I wouldn't have been interested because the terms of the license made it too risky.

 

And another thing to remember is that this method of controlling TSE's in sheep -- destocking the entire flock and other flocks with members of the same birth cohorts -- was state of the art until the late 1990s. Although usually the sheep were euthanized in a pit on the farm and either burned or buried right there. Gruesome business, but part of the deal when you keep stock. Your right to keep livestock ends when it starts to interfere with the health of the neighbor's animals or with the livelihoods of other farmers.

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Well put Bill!

We've been approached several times (even now) by many people as to why we didn't participate in their rallies. Even other small sheep farmers in the Valley didn't understand. To them, it was th government against the little guy. The proximity and events didn't affect them. I worked for the local vet at the time this was all going on, and saw what symptoms this stock was showing. It was a bit concerning to us, and I was advised to move my flock to our upper pasture so that it would be harder for the two to inter mix if the events did come to pass.

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