By Charles Clover, Environment Editor The Telegraph

THE carcasses of 1,500 sheep slaughtered five weeks ago because they were infected with foot and mouth are to be dug up and burned by Maff after blood was found bubbling up from the ground. The sheep were buried at Buttington Hall, between Trewern and Welshpool, Powys, after the disease was confirmed on March 26. The Environment Agency has expressed concern that pollution could enter water supplies or the Severn. It follows the discovery a week ago that 15,000 sheep buried on the Army firing ranges at Epynt, mid-Wales, were leaking body fluids into the water table and would have to be dug up and burned. Richard Tutton, who farms at Buttington Hall, said: "They were buried five weeks ago. The pit was very tidy, efficient and deep. "We have had horrendous rain since then. Water has got in beneath and it was sort of bubbling up ............" Snip

-- Ron Trapnell (fridayfiles@space.com), April 28, 2001

Answers

Duh!!!! It doesn't take any one very smart to figure that one out! They MIGHT be able to get away with such a program in the middle of the Gobi desert, but hardly the wet soggy UK. I think everyone connected with this problem, except the farmers, has sh-- for brains. And thats the biggest problem is its run by the beaurocrats! And they don't have a clue as to which end of a cow gives milk!

-- Taz (Tassie123@aol.com), April 28, 2001.

I just checked my post and when I followed the link I found:

Sorry. The page you requested is no longer available.

That article was just posted today (Saturday 28 April 2001) Hmmmmm ....... The truth IS out there but doesn't hang around for long.

Fortunately I had saved it so here's the entire article plus the other story linked to from this one follows.

1,500 sheep to be dug up as body fluid leaks

By Charles Clover, Environment Editor The Telegraph ISSUE 2164 Saturday 28 April 2001

THE carcasses of 1,500 sheep slaughtered five weeks ago because they were infected with foot and mouth are to be dug up and burned by Maff after blood was found bubbling up from the ground.

The sheep were buried at Buttington Hall, between Trewern and Welshpool, Powys, after the disease was confirmed on March 26. The Environment Agency has expressed concern that pollution could enter water supplies or the Severn.

It follows the discovery a week ago that 15,000 sheep buried on the Army firing ranges at Epynt, mid-Wales, were leaking body fluids into the water table and would have to be dug up and burned. Richard Tutton, who farms at Buttington Hall, said: "They were buried five weeks ago. The pit was very tidy, efficient and deep.

"We have had horrendous rain since then. Water has got in beneath and it was sort of bubbling up. It has not reached the river or anything. They are catching it before anything happens."

He was informed by the ministry on Thursday that it would be coming this weekend to exhume the carcasses and burn them. Allan Owen, group secretary for the National Farmers' Union in Welshpool, said: "It underlines the shambles of the whole situation."

He said that in his area some farmers were still waiting for compensation six weeks after their livestock had been slaughtered; the ministry had promised to pay it within 14 days. Four days before the Epynt case, the carcasses of nearly 900 cattle and sheep had to be moved when a farmer's water supply became discoloured near Tow Law, Co Durham.

The Environment Agency has said burial on farms is its least favoured option; it prefers purpose-built incinerators and rendering plants and engineered landfill sites. The Brigitte Bardot Foundation called on the Government yesterday to reprieve a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig called Porky which is due to be slaughtered under the pre-emptive cull. The 18st family pet lives in a bungalow with George Stone, 78, and his wife Sadie, 80, in the village of Ruthwell Station, Dumfries.

Maff officials have said they may have to force entry to the property if the couple do not co-operate. The family's lawyer is in discussion with the Scottish Executive.

Thought I'd post this before it disappears too!

Carcasses 'buried in the wrong place'

The Telegraph ISSUE 2139 Tuesday 3 April 2001

THE carcasses of nearly 900 cattle and sheep, culled because of the foot and mouth crisis, will have to be exhumed because they were buried in the wrong place, the Ministry of Agriculture has said.

The mistake sparked fears that the carcasses could pollute an underground spring which runs between two villages and supplies local farms near Tow Law, County Durham. Potential pollution problems emerged after the farmer's domestic water supply became discoloured. Ministry of Agriculture officials allowed the use of the "unsuitable" site for the disposal of the 650 sheep and 242 cattle which were slaughtered more than two weeks ago. An Environment Agency spokeswoman said it would monitor the situation but were not aware of any evidence of the underground spring being contaminated. "We are consulted on burial and we do give advice about the suitability of sites, but then it is up to Maff and the farmers what they do. In this case we advised this site was not suitable but for whatever reason that advice was not followed," she said.

The grim task of digging up the rotting carcasses is to be performed under the supervision of Army personnel stationed in the North East and is expected to begin on Friday.

-- Ron Trapnell (fridayfiles@space.com), April 28, 2001.

Anyone else having trouble with the links my previuos post?

Upon checking the answer to my post regarding the link that went to a "....page you requested is no longer available", I found that the other links:

The Telegraph

and

The Telegraph

opened a "Save as" window in my browser instead of linking to the story! (The status line at the bottom of the browsers says:

"Connect etc...

Contacting etc....

Contacted etc......"

I tried 2 different versions of Netscape and the results are the same.

Anyone have any idea if this is a fault in my formatting of the link or something FAR MORE SINISTER?

-- Ron Trapnell (fridayfiles@space.com), April 28, 2001.

Sorry, forgot to remove the little pointy brackets.

first link: (a href=http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003634290503340&rtmo=QwawOSpR &atmo=gggggg3K&pg=/et/0 1/4/28/nfnm328.html)The Telegraph(/a)

second link:

(a href=http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=003634290503340&rtmo=qxbxJLX9 &atmo=tttttttd&pg=/et/01/4/3/nfo ot03.html)The Telegraph(/a)

I've substituted the "<" and ">" with "(" and ")" respectively for this post, hope it works this time.

-- Ron Trapnell (fridayfiles@space.com), April 28, 2001.