Rancher Steps Forward to Quell Fear
By 250 News
The woman who operates the Vanderhoof area ranch which the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says was home to a bull with bovine TB, is coming forward in an effort to ease the fear that is growing in the region.
Lynn Weinhardt says she is not sure if the bull that tested positive for the disease came from her ranch. The bull in question was shipped from her ranch to Innisfail, Alberta, from there to Ponoka Alberta , then to a feed lot in Rimbey , Alberta and then to a slaugther house in Quebec.
Weinhardt says she believes it was human error and that in the next couple of years the CFIA will discover that it was not her bull.
She says none of the 47 cows that they took tested positive, nor did the two bulls, or the 17 calves. Those animals were taken to a slaughter house in Westwold BC.
She says scientists looking at the results of the testing of her supposed bull say that Bovine TB is different from the strain that hit Manitoba or anything like they have ever seen before.
The four dogs are still here she says , "We have to give the CFIA a history of one day in the life of the dog and a 365 days history, they also haven’t take the pigs, 13 sows, 3 boars and 26 feeders yet , nor have they taken the sheep , they say they are looking at leaving them ."
The sheep includes 35 ewes, 2 rams, and 2 goats.
In addition, Weinhardt says they were talking about taking the ranch’s llama, Monty "He is our guard dog, he looks after the cattle, the sheep ,everything thing on this ranch, we don’t want to lose him, he is priceless."
On Wednesday eight people, including reporters and nearby ranchers,met at the ranch to discuss the matter . "We have been trying to let people know who we are and why they shouldn’t be afraid of us. We have to dispel some of the fear that exists, and the most helpful people have been the ranchers living around us. "
Eight to ten ranches in the area including two other nearby farms have been placed under quarantine after the Weinhardt’s allowed a neighbor to pasture his cattle on a piece of their farm and yet another rancher who used the supposed infected bull for his heard.
Lynn Weinhardt says tthis has been a very trying time for her family;"We just have to take one step at a time."
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Posted by: Dozer on December 7 2007 12:38 PM
The guvvies and their a$$ covering make me sick. Nothing matters to them except public perception. If the media swings against these people and reports only the negative side of the issue (a crime of omission, in not reporting both sides of the story) then the government people will get on that bandwagon if they think the 'public demands it' What was it that Montana rancher was quoted as having said when b.s.e became such an issue here in May 2003? something like "when we have a problem like that, we just don't tell the media" and it does not get blown out of proportion. Thanks to Op. 250 for allowing the common sense position to be reported.
metalman.