Page 18 - Hillside Anniversay Newsletter
P. 18

and Mouth Farm
E Disease was Detected...

   premises. Instead, we reported our concerns to the appropriate
   authorities, expecting them to investigate.
   The farm was inspected by Trading Standards and MAFF (now
   DEFRA) but they claimed they could find no prosecutable offences.
   During a further annual inspection, again nothing was done to
   improve conditions on the farm. Only two months later, Burnside
   Farm was identified as the origin of the Foot and Mouth outbreak,
   after meat was traced from Cheale Meats, where the disease was
   first found in February 2001, back to Burnside Farm.
   As we watched events unfold, we were horrified that the farm,
   reported by Hillside, and twice inspected, was allowed to remain free
   to transport Foot and Mouth diseased animals to slaughterhouses.
   Waugh was later prosecuted for failing to alert the authorities about
   the disease but not for keeping his pigs suffering in squalor.

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