GREENLEAF MAGAZINE

By accident or divine design a young calf "Phoenix" missed being killed and was found by the side of her dead mother. This animal had no signs of disease. MAFF officials promised to return to complete the statutory cull - except they haven't. Pictures of the white calf "Phoenix" have been flashed about the media and the government have chosen to refine their policy, and spare some cattle from slaughter. It is not only the official opposition who are saying, why couldn't this "refinement" have taken place weeks ago? Have thousands of healthy animals been needlessly killed? Certainly some distraught farmers are asking this question.

Many of you will know that to the American Indians a White Buffalo which is very occasionally born is a sacred being, and a sign from the spirit world. Lisa Thiel sings a song "White Buffalo Woman" which is a song of devotion. Thus there seems to be an odd echo here, in the strange tale of Pheonix the white calf, who rather than bound for slaughter, is to be kept as breeding stock. And has played a part in reducing the culling of her tribe.

The unofficial opposition, is saying, stop -ALL- the slaughter, it is not necessary, and make the vaccine freely available. This may seem a contentious even irresponsible message to some. But we are presenting their document here, so you can make up your own minds. Some will be ready to support the campaign on emotional or moral grounds.

Others will not have an opinion until they have learned much more about the facts. The Green University, has carried out a search and investigation into these complicated issues and may be publishing more details in due course.

George

Click here to go straight to the Petition

Greetings to all fellow wisdom workers and fellow wonderers,

I am writing this from the county of Powys in Mid Wales, which in recent weeks, along with other parts of the countryside, has witnessed the compulsory mass slaughtering of hoofed animals for supposedly "economic" reasons due to foot and mouth disease. In the entire country some 2 million animals so far have been killed., The full figures as they unfold can be accessed at: sheepdrove.com or by joining the discussion group at: footandmouth

The accompanying notes and petition letter make clear to all hopefully that after considering the matter in great depth, and having consulted widely with varying scientific, political and economic experts, I was forced to the conclusion that the current government policy of mass compulsory slaughter is fundamentally wrong, unethical and very possibly illegal.

I was forced to this realization with great reluctance since previously I have been a supporter of the current government on many areas of policy., This is the first major disagreement I have had with them.

I believe they are wrong for the following reasons:

1. Foot and mouth is not a fatal disease in animals - the animals recover naturally after a few weeks and go on to live healthy and productive and normal lives.

2. The spread of the disease could be immediately and easily prevented by an optional mass vaccination programme.

3. For those farmers and keepers of animals who do not wish to vaccinate - they could let their animals recover anyway - or they could use homeopathic remedies.

4. The total loss to the British economic - nationwide - as a result of this policy of mass culling and the hysterical reaction to foot and mouth is already totaling billions of pounds.

5. This figure of total losses to the economy will rise and rise and continue into astronomical proportions unless and until this policy is reversed (and I do not mean by having successfully killed all the animals of the UK). Not surprisingly local businesses are very badly effected. Local MP Lembit Opik is holding a meeting with leaders of local businesses in Mid Wales on April 27 to hear their stories, but many local businesses are laying off staff due to a general downturn in trade. In Cumbria and Devon the situation is similar. A tale of utter devastation which whole swathes of the countryside may never recover from.

6. This figure of losses already far outweighs any possible benefits accruing from the false behemoth of "foot and mouth free status" and subsequent resumption of agricultural exports. If you add the incalculable environmental damage caused by dioxins being released from burning pyres, or pollutants from burial sites seeping into the water table, the figures are even more out of balance.

7. Communities however are not simply economic statistics - the psyche of the rural areas has been devastated by this policy of mass culling. People are not stupid - and even those without access to the web - can see that the media have been representing with pro-government spin, the real facts on the ground. People can see for themselves the empty fields, the mounds of carcasses, the burning pyres. Suicides are on the increase. The MP for Montgomeryshire's office has been officially notified of 3 farming suicides in Montgomeryshire alone recently as a probably direct result of foot and mouth.

8. Friends of mine with psychic sensitivity and clairvoyance have reported that the effect of this mass devastation on the inner planes, and on the collective psyche of the nation is absolutely deadening. I can also verify this personally. To live amidst a landscape dotted with burning pyres and with the sickening smell of burning animals flesh week after week is one of the most horrific experiences I have lived through in my lifetime, all the more so because common sense, reason and my academic and scientific training teach me to know beyond a shadow of doubt that this policy is completely and absolutely unnecessary.

9. Pagans traditionally reverence and indeed worship all aspects of mother nature - we come from her - and to her we will return, as we sing in a well known song "Hoof and Horn". Cernunnos, Lord of the animals, is one of the most sacred deities of both the ancient Celts and the modern Wiccans. Artemis for the Greeks and Diana for the Romans are likewise guardians of the animals and the wilds of nature. The current policy is a violation of their domain by people ignorant of nature's spiritual laws. The cow has been sacred to all pagan civilizations from time immemorial. Some pagans are vegetarians, but for those who are not, the willful killing of animals, apart from for needed sustenance, is utterly against cosmic and natural law. It has supreme karmic consequences for those who commit such barbarities. Eye witnesses of the killing fields in Powys have reported pregnant animals (sheep and cows) being placed alive on pyres and being burnt alive, among many other grotesque brutalities. This policy of mass culling in the name of "economic reason" is a further sign of the infinite distance we have come from an attitude of reverence for life and thankfulness to the Creator Spirit for the beauties and mercies of being alive. Homo Sapiens has depended on the bond and friendship with animals for our sustenance ever since the Neolithic revolution, pioneered by Pagan communities who reverenced the Great Cosmic Mother (Crete , Anatolia, Zagros Mountains, Balkans, Indus Valley, Egypt, China. Animals were reverenced, not (as anti Pagans put it) "as deities" - but rather for the divine spirit within them - as cats, horses, goats, cows, dogs, sheep, fish, birds etc.

For the above 10 reasons, therefore, this open letter is therefore addressed to all members of the scattered pagan community, whatever your faith, whatever your specific belief - to all who reverence life and worship the divine immanent in nature as well as the Great Creator Spirit who lies hidden in the inmost Mystery within us all.

It is a plea that you find out more about what is actually going on - that you send prayers of healing for all those involved in this struggle for common sense and ethics - that you add your name to the petition we have started from the Global Green University (and which already has signatures from many good people worldwide). If you have a specific case of urgent MAFF attack going on, then please join the smart group detailed above for up to the minute advice and direction on legal resistance strategies. If you are being intimidated or bullied by MAFF officials, then please keep detailed records of your communications with them, in writing, and consider taking the case to the Parliamentary Ombudsman who can investigate cases of Government Ministry administrative error or abuse of powers (this is something which has to be pursued formally through an MP - more details available on request from the Green University).

Pagan means "country dweller" - This blatant attack on the rights of country dwellers, and the forced killing of animals even against the express wishes of their owners, and even when they not been proven to have the diseases all this raises fundamental questions about the rights of country dweller and all the pagans among them who wish to live at peace with their animals and crops and flower and fields and hills without interference from government officials dressed in white overalls.

Pagans are also suffering in the countryside since for over 2 months we have been denied access to our native woods, hills, fields, country paths, etc. The government is keen to spin to the worlds media that Britain is open for business - as if nature were simply a recreational tool to bring tourists to this country. As a Canadian citizen from the land of the great open spaces of North America - I would say to my North American brethren - stay away until this madness is finished. This is a people whose leaders do not understand the importance of nature in and of itself - who do not realise that animals have rights - who do not realise that people have spiritual needs - that pagans and druids and Wiccans and all the country people who follow the ancient holy ways also have rights and those rights are being totally ignored and trampled on. The very same crimes that were committed against the North American Indian civilization and the destruction of their animal herds are now being visited on the farmers of Britain. Some may say this is a law of karmic retribution - but I say - let grace and forgiveness and healing and deep peacemaking heal these wounds on all sides of the great ocean.

Furthermore, while some pagans natural complain that sacred sites such as Stonehenge are fenced off from access except under managed circumstances - and this is an issue which PADRAS is much involved with - how much more eloquently should our dissenting voices be raised at the fact that the ENTIRE COUNTRYSIDE has been fenced off from access to all who would go and visit there for over TWO MONTHS.

I beseech you, therefore, pagan sisters and brothers who may read this in days to come, to raise your voices with us, whether through the services of the organization PAGAN AND DRUID RIGHTS AND SERVICES or through whatsoever of your own organizations, covens, groves, lodges, circles or whatsoever other structures you practice - to join us in supporting the accompanying letter and by writing in to support this campaign initiated by the GLOBAL GREEN UNIVERSITY (SCHOOL OF NONVIOLENCE) specifically in your capacity as religious and spiritual people who follow the old and eternal ways and whose hearts are saddened at the way in which our voices have once again not even been thought of, let alone heard.

From a Druid perspective, the current policy is likewise immoral for all the reasons given above, and no doubt many others you yourselves can think of - and it is very worth remembering that it was the Ancient Celtic peoples, to whom the Druids were their ethical and spiritual leaders, who first brought the fruits of the Neolithic revolution to these islands. In Ireland and Wales cattle and sheep and goats and horses and pigs and deer have always been sacred with innumerable folk tales and myths built up around them.

Now the foot and mouth disease is also in the wild deer population it will be impossible to contain without vaccination (unless the government seriously intends to cull the entire wild deer population of the UK) which means the sooner they get on with it the better.

Come, pray with us, let us smoke on this - and pray for healing and wisdom to the elders of this nation - that their eyes may be opened to the enormity of the foolishness of what they have done.

Let us take counsel together as to the deep and long term causes of this madness - the way in which farming has become so removed from a sustainable way of life - the way in which animals are regarded as without rights or feelings or souls. have we ourselves not lost our souls an dour way ?

As Pagans, and Druids and Wiccans and all who follow the ancient nature paths, we must stand together at this critical time and say, in harmony with followers of all faiths and religions - ENOUGH IS ENOUGH - STOP THIS MAD KILLING MACHINE - LET LOVE AND NONVIOLENCE AND RESPECT FOR ALL LIFE DETERMINE OUR POLICIES FIRST.

I close as when the American Indians say, when they finish a prayer or sacred ceremony, equivalent to Amen,

MITAKUYE OYASIN - "WE ARE ALL RELATED "

The letter was originally shared on April 15 on an email discussion group footandmouth concerned with preventing continuing suffering to farmers and animals over the current foot and mouth policies. This is now being shared in printed form for people without email access, worldwide. It is being shared with members of the scientific community, farmers, agricultural experts, ecologists, philosophers, and everyone who is concerned to help prevent the British agricultural community being devastated beyond repair.

If you support the letter and wish to add your name to it, please let us know in writing to the address above. Please give your complete name and address for the records. You can send us a signed copy back for the files, or send word by email or telephone that you support the letter. The letter will be sent for publication to the major papers when the first 50 signatures have been collected. Already many have signed from all walks of life - farmers, country people, academics, scientists, religious people, city and town dwellers concerned for the future of the land. All are invited to sign who share a common abhorrence of the mass culling in the face of common sense and reason, knowing as we do that vaccination can be effective, and does not even affect the food chain; the full information on vaccination efficacy can be found on the web site sheepdrove.com organised by Peter Kindersley who took the government to Judicial Review on this matter. We feel the media has consistently failed to represent the facts in this matter and demand that they change their coverage.

Many signatures have expressed dismay at the way in which some officials at the NFU have consistently blocked the adoption of vaccination, suspecting that it is solely in the interests of a few large farms who hare receiving very substantial payments in return for culling; in fact the NFU represents only 28.9% of British Farmers, and among many NFU members there is also extreme disquiet at some NFU leaders blocking the obvious policy changes needed. Many are also dismayed at MAFF's behavior in all this and demand reforms there.

There seems to have been a total draconian insensitivity to peoples feelings, abusive language in implementing the cull policy, and an almost willful delight in inflicting suffering as ordinary rural people's animals, even pets, and special breeds, to which farmers have devoted their lifetimes, consumed to the smoke. It is also proven that in many many instances MAFF have condemned animals to death which have been completely free of the disease simply on a phone call from London and the tactic of fear and intimidation, without waiting for test results to come back. These policies have drastic implications for the worsening of civil liberties in the UK and the protection of the rights of rural people; never in living memory have the wishes and concerns of rural people been so abused and ill treated. According to the latest legal advice it now transpires that all these tactics of intimidation and mass culling on suspicion have been completely illegal. MAFF, acting in the supposed name of the government, has never in fact had the legal right for a mass cull in this manner.

Among signatures there is also upset at the way our beautiful countryside has been turned into a smoking ruin, with paths blocked off, bringing normal recreational and tourist life to a virtual standstill, leading among other things to a total loss to the British economy, which far outweighs any possible damage caused by temporary foot and mouth derived loss of agricultural exports.

It has now been demonstrated that there is a far greater risk to public health from the policy of mass culling , with its creation o mountains of dead animals, and the need to dispose of them, than would have ever been created by dealing with the diseases medically. The Independent on Sunday (22 April) said the pyres "are a greater pollution threat to the UK than all the factories combined, and are releasing deadly dioxins into the atmosphere which are dangerous carcinogenic (cancer causing) compounds "1000 times more deadly than arsenic". The article continued: "In the 6 weeks to April 6 it is estimated that the burning pyres have released 63 grams of dioxins. This compares with a figure of 88 grams of dioxins released per year by all the countries most hazardous factories in one year". "Dioxins are a family of 75 chlorinated organic compounds, a major member of which is TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachloridibenzo-p-dioxin which is a manufacturing impurity in certain classes of herbicides, disinfectants and bleaches... And which when burnt at low temperature can be found in both the flue gases and the fly ash... TCDD was also a compound used in the herbicide Agent Orange used by the USA in the Vietnam War, which caused still births, deformities, cancer and blindness, as well as ravaging land some of which still cannot be cultivated over 30 years later" (Porteous, Andrew, Dictionary of Environmental Science and Technology, John Wiley and Sons, 1993)

The accompanying letter however, rather than call for the ending of all burning pyres directly and immediately and the disposal of remaining carcasses in a more environmentally acceptable manner as advised by an emergency council of the world's leading ecologists (which obviously we would support) our letter seeks to stop the livestock going onto the pyres, and to turn off the problem at source by calling for the immediate and unconditional end to the mass slaughter (culling) of animals, whether they have foot and mouth or not (epizootic apthae/ eczema epizootica) and their treatment medically by vaccination or other remedies in a humane manner consonant with the Hippocratic veterinary oath still sworn in a variant by vets and all other medical doctors.

There is also much distress being caused emotionally to the people of the countryside and farmers for whom farming is a chosen way of life based on the delicate balance between man, nature and animals - requiring ethical integrity and empathy and responsibility from man to animals, whereas this blatant mass extermination of all "infected or contiguous" animals, who happen simply to be suffering from a normally benign and recoverable virus, has been found shocking and unethical, and exposes the profound need to develop a more compassionate, ecologically sustainable and green farming industry in this country long term.

As this petition gathers strength, we intend to present it to Parliament in a public meeting there. All 50 signatures of this initial letter plus as many others as possible will be invited to attend along with country people, farmers, thinkers, scientists, ethical leaders, religious people, and representatives from all walks of life who are concerned to stop the destruction of the British countryside and tourist industry and who support the petition. We will also invite others who have organised similar comparable petitions to contact us and to attend. Many people are suffering considerable hardships, uncertainties and pain during the current period, not to speak of cruelties and suffering to the animals: this letter /petition intends to cut through the complexities with a simple two-fold policy. To us this is a medical situation and must be dealt with by healing strategies, not by mass killing. It is as simple as that. We can debate the details of the science and medicine and the politics once we have these two basic policies in place. We can debate and research the "hows and whys" of how this disastrous policy of mass culling was ever instigated in the first place. But first it has to be replaced and stopped. Please help us by signing and returning this letter and copying and distributing it among as many of your friends as soon as possible. It's urgent ! Thank you !

This petition is being organised by the School of Nonviolence of the Global Green University, near Welshpool in the heart of one of the current mass culling areas; we believe there has never been a more urgent need for objective, concerned and informed study and research into the fundamental issues affecting life on our planet: peace, ecology, human rights, social justice, prosperity for all based on sustainable economic practices, the cleaning up of the pollution left by the era of nuclear industry and out of date industrial technology, the revitalisation of our communities, the ending of the despair caused by decades of neglect and social deprivation, the tackling of global problems such as poverty, unemployment, famine, health problems, racism, international crime and corruption, spiritual hunger, bio-technologies, war... all these problems seem to be getting worse, not better. Much of conventional academia has adopted the model of ethical indifference, of moral objectivity and scientific neutralism. The Global Green University, by contrast, is definitely committed. We are pro peace, pro social justice, pro global sustainable prosperity, pro action and theory combined, but also pro excellence in academic achievement and research. We have already published a detailed policy paper on the outbreak of foot and mouth and would warmly welcome the help of academics, agricultural scientists, veterinarians and policy specialists to investigate in full the travesty of the mass slaughter policy and the criminal delay in implementing a vaccination programme.

Some respected colleagues way well also be suspicious of vaccination, and would prefer to use homeopathy or let their animals recover naturally - which is why we are calling for the vaccination programme to be optional only but available nationwide for those who want it. Part of the whole problem with this situation is the over centralization of decision making in Whitehall - why shouldn't different farmers be free to use e.g.. Homeopathy, or vaccination, or recovery....? Why should everything be imposed from central administrative control in London, even to the death and against the express wishes of local small farmers / Why should children's pets and animals be slaughtered ? Why have so many animals been killed even when it has later been proven they did not have the disease ? No wonder that several local farmers in the Welsh Marches have killed themselves in the past few weeks. Enough is enough. Please sign this and help us get this policy reversed. Now !

As an educational charity set in the green and rolling countryside of Montgomeryshire, specialising in ecology, peace, human rights and comparative philosophy and religion, the Global Green University is a project of the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy, which for the past 10 years has been in the forefront of international mediation and peace and conflict research in conflicts involving a cultural or interfaith dimension.

Our concern in the current crisis is twofold: firstly, that any comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of the current policy indicates it is having a disastrous knock-on effect on the total economy of the UK and especially in the rural areas such as Montgomeryshire which far out weighs any possible loss to some farmers from temporary restrictions on their export markets should vaccination be adopted. We are keen however to hear all sides of the argument, and to debate the matter rationally, scientifically and comprehensively, factoring in all relevant issues. The position as enunciated in the accompanying letter is the result of a detailed policy analysis in which we have attempted to get to the truth as far as possible to the benefit of all concerned in this crisis since as an academic institution we are concerned to see objective factual evidence presented and discussed, but at the same time we believe in the need for a value based policy, one that takes into account peoples wider needs and concerns, and which is sensitive to the good of the community as a whole, and which weighs up long term effects on the environment of any given policy. Since 1993 the Institute has also organised over 33 meetings in Parliament to debate the complex relationships between ethics and policy and research.

You can email us for further information, and also for details of courses and other programmes currently available under the auspices of the GGU (in Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Montgomery and London), and you can also consult our website: Peace affairs and for a copy of our policy paper you can consult it on the web at: Green University

The Global Green University is also organizing a new series of emergency talks in Montgomery on Thursday evenings from 7-9pm starting May 5 as a direct response to the foot and mouth crisis and anyone in the area wishing to come along please feel free to do so. For those coming from further afield, free accommodation can probably be found in the area

GO TO THE TEXT OF THE LETTER - PLEASE PRINT AND MAIL US A COPY WITH YOUR SIGNATURE AND ADDRESS, OR EMAIL IT BACK WITH THE SAME INFORMATION: Click here Petition

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