Sheep may safely graze (or maybe not)
There’s some bit of information that La Cieca’s missing in this story, or maybe it would be obvious to readers in the “This is Wiltshire Network.” But here goes. “Yet another” rural opera festival in Britain (this time, in “Somerly Park,” which is where La Cieca imagines the Maggie Smith character lives when she’s not sponging on her in-laws in Gosford Park) has been canceled due to renewed fears of “the foot and mouth crisis.”
Yes, yes, of course La Cieca knows that “foot and mouth” is an infectious disease of domesticated animals. What she misses is why people can’t go to an outdoor opera because of it. Anyway, here’s some of the story in question.
Marketing director for the [Somerly Park] estate, Rosalind Nott, said . . . “We’re stuffed but there’s nothing that we can do.
“We are hugely concerned about the number of people who will turn up on the night.”
She stressed that there are over 1,000 sheep on the site and that they are “all over the park”.
“When you have livestock you’ve got to protect them at the end of the day when we’ve got people arriving from all over the place.
“We all remember the last time it happened.”
. . . . A spokesman for The Garden Opera said: “Obviously we are disappointed with the cancellation given the work that has been put into the event but we understand the seriousness of the reasons for cancelling the event.”
Well, actually, that’s the problem: La Cieca really doesn’t remember the last time it happened and so she can’t quite grasp the seriousness of the reasons. Anyone care to explain to her what’s the danger here?
On a lighter note, devotees of high culture can rest easy that at least some of the events of the Romsey Show are going forward. Although the “display of sheep and cattle” is canceled (this La Cieca understands), Romsey Show secretary Annie Carder assures us that Wiltshire may still enjoy “the food show, helicopter displays, Titan the robot and, thanks to our president this year, Lawrie McMenemy, Saints in the Community coaching sessions.”
Perhaps they’re worried some visitors–ones who may have recently been around livestock in affected areas–might carry the virus to the fest and spread it to the sheep there. Let’s calculate those odds.
Well La Cieca, last time, pretty much every cow in the UK had to be culled, which resulted in huge pyres of them in fields being burned on mass – lots of unwilling, bovine Brunnhildes experiencing their very own immolation scenes. Apart from the distressing spectacle and vile stench of this, it massively harmed farmers’ livelihoods because they did not receive sufficient government subsidy when the governement decided to burn all their cows. We certainly couldn’t export any meat anywhere so the economy at large was harmed, and we had to import what we required ourselves, so supplies and costs for consumers were affected also. Dairy supplies, clearly, were also affected.
The reason the opera festival has had to be cancelled is because the disease is so highly infectious that if any one of those opera goers has inadvertantly walked through a filed with infected livestock, hours ago and hundreds of miles away, they could infect the whole herd where the festival is located. I know it seems terribly provincial, but it is a very serious issue and all necessary precautions have to be taken.
Eh, I don’t know enough about this particular situation to be that dismissive … it’s what you have to do to keep such extremely contagious diseases in check.
I know you have an animus against British critics, La Cieca –deserved in a lot of cases– but at least dignify the people of that lovely part of England by spelling the name right: it’s Wiltshire, not Wilshire, like the main street east/west street here in Los Angeles.
lots of unwilling, bovine Brunnhildes experiencing their very own immolation scenes
Superb. [polite golf applause] Excellent post, Annie Non Omous, I remember those scenes well, they were horrible to watch on the news, I can’t imagine what they were like in person.
Well, as Anonymous says, the last time in 2001 was pretty devastating. It took only two weeks from the first outbreak for foot and mouth to spread across most of England and Wales and it is estimated that it cost British farming 1-2 billion pounds and tourism in the UK lost 2-3 billion. I remember flying to Geneva during it all and having to walk over a disinfectant mat as I got off the plane, so keen were the Swiss to stop it entering their country (unless they took me for a British critic and they share La Cieca’s views!).
David
Perhaps they were worried that some hapless Diva might become infected with foot and mouth.
Can you imagine, a cull of sopranos having to be wagoned to the slaughter.
It doesn’t bare thinking about.
David is more accurate than Anonymous in that the economic damage was actually more, by a degree of magnitude, to tourism than to farming. F-and-m is contagious and tragic for animals with cloven hooves but the chances of it crossing to humanity is infinitesimal.
However, I see no logical reason why the Somerley Park event was cancelled, except for extreme caution and anticipation of Horrible Things to Come. As it happened the recent F-and-M was limited to one county, not one contigious with Wiltshire.
Part of the reason for the massive over-reaction described by David in 2001 was the powerful lobbying of the National Farmers Union (not affiliated to the Trades Union Congress) scared stiff at losing an export industry worth less than a billion dollars pa, and unconcerned about the multi-billion dollar rural tourist industry. And for example, museums in London, not known for its roaming livestock* had a massive downturn in admissions, which implies the hotels, restaurants etc also suffered similar
We had our aeroplane cabin sprayed and had to cross disinfectant mats when entering Cuba Christmas 2001.
* other then rats and pigeons, obviously…