Huge pyres were being built across the UK Saturday night as farmers, vets and British government officials started the slaughter of thousands of farm animals. Cattle were led out of sheds one by one and killed with a single rifle bolt to the head.
As excavators dug huge holes in fields, men in white overalls gathered wooden railway sleepers, discarded fences and coal, before throwing thousands of carcasses on top for burning. Not since half a million animals were burned in 1967 has the country witnessed such scenes.
The mass slaughter is the latest desperate measure to curtail the foot-and-mouth disease that has paralyzed the British countryside. As the killings started from Essex to Northumberland, in London the UK's Agriculture Secretary Nick Brown declared he was cautiously optimistic that the outbreak had been contained, with no new infections reported in the last 24 hours.
The slaughter started at eight sites, and will last several days. Most of the animals are pigs, but on some farms sheep and cattle will also be killed. Their carcasses will be burnt to eradicate any chance of the virus surviving.
Burnside Farm in Northumberland in the north of England, believed to be the source of the outbreak, looked more like a construction site yesterday; mechanical loaders carted railway sleepers across a field to erect the pyre for 300 sows and 200 young pigs, which were killed last night.
At a neighboring farm, 25 cows were led away, presumably for slaughter. "That's Jim Brown's cattle," said two middle-aged men out for walk. "Terrible what's happened to him." One pointed to another two farms up the hill: "They say the cattle up there will have to go as well."
Meanwhile, men from the UK's Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) in white overalls were rushing around preparing for the fires while police, fearing clouds of dense smoke, stood by to close the nearby A69 dual carriageway. Convoys of trucks arrived laden with more sleepers, discarded wooden fences and anything capable of burning.
At Headcorn in Kent, south-east of London, where a cattle herd is being killed as a precautionary measure, animals were yesterday being led one by one out of their sheds. A trained slaughterman then fired a single bolt into their skulls. After the animals slumped to the ground, bleeding from the wound in their heads, a vet made sure they were dead. Only when the entire herd is dead, which could take two days, will the fires be lit.
MAFF officials were cautiously optimistic that the outbreak is being contained. "We would expect to receive further reports from farmers now if it had spread, and so far there are no more confirmed cases," said Brown.
Brown urged people to avoid panic-buying of meat at supermarkets as rumors of a shortage swept the country.
Shops around Britain reported that meat sales were not abnormally large.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)