Cattle farmers sue government

Kinmen County Council Speaker Chuang Liang-shih (莊良時) and other councilors filed a lawsuit yesterday against a Council of Agriculture (COA) official over a four-year ban on the movement of cattle to Taiwan proper.

The COA banned Kinmen's cattle from Taiwan in June 1999 following an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease.

The disease was believed to have been brought to Kinmen by cattle smuggled from China.

After the slaughter of the cattle and vaccination of the remaining stock, the outbreak on Kinmen was contained, but the ban on cattle exports has yet to lifted.

More than 30 people, including Chuang, Kinmen Farmers' Association president Tsai Shui-yu (蔡水游) -- who is also a county councilor -- several of his colleagues and cattle farmers, filed the suit yesterday against Chiang Yi-nan (江益男), head of the COA's Bureau of Animal and Plant Inspection and Quarantine. They accused him of dereliction of duty for banning the movement of cattle.