Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm

By Linda Faillace

Summarized with permission of Chelsea Green. All rights reserved.

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The Faillaces hired three European expert witnesses to meet with representatives from Vermont Senator Leahy's office, the NIH and the USDA. Although the three European experts' statements backed up the Faillaces and Freemans assertions, Dr. Alfonso Torres maintained that the USDA was under political pressure and the sheep would have to be surrendered.

In late September of 1998, "20/20" filed a request with the USDA for information about BSE, which was granted. This broke the story to the press. As the top story on the local CBS news station's broadcast, the anchorwoman warned of the seriousness of Mad Cow disease and how thousands of cows in Britain had succumbed to it. The story, titled "Hysteria in Vermont over possible mad cow disease" concluded by stating that the USDA was concerned that the Faillaces' sheep were contaminated with BSE and should be destroyed, even though there were no signs of illness. John Dillon, a reporter working for a local paper, interviewed Detwiler and asked about the "political pressure" she alluded to. Detwiler admitted the issue went beyond the beef industry and included the pharmaceutical industry, but gave no further details.

Detwiler arranged for Mr. Freeman and the Faillaces to meet with Vermont Commissioner of Health, Dr. Jan Carney. Despite the evidence presented by the Faillaces, Carney remained committed to removing all imported sheep and progeny. Larry pointed out that their sheep were irreplaceable and were the healthiest and most scrutinized in the world; if they were killed, then all sheep were suspect.

Carney, who knew very little about TSEs, believed the sheep had a variant form of TSE and wanted to declare them a public health risk. No amount of scientific evidence to the contrary would sway her decision. She did not want a dangerous disease coming into Vermont. Dr. Carney also wanted the Faillaces' inventory of approximately 1000 pounds of cheese that sold for $18 to $20 a pound off the market. However, Vermont Governor Dr. Howard Dean thought if Vermont banned the cheese they would also have to ban all imported sheep cheese from countries known to have had BSE. This could result in major trade wars, which was the last thing Gov. Dean or anyone else wanted. Carney went public on the local CBS affiliate and indicated her support for the USDA's position: The sheep must go.

On Nov. 1, 1999, Gov. Dean went public with his support of the Faillaces and in a radio interview said that various government agencies were at cross-purposes. He did not want the sheep killed and believed there was no public threat. He said it was not clear to him what was behind the scare tactics.

 

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