for the Canadian Crowd BSE Class Action

[rockridgecattle]

first off here is the link
http://www.bseclassaction.ca/english/index_en.htm

Now we went to the meeting last night.
We are asked for nothing in the way of money. The Ridley Settlement is paying for the lawsuit against the Canadian Gov, and i guess Ag Canada and CFIA...from what i understood
We are asked to contact our provincial and federal MLA's and MP's to advise them to settle. With the minority Gov, and a possible election looming in the back wings, the lawyers seem to thing the Conservatives will need the rural vote to stay in power. This is where we come in by contacting them.
The government can tie this up in court and in a whole slew of things if they want to but, from the amount of paper work that they have it looks like a good case...so they say

all farmers in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewn, Alberta and BC are represented in this suit. Quebec is also along but because they have different laws of federal class action, they are sort of on there own but yet working along side. Go figure, trust Quebec to...any how i digress

From the information given, it looks like when the Brits discovered and went through all the testing and came up with BSE in the mid or late '80's, CFIA and ag Canada decided to look for the imported cattle from the UK into Canada. I do not remember the exact # they were located and put on a monitoring incase of outbreak. At this point they did a good job
What they failed to do was put a stop to the rendering of these animals. And 80 made it into dead stock, rendering or deaths on farm. What the contention is, these animals should have never made it to any rendering plant at all. They should have been destroyed. There are reports that have been filed that state CFIA and AG Canada worry that BSE will now happen. that they could have prevented this, but dropped the ball. Once they realized they dropped the ball, they did not let the farmers know or recall any of the calf starter that is BSE infected cow render was in. Instead it went along tickity boo. The incubation period happened, then BSE started to turn up.
The first 4 BSE cattle found since 2003 were from this contaminated feed fed as a calf. The rest was from cross-contamination of feed.
Example is pig feed in a feed mil made with bone meal, then sort of clean the mill and then make cattle feed. The cross contamination comes from the bone meal of the infected animals rendered later on. UK studies showed in the late '80's early '90's that infected bone meal the size of grain of sand was enough to infect a calf fed this starter. The lawyers stated how do you clean so thouroughly that every spec and particle is removed? You can't. So the risk is there no matter what unless a separate mill is set up for milling ruminant feed. The first 20 months or so of life is where the damage is caused, where they are most suseptable to BSE infection. So the question became, why did the feed ban of the '90 not incompass all like the current one, when the UK had already moved to a band simillar to ours now? Had CFIA not even allowed the UK cattle to be rendered, there would not be this problem now, and they, CFIA new it when they tracked down all the UK cattle in the eighties, early '90's. There are documents to prove this.
To get all the facts and checkout the law suit go to the web site and see it all.

 

[hillsdown]

I don't know how I feel about this law suit. What p@sses me off the most is that when people sue the Canadian government they do not realize they are suing the Canadian tax payer as that is who will have to come up with the money. So therefore they are in fact suing themselves.

Instead of asking for a hand out they should demand for live testing on every animal and lets get all of these international markets opened again for all animals including breeding stock..That will make the difference in the end whether the Canadian producer survives or not. With the tough economic hard ships this country will soon be facing we do not need to be throwing money away on a problem that has no real solution.


Btw one mouse dropping can contaminate enough feed to infect an animal as well.

You already need separate facilities to mix ruminant feed and that is why every local feed mill has closed as well as every mill in Red Deer (town the size of 90 000) that had a steam roller closed..They could not make a profit anymore..So now if I need feed it must come from places 2 hours from us which makes it very expensive..

I just don't know what to think about how this is being handled.. :?

 

[Aaron]

So what kind of numbers are being sought in terms of compensation? I know if you compare 2003 pre-BSE prices on our yearling steers alone, to those prices we have gotten for comparable steers in the last 5 years, our operation has lost well over $20,000 in the value of those steers. Add in heifers and cows and our bill is probably around $50,000 at least.

I am thinking the $6 million will be eaten up by the lawyers before the government settles. :cowboy:

 

[rockridgecattle]

I dunno what kind of compensation but they are hoping it will cover the last few years, because they realize that in the here and now we are still dealing with the fall out.
I just read an article from FCC ( get a weekly mailing) that the PEI potato producers just recieved ruling from the supreme court for the goverment of Canada to settle because they dropped the ball on an infectious potato virus. So anything is possible.
http://www.fcc-fac.ca/newsletters/en/ex ... sp#story_1
scroll down
I don't know how long the 6 mill will last for the court case. Since allot has been done to settle with Ridley it might cut the work load because they have the ducks lined up already. Anyhow, they are not asking us for $ and that is good.
HD,
If the government had implememted the total feed ban in the beginning we would not be where we are now. And the last time i checked a grain of sand in the way of BSE is smaller than a mouse turd. If the government had destroyed those cows when they traced them, we would not be where we are now.
Our closest feedmill is over 2 hours away and always has been. So the local co-op carries feed rite for the same price as buying at the feed mill. Maybe your local livestock can too. Anything is possible.

I'm not sure how i feel about this law suit either, but i think the government needs to admit they royally messed up and maybe then they can prevent something like this happening again.
Same idea with the potato lawsuit. They dropped the ball. This might also speed up the BSE case due to a precedent being set.
A hundred percent testing of all animals, who is going to end up paying for that? We are, the producer, we are going to take a hit in the market again because the cost will get passed on to us. Why should we pay it when the Government is the one who dropped the ball.
We are already paying so much with from this.
ID tags, but that was bound to happen sooner or later
mushy market
SRM changes in the feed
SRM changes in rendering
Manitoba checkoffs went from $2.00 a head to now $5.00 a head everytime a live animal is sold, and to be sure the feedlot is passing that on to us.
Who pays for all that.
Well the packer passes it on to the feedlot, the feedlot passes it on to the producer, and in the end the producer is left holding the bag. Heck, I'm tired of holding the bag cause some dumb @$$ screwed up

 

[hillsdown]

My point about the mouse droppings are that rodents are everywhere and if you have feed on your farm I am sure that there is more than likely mouse sh@t in it, thus your feed is contaminated..

As far as suing ,I think the government should be sued for allowing American slaughter housed to control the industry in Canada because that is who is really screwing us, they were just waiting for any opportunity to discount our product and they got their wish.

6 mill is peanuts and divided up amongst each producer it would probably work out to a couple of bucks. But really where do you all think this money should come from ,,should I get a second job to pay more taxes to pay for the law suit..We pay enough fricken taxes already ...

Suing is not the answer we need to find out exactly what causes BSE and how to prevent it, we also need live testing and our markets open again so we can export all over the world; that will bring our demand up and then the prices will follow..

 

[rockridgecattle]

HD the 6 mill is not for the producers. It was set into trust for the lawsuit to pay for it.
Really, I do not know the answer.
I understand about mouse droppings contaminating feed, but it is not what shut our borders

 

[hillsdown]

What shut our borders was having a gutless government that had its head shoved so far up the US's @ss that they didn't know if they were coming or going. If we would have had a government that would have taken a stand we might have been OK, but it seems to me that a lot of sh#t that goes on is one way and I don't see a change in that anytime soon. They love our water and our gas/oil and want a deal on that, but anything that they have themselves they won't play fair.

Well I am out of this one, because it seems to me that a lot of people need to be held accountable and it will never happen..

 

[SRBeef]

I don't mean to get into Canadian business here. Just want to add an observation and maybe a suggestion.

No one here is talking about the key person in this who BSE mess - that is the CONSUMER. The beef CONSUMER.

This lawsuit sounds like a lawyer benefit program more than anything useful for the Canadian cattle industry.

As one poster above put it, a useful thing to comeout of this lawsuit, if anything, would be to have the government provide the services required to test and certify that maybe whole herds, then whole provinces and then maybe the whole country is absolutely BSE free.

That would be better news to have on radio and TV than years of haggling about rendering plants grinding up BSE animals into feed, mouse droppings etc etc.

We all need to keep the focus on the consumer and his or her wants and needs and perceptions. IF we don't there are certainly other groups that will focus on the consumer. I already see highway billboards suggesting that you can fight "global warming" among other things, by becoming a vegetarian!

Good luck to our Canadian neighbors. I hope you can focus on what's important here. jmho.

 

[rockridgecattle]

I'm not sure how i feel about the monetary claim on the lawsuit.
but i do feel strongly that someone has to be held accountable for the mess we are in. I mean if CFIA or Ag Canada did the job they were suppose to do in the first place, we would not be here now.
If CFIA or Ag Canada did the job the were suppose to do with the potato growers in PEI they would not have happened what happened.
If CFIA was properly funded, crap chinese food would not be so easily attainable by suppliers.
Funny honey would not make it into the country.

We need to hold these organizatons accountable so that change can be made and crap mistakes like this do not happen in another ag industry.
The Government needs to make changes and fund the CFIA better so they can do the job they are mandated to do in the first place. The only way this is going to happen is if people are loud enough. This includes the consumer. The should be outraged that the organization designed to protect us from contaminated food is not doing or able to do the job they are suppose to do. And that job is to keep us all, all Canadians safe from infectious crap like BSE, contaminated food, potato viruses.
You see how dilegent they are in BC on the Avian flu scares. How they watch and monitor closely, and get involved. Do you see them taking a back seat approach in the Avian flu? Are they waiting to see what might happen? No They are involved, monitoring, destroying and quarentineing flocks inorder to contain it. If they had gotten as involved 20 years ago, would we be where we are now?
I do not think so.
There would be no need for a live BSE test. Cause it would have never entered our herd in the first place if the measures were in place then, when they knew the risk existed.
Changes need to be in place to make our government pro active when it comes to disease control. Not reactive and a wait and see attitude.

 

[Alberta farmer]

I doubt as producers we will ever see a check, especially in the amount that would cover our losses? However, I too, think it is important to make the government live up to its responsibilities? These clowns are paid very well to take care of the safety of our food and ensure our ability to trade in the international arena, and quite frankly they have done a very poor job! Instead of owning up to their job they have done everything in their power to screw the primary producer and foist all the cost onto him! It is almost like they want us to just disappear?
This useless, gutless government we have in place right now are a total disgrace? If they had acted in a bold manner with all our trading partners we would not have seen this gong show!
In the west we supported the Conservatives in the last two elections in a big way....especially the rural areas...and what has it got us? They have treated us worse than the Liberals! They broke so many promises...who would ever believe them again? They have spent more than any government in our history and now are ready to wipe out all the gains we made in the last twelve years? I sure won't ever vote for them again.