Farm owner denies knowledge of quarantined sheep

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

Miro Malish of Chesley says he wasn’t the one who brought Montana Jones’ quarantined Shropshire sheep to his farm in Bruce County from her farm near Peterborough.

And he couldn’t say how they got there. “I saw the farmer bring them but besides that I have no idea of how they got here, or about the organization that brought them here or how they were taken or anything like that,” Malish said, adding he’s cooperating with the authorities.

Malish said he has nothing to do with “Farmers Peace Corp,” the group or person claiming responsibility for taking the sheep from Jones’ Wholearth Farmstudio premises near Peterborough sometime overnight in early April. The Northumberland Ontario Provincial Police are investigating the theft.

Jones couldn’t be reached for comment. Her lawyer, Karen Selick, litigation director for the Canadian Constitution Foundation, said in an email Tuesday the Canadian Food Inspection Agency isn’t telling them very much.

Meanwhile local Bruce County sheep farmers and the sheep industry fully support the CFIA in its efforts to eradicate scrapie from Canada. It’s a fatal neurological disease of sheep and goats but it doesn’t pose a human health risk. The CFIA said in a June 8 press release it quarantined the farm where the sheep were found and will be taking further disease control measures there but didn’t say what those were.

Vince Stutzki, a large commercial operator from Paisley and chair of the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency’s District 2 (Grey and Bruce counties), said local producers are very concerned about the situation. There’s a very large sheep population in the two counties and the fact that potentially infected sheep have been in the area with some still missing “is holding the red meat industry hostage.”

He said pork and beef farmers are also concerned that if this issue isn’t dealt with properly, trading partners may close their borders to trade in livestock and meat.

Stutzki predicts the protocol for dealing with a flock with scrapie will change. No one expected that a flock of sheep would be spirited away. “It’s a mess and it’s very disappointing,” he added.

Malish’s farm isn’t a sheep operation. He said he’s looking to develop the property as a community sponsored agricultural program primarily “around culture and the arts as a way of developing consciousness around the backdrop of agricultural sustainability.”

For him, it was “good just to have animals around,” he said, noting he wanted the space to be used so he could observe and learn rather than taking on the responsibility and having to spend the capital on a full-fledged farming operation.

Malish said so far he hasn’t been charged by the police. “I’m sure if they want to lay charges they will.”

Malish added he didn’t want to aggravate the authorities.

Malish said the sheep were found on Wednesday, June 6 and removed from his farm Monday, June 11. He said he couldn’t say how many sheep there were.  But Guy Gravelle, CFIA senior media relations, confirmed in an email Tuesday the agency euthanized 26 adult sheep and 11 lambs so they can be tested for scrapie.

The sheep found on Malish’s farm were part of a group of 31 animals quarantined on Jones’ farm and were slated to be euthanized April 2 so they could be tested for scrapie. But the night before, the group or person going by the name “Farmers Peace Corp” took the sheep from Jones’ Wholearth Farmstudio premises, leaving a note saying the animals were in protective custody and the owner didn’t participate or know about the action.

The CFIA and the OPP are working together to determine what happened to the remaining sheep, Gravelle said Tuesday.

Officials from both organizations remain tight-lipped about many details involving the case as the police investigation is continuing. Questions, such as how CFIA found the sheep and how they knew the ones they found belonged to Jones weren’t answered. BF
(With files from Better Farming staff)