Another Farm Under Siege! This Time in Canada

[MorningSong]

This has GOT to STOP!!!!

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=WBN7cglGpNQ

Friday, April 26, 2013
Farmed and Dangerous - CFIA Destroys a Shepherd's Life and Her Rare Sheep
Heather Callaghan
Activist Post

Canada's Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has targeted rare heritage sheep at Wholearth Farmstudio owned by Montana Jones for years now. Shropshire sheep are among the rarest - and CFIA could aid in their extinction with their recent eradication efforts over unfounded fears of a sickness called scrapie.

They killed her pregnant ewes to find out if they were healthy. ???? Worse yet, after a house raid, CFIA is convicting her and others in the same boat like Michael Schmidt for conspiracy among other criminal offenses. She faces 12 years in jail and $1.5 million in fines!

The above incidents stem from a CFIA claim three years ago that a ewe she sold years further back had scrapie. Hearsay. No signs, no symptoms, for a disease that poses no harm to humans - but they killed her ewes anyway. After death, tests came back negative as Montana knew they would.

Heritage breeds experienced a major reduction after the introduction of large-scale industrial farming.

Montana writes:

In the past 15 years, 190 breeds of farm animals have gone extinct worldwide, and there are currently 1,500 others at risk of being wiped out. Within the last ten years alone, 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry have become extinct.

Apparently, there are only less than 100 of these sheep left in Canada! Montana is actually doing a great service to Canada by preserving their bloodline for no profit, but CFIA seems intent on wiping them off the earth and erasing biodiversity.

Calling out a disease or bacteria (like crying "Wolf!") is a common M.O. of the FDA and previous cases of CFIA where they killed hundreds of rare goats and sheep - that of course later tested healthy. Why do they kill first, ask questions later? Why are small farms expected to fork over years of hard labor and valuable animals when large-scale corporate farms get the green light even if caught abusing animals or when their food sickens a lot of people? In fact, they lobby Congress for laws to make sure no one finds out negative practices and to paint animal activists as terrorists. Unfortunately, when word gets out for testing, people don't want to do business with the farm - at least when it comes to scrapie, a rare occurrence. No income for quarantined farms.

Well-known farmer activist Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms lent his support by submitting a letter for CFIA to read:

I have been apprised of your intent to annihilate the Wholearth flock of Shropshire sheep owned by Montana Jones and it is deeply troubling. Without credible tests that empirically prove the existence of scrapie, to proceed with the planned extermination is both unscientific and tyrannical. Agenda-driven extermination tactics have been used throughout history to purge alternative genes, both human and animal. This deprives future generations of traits that may provide salvation from yet-to-be-revealed diseases. Please follow reason and real science as you approach this rare flock of sheep.

She can't take the destruction and harassment. The loss and the legal fees for her upcoming criminal trial will put her out of her farm and home - she reaches out for help (see below). In just a few days an outpouring of support helped her reach $35,000 of a $50K goal. She continues to update and thank those that have helped her, adding:

Many years ago I had a vision of creating a sustainable farm not just for animals and vegetables but for people too. They would discover the importance of rare heritage breeds, feel organic soil under their feet, learn to grow real food in an heirloom garden and work with the wonder of animals. I imagined an educational demonstration farm where one could just breathe, wander the fields, create art and music, share amazing meals and slow down enough to appreciate.

Isn't it also interesting that right around the same time America targets their heritage breeds, Canada places theirs in the cross-hairs? Mark Baker of Baker's Green Acres is a well-known American example. The DNR working with other Michigan agencies (and obviously the Pork Producers) went on a heritage pig rampage (Kill the pig...kill the pig) but Bakers wouldn't destroy them or let them. So the USDA and DNR made sure that they could do nothing with them by blocking them from taking them to slaughter. So friends had to come over to do it and it was given away to the hungry. And of course, feeding the homeless in America is a big no-no now.

As always, it's never about public safety - it's always about control - and oftentimes collusion. A woman with an indoor lemon tree gets threatened with a SWAT raid because her healthy lemon tree might be under quarantine. Bureaucracies uproot or try to force homeowners to destroy their gardens. The FDA dumps raw milk and cheese in landfills calling it unfit for dogs (yet deems Pink Slime safe for humans although it was originally fed to dogs). They pour bleach on picnic food and blue dye in bulk milk tanks. Agencies trespass on small farms and slaughter, shoot or euthanize healthy animals senselessly. If those aren't full-blown discriminatory war tactics - what is?

Keep careful watch of this "quarantine" business...

Montana is joining the ranks of those who are tirelessly fighting to keep their farm and animals so that government destruction doesn't spread to others. That's where we need quarantine.

It's up to all of us to change the unreasonable policies that prevent our food and farming freedom. - Montana Jones

How you can help her - and please spread the word:

Legal Defense & Farm Fund
http://www.gofundme.com/FarmedAndDangerous

Submit a letter of support and sample letter to Canadian government:
http://shropshiresheep.org/letters-of-support/

Petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop...ropshire-sheep

More info:
http://shropshiresheep.org/news-on-cfia-slaughter/

http://www.activistpost.com/2013/04/...-destroys.html

http://shropshiresheep.org/

[Sidney]

Heartbreaking. The sociopaths wont stop until the entire planet is under their thumb. Spread, fear, dread, and negative energy for the monsters to feed off of.

[penn]

So sad. I signed the petition. Will this madness ever stop?

[Sunny-side-up]

As always, it's never about public safety - it's always about control - and oftentimes collusion. A woman with an indoor lemon tree gets threatened with a SWAT raid because her healthy lemon tree might be under quarantine. Bureaucracies uproot or try to force homeowners to destroy their gardens. The FDA dumps raw milk and cheese in landfills calling it unfit for dogs (yet deems Pink Slime safe for humans although it was originally fed to dogs). They pour bleach on picnic food and blue dye in bulk milk tanks. Agencies trespass on small farms and slaughter, shoot or euthanize healthy animals senselessly. If those aren't full-blown discriminatory war tactics - what is?

Say no more!
Signed!!!

[Carmody]

Isn't it also interesting that right around the same time America targets their heritage breeds, Canada places theirs in the cross-hairs? Mark Baker of Baker's Green Acres is a well-known American example.

That is because Canadian Prime minister Stephen Harper is a representative of the USA corporate CFR Oil Bush Cabal skull & bones Monsanto Blackwater CIA party.

[NewFounderHome]

It is signed.

This is nonsense, they could have investigated, instead of killing. This is creating so much more ????
Then it is bringing answers. They don't mind creating problem, but they don't seem to care for solution. Big government and small farmer.

Makes me sick, how they can just do that and don't even second guest their actions.

[Rozzy]

This is not about the sheep, this is about breaking the spirit of Canadians, it is about breaking the remaining links with what is left of the true Canadian heritage, it is about showing who is boss and getting people used to being shoved around. Maybe it is to late to shove back, the Feds have completed a lot of the UN OWG agenda and Canadians are still fast asleep watching everything go down the drain their ancestors tirelessly worked for, starved for, froze for and died for. If the general public would educate themselves and get off their @$$&$ we could put the political machine to flight, the government should be afraid of the people not vice versa. People please wake up!

[fmkmrf]

So true. We have to come together and stop this madness.

[Daughter of Time]

I used to think of Canada as being a relatively sane country compared to the rest of the world, but since the Harper government (it used to be "the government of Canada" but now it's "The Harper government") has arrived we have seen so many changes for the worse and so many laws prohibiting certain types of natural medicines, namely herbs and supplements, which has left some of us totally dismayed. Naturopathy and homeopathy have been greatly attacked. Over a million Canadians signed petitions to put a stop to these changes. We have managed to retain our Naturopaths and Homeopaths but the struggle to protect natural medicines continues.

When the NDP (New Democratic Party) became the opposition, headed by Jack Leyton, there was some hope as the NDP, having a social conscience, supports all the things that the Harper government does not. TPB, I'm sure, were not pleased with this turn of events since they would never want a more socialistic party to head our government. Shortly after Jack Leyton's victory, he (Jack Leyton) came down with cancer and died within months. He was, therefore, unable to do any of the things he had so passionately set out to do. I've immediately wondered whether Leyton's cancer was a natural occurrence or somewhat induced. I don't mean to go off topic here, but to me, it's all related, because without Jack Leyton, the NDP has lost strength and will not, in the foreseeable future, regain that strength so that the Harper government can continue to create havoc on Canadians.

[Hawkwind]

Posted by MorningSong (here)
This has GOT to STOP!!!!

Okay, but if all the prisoners at Auschwitz had signed a petition protesting their treatment or organized a peaceful protest would their situation have improved?

Posted by Wantsthetruth74 (here)
The sociopaths wont stop until the entire planet is under their thumb.

Or until the rest of us stop them.

Posted by penn (here)
So sad. I signed the petition. Will this madness ever stop?

Not so long as people continue to believe that signing petitions will stop it.

Posted by Rozzy (here)
People please wake up!

I am awake, have been for quite some time. Now what?

[blufire]

Whiskey_Mystic started this thread last week “The War on Food - Farmed and Dangerous ‘ https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...848#post665848 and it is the same topic:

I posted the following on his thread:

Is there truly a war on food or has this concept been fueled by misconception and naïve understanding of how providing food for a global humanity is even possible?

We have choices every step of the way of what type of food we eat and how we provide ourselves with the types of food we choose to eat.

When I went to the link about this woman’s experience and then saw how many are donating to her I become very sad and fairly angry. My very strong suggestion is not to donate in anyway because in no way is the factual story of what happened explained or clear. You have to read other information to understand truly what happened here. There was another article a few months back about a family whose cheese products (?) made from raw milk was destroyed . . . .something to the tune of $200,000 I think. These two cases were almost identical and both of these families’ plights could have been avoided if they followed simple laws in their states.

I won’t go into much detail because unless you understand specific animal husbandry and in-line breeding genetics you will not be able to understand specifically what happened in this woman’s case and that she chose to ignore many things. Her case was largely based on scabies (also known as mad cow disease) being detected in sheep she sold to another farm and her refusal to have the ‘proper’ genetic testing that the officials were asking for. Her ewe milk had also been tested and showed a dangerous bacterium known as Listeria.

I also will say that both this lady and the family with the raw milk/cheese business were involved in a full fledged retail type business . . . . selling products, be it cheese or rare heritage animals (the sheep lady was also selling raw ewe milk by the way) for generous sums of money this then puts that farm in a whole different view and responsibility.

They are no longer a small farm or farmer selling their own products directly from the farm. If one ‘chooses’ to enter the arena of state or federal retail based business then you choose to enter their playground, which means you abide by their rules or get burned as the raw milk/cheese family and this lady selling heritage sheep and other animals and raw milk.

I know what I am speaking of. I have sold thousands of gallons of raw milk, free range eggs, buffalo and chicken meat, organic vegetables and fruit, as well as, pure blood/ genetic specific goats, dogs and horses in three different states. I followed the rules and made sure I stayed within the realm of purely a small family farm status.

I have had state officials on my farms many times and have always been treated with respect and fairly. Most even left with a basket of my farm products. Because I made sure I stayed far away from their playground so I could provide my family and community with good wholesome food. I make no money when the bottom lines are said and done . . . I do this because I love it.

We have choices . . . . choose wisely, would be my suggestion.

I added the bold parts to this post.

I also realize this incident was in Canada and so the specific laws could be different but, the main idea I stated still applies I feel. Which is . . . . if one chooses to enter ‘their’ playground then it is their rules and you become vulnerable and at a disadvantage. I choose consistently to stay out of “their arena” and I have never had any problems nor have others that have the same philosophy.

Sadly it always comes down to money . . . both this sheep rancher and the raw milk/cheese family wanted to earn large amounts of money on a retail type business, which then puts them solidly in ‘their’ playground.

Choices and desire. How do you choose and desire to live your life and then are you willing to live within the boundaries . . . good and bad . . . that that choice brings into your life.

[eva08]

I am crying... so terrible.... I can feel so for this woman... what a loss. I know, I care for my animals and plants, students and people greatly. What a loss. I am so sorry.

[Hawkwind]

@blufire- I’d pretty much agree that the farther below the radar you fly, the less likely you are to have run ins with the authorities. I’d also agree that some degree of regulation is necessary where food production and distribution are concerned. Increasingly, however, rules are being created not so much to protect consumers as to benefit large corporate interests. In such an environment it’s not so much a question of losing one’s buisness for not following the rules as it is rules being created specifically to put smaller competitors out of business.

[blufire]

Posted by eva08 (here)
I am crying... so terrible.... I can feel so for this woman... what a loss. I know, I care for my animals and plants, students and people greatly. What a loss. I am so sorry.

Please . . . Please don’t!! I know with the way this story has been spun by activists that it appears brutal and horrible.

And it is . . . . but not because of the final outcome but because Montana chose to enter an arena she did not fully understand or naively thought somehow she didn’t have to follow certain specific laws.

I am drop dead serious everyone. If you choose to enter their playground then follow their rules. Have the proper testing done, show a paper trail, pay all the taxes have inspections done by the proper local and state authorities and abide by their suggestions.

Montana was selling breeding stock of this particular rare breed of heritage sheep for an incredible amounts of money . . .across state and country (into U.S. and other parts of Canada) without proper vaccinations, blood and genetic testing. A rancher she sold breeding stock to had testing done that she failed to do to make sure he was following all laws and this is when he found out the ewes (females) sold to him by Montana carried genetic markers and antibodies showing these animals carried the ability to pass ‘scabies or mad cow disease’ to their offspring and/or themselves develop full blown scabies.

The officials told Montana (among other things) that at least until all testing was done with her entire herd and the animals she had sold within a specific time period that she was to NOT breed her ewes and she did anyway . . . . .

If anything I blame the activists her encouraged her to defiantly ignore and go against what the officials requested.

And she could have avoided ALL OF THIS by not wanting to earn large amounts of money selling breeding stock and/or raw ewe milk. She entered ‘their’ world of money and laws.

“They’ could care less about those of us who are true small farmers or homesteaders who raise heritage animals, grow organic vegetables and treat our families with herbal cures . . . . it is when you go out side and into their world that they take notice.

Choose which lifestyle you truly want and build your world accordingly . . . just a suggestion.

[Earth Angel]

thanks blufire.........I sent this story to a friend who is a sheep farmer here in Ontario.......she knew of Montana and agreed with you.....she said it didn't have to end this way and she had over a year to cooperate but chose not to......she also almost bought some of Montana's sheep and said that she could have ended up being shut down herself had she done so

[blufire]

Thank you very much Earth Angel for affirming the truth in this horribly sad event.

I will offer this. . . . . If Montana had asked for donations at the beginning of this ordeal to help get the proper testing and certification of the health and genetics of her rare heritage sheep I would have helped her in every way I could. But it seems with all I have read that she had absolutely no concern the danger and financial difficulty she put on other ranchers let alone her own animals

[gripreaper]

Posted by blufire (here)
I am drop dead serious everyone. If you choose to enter their playground then follow their rules. Have the proper testing done, show a paper trail, pay all the taxes have inspections done by the proper local and state authorities and abide by their suggestions.

This is the salient point. Mess with Commerce as defined by the UCC and you will get nailed. There are those who feel they can stand on both sides of the fence. Be sovereign, self determined, self responsible, and DO NOT enter into commerce OR get a corporate license, follow the rules, and trade.

The strawman entity which you create to trade in commerce does not have to be you. Keep them separate.

[giovonni]

Posted by Carmody (here)

Isn't it also interesting that right around the same time America targets their heritage breeds, Canada places theirs in the cross-hairs? Mark Baker of Baker's Green Acres is a well-known American example.

That is because Canadian Prime minister Stephen Harper is a representative of the USA corporate CFR Oil Bush Cabal skull & bones Monsanto Blackwater CIA party.

could be ...

[NewFounderHome]

Posted by blufire (here)

Posted by eva08 (here)
I am crying... so terrible.... I can feel so for this woman... what a loss. I know, I care for my animals and plants, students and people greatly. What a loss. I am so sorry.

Please . . . Please don’t!! I know with the way this story has been spun by activists that it appears brutal and horrible.

And it is . . . . but not because of the final outcome but because Montana chose to enter an arena she did not fully understand or naively thought somehow she didn’t have to follow certain specific laws.

I am drop dead serious everyone. If you choose to enter their playground then follow their rules. Have the proper testing done, show a paper trail, pay all the taxes have inspections done by the proper local and state authorities and abide by their suggestions.

Montana was selling breeding stock of this particular rare breed of heritage sheep for an incredible amounts of money . . .across state and country (into U.S. and other parts of Canada) without proper vaccinations, blood and genetic testing. A rancher she sold breeding stock to had testing done that she failed to do to make sure he was following all laws and this is when he found out the ewes (females) sold to him by Montana carried genetic markers and antibodies showing these animals carried the ability to pass ‘scabies or mad cow disease’ to their offspring and/or themselves develop full blown scabies.

The officials told Montana (among other things) that at least until all testing was done with her entire herd and the animals she had sold within a specific time period that she was to NOT breed her ewes and she did anyway . . . . .

If anything I blame the activists her encouraged her to defiantly ignore and go against what the officials requested.

And she could have avoided ALL OF THIS by not wanting to earn large amounts of money selling breeding stock and/or raw ewe milk. She entered ‘their’ world of money and laws.

“They’ could care less about those of us who are true small farmers or homesteaders who raise heritage animals, grow organic vegetables and treat our families with herbal cures . . . . it is when you go out side and into their world that they take notice.

Choose which lifestyle you truly want and build your world accordingly . . . just a suggestion.

I understand what you say but it is still not the appropriate way of doing thing. They could have taking the complete hurd and tested them. No Need to act like idiots if some other person don't understand the corporate rules and laws.

Previous to killing here 40 some sheep, another farmer was done the same thing. They all did test and there is no scrapie, but they did test them once dead.

And now they want to sue here and put here out in the street. Why not simply go and finish here off.

I'm sorry but that is devastation what they are doing. If someone never has been around farmers and farms and have no clue of what farming is, then someone can't understand. This is here life that is taken from here.

She is loosing here job, the very thing she has been building and working very hard one. A farms is not like working for someone else, not even close.

Think of the mosanto story's and more.

[NewFounderHome]

Here is another petition on ther same subject.

http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-cfia-slaughter-of-healthy-rare-heritage-shropshire-sheep?share_id=HcytvjqfEJ&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition