Sheep tagging battle in Brussels
Angry MEPs from across Europe heaped criticism on the European Commission yesterday at a heated and often tense special hearing on compulsory electronic identification (EID) for sheep.
Alberto Laddomada, Head of Animal Health in the Commission opened the hearing by stating that he believed there was no room for any change in the regulation which will have to be introduced by 1st January 2010.
In an angry response, Struan Stevenson MEP said that the European Commission were modelling their preferred system of EID on trials conducted in Spain.
Speaking during the debate in the European Parliament in Brussels, Struan Stevenson said,
"Electronic tags applied to high-value milking ewes in small flocks that are handled daily, in the sun-kissed uplands of Cordoba, are a world away from large, hefted flocks on the rain-lashed hills of Sutherland. And the cost of the proposed system will simply drive more and more of our sheep farmers off the hills of Scotland. "
Struan added:
"Stationary readers, computers, software and the tags themselves will cost a hill-farmer with 50-score of sheep around £7,000 to set up and over £3,000 a year to run. This is completely beyond their financial scope. It is a great tragedy that the European Commission claims electronic tagging is necessary to avoid a wipe out of Europe’s flocks by foot and mouth disease or other diseases. But the cost and impracticality of the compulsory system that the European Commission is insisting upon will destroy sheep-farming in Europe. We will end up relying on lamb and sheep meat imports from countries outside the EU who don’t comply with any of the hygiene and welfare standards we apply to our own EU farmers. In the process, we will see the rapid depopulation of our hill and upland areas and a complete disintegration of the system of land-management which has defined our landscape for centuries.
Struan concluded:
"The Duke of Sutherland was blamed for moving people off the Scottish hills to make way for sheep, during the Highland Clearances. Now the European Commission wants to get rid of the sheep as well!"
