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OVER 12,000 signatures!  Tell the Canadian government it's not acceptable to kill healthy animals! They are now killing hundreds of healthy goats in Ontario...not just livestock but PET goats.

Canadian Food Inspection Agency must amend their policies to an alternative no risk solution and not KILL animals to find out if they are healthy.

Why did Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz let this happen? There were alternatives to killing healthy rare sheep. Ritz must implement a heritage breed exemption for all livestock at risk of being destroyed at the hands of the CFIA's draconian risk control measures The details are at http://ShropshireSheep.org—The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) already destroyed my healthy flock of rare heritage breed Shropshire sheep at Wholearth Farmstudio, a Northumberland County farm that conserves heritage livestock genetics. Over 70 healthy are sheep were killed, and now there are less than 80 registered heritage females remaining in Canada.

At one time the Shropshire was the preferred sheep breed in North America, with over a half a million registered animals. The Wholearth flock bloodlines traced back to their 1882 descendants by way of the first Shropshire sheep imported here from England at the turn of the century.

Heritage breed shepherd Montana Jones, who has spent the last 14 years preserving their rare genetics, is alarmed that despite lab results proving her entire flock tested negative for scrapie, CFIA officials decided to ‘depopulate’ all of her beloved QQ genotyped sheep. Sheep that have a QQ genotype are considered less resistant to scrapie, however that does not necessarily mean those animals would ever acquire it.

Even America’s best known farmer and agricultural activist Joel Salatin tried to stop their destruction. “CFIA’s intent to annihilate the Wholearth flock of Shropshire sheep owned by Montana Jones is deeply troubling,” says Salatin, author of Folks This Ain’t Normal. “Without credible tests that empirically prove the existence of scrapie, to proceed with the planned extermination is both unscientific and tyrannical.”

Rare Breeds Canada Past President Dr. Tom Hutchinson of Trent University says “Montana Jones has assembled some of the best, most ancient heritage genetics, so these are not just average sheep we’re talking about. This is an absolute genuine heritage Shropshire flock, and Canada cannot afford to lose it. To kill them based on suspicion with no proof or reason, is absolutely ludicrous."

The Minister needs to replace those genetics, and prevent any more heritage livestock from being destroyed, be they sheep, cattle, pigs, goats, poultry or horses.  We have safe, alternative disease risk-control measures!

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