Fox experiment leads to a valuable lesson
I was surprised this idea was not challenged by the farm organisations. The use of MBM was outlawed during the BSE crisis, first in cattle and sheep rations, next in pig and poultry rations and, finally, in dog rations.
The beef industry is just emerging from a period of severe austerity as a result of BSE.
I think any move to reintroduce MBM for any purpose is madness. Just before MBM was outlawed in dog rations there was a den of young foxes in a ditch on my farm. I decided to carry out an experiment to tame them by feeding them dog rations, which then contained MBM.
This experiment was proceeding satisfactorily. I only had to move back a short distance and the foxes ate ravenously. Then on a July evening, one of a number of weanlings in the same field decided to puck away the young foxes and eat the dog ration himself.
I made a frantic attempt to chase away the weanling to allow the young foxes finish their supper, thus ending prematurely my experiment in fox sociology.
We seem to have very short memories. Are we trying to revive the BSE industry? Hawking MBM around the country again would be criminally insane. We had a few greedy cowboys in our ranks not too long ago who fed Angel Dust to their cattle. They are still out there, and if we give them a chance they will let us down again.
MBM has to be kept out of circulation permanently. Incineration and the resulting generation of electricity is the only answer. We would have an incinerator for waste from the meat industry up and running now were it not for a campaign orchestrated by tax exiles with unlimited funds in south Tipperary.
Modern incineration is safe and is certainly better than rendering into MBM, storing and transporting to Germany - not to mention contamination of the ship’s hold which may then be used to transport animal feed ingredients.
Sean Lanigan
Clonamondra
Gortnahoe
Thurles
Co Tipperary
