Summary
The
incursion of a foreign animal disease into any country produces devastating
impacts on the country and on its producing industry. Although the
associated financial losses to the country and its industry inevitably
are calculated, the result in compensation to producers is often inadequate.
Above and beyond the financial accounting calculations, however, there
is a tremendously destructive and overwhelming impact that has been
essentially ignored. That is the profound social impact and the real
human cost to individual producers in the livestock industry and their
families. Any decision to employ mass animal destruction as an animal
disease control strategy must take this fundamental human element
into full consideration. The author describes the consequences and
depth of personal impact that the stamping-out approach has produced
on affected individual livestock producers.
Keywords
Animal
disease outbreaks, Animal disposal, Costs, Exotic diseases, Farming
communities, Social impact, Stamping out.
|