December 10, 2002

Dear Sir,

I am writing in response to your article on today's front page (shared interestingly with a feature on youth vandalism in St. George's) headlined “Marksmen drafted in for chicken cull”. Alongside is a photo purportedly depicting chickens “pushing out calves at a feeding trough”. Oh dear! I cannot help but respond Sir, since once again on this Island everything is precisely in reverse to natural and logical order: It is the cattle which - if anything - for environmental and humane reasons should be culled, not the chickens.

I make this statement, in the positive assurance that I shall be labelled ‘a nutter' (the easy, and politically most preferred way of dealing with educated dissent) as an experienced vet who absolutely adores the bovine animal, but in the species-appropriate environment. In other words, in those countries and regions, where they belong, having all the pastureland they require for a happy, healthy existence. (I have only the best memories of my veterinary work on cattle farms in Bavaria and Austria)

Cattle as ruminants, require vast amounts of plant fibre or roughage in order to survive. They are exquisite, wonderful animals, capable of housing the correct bacteria in their fore-stomachs or rumen, which then break down the cellulose in plant cell walls. With the aid of further bacterial action the nitrogen produced is used to form amino acids (the building blocks of protein) via ammonia while carbohydrates and fats are synthesised from the short-chained carbon and hydrogen molecules.

Brilliant indeed, however the average lactating cow requires 150 (one hundred and fifty!) pounds of grass per day to sustain itself. If she is pregnant, she requires more. How is this relevant to Bermuda? Well obviously, we do not have the pastureland - the several acres needed per head of cattle - so like everything else, the plant material must be imported. The last time I purchased a bale of hay it was $23.00. Grain, or carbohydrate rich foods are not as important as fibre in the production of milk. Indeed ruminants given too much grain or starch rapidly lose the correct ph-balance in their fore-stomachs and they become acutely, and very often fatally ill.

There is also the simple health requirement for movement and exercise of the large animals weighing often in excess of 500 kilograms. There is the problem of humane culling of the many male calves (50 percent), which are born each year, since without a regular pregnancy there is no lactation; with no lactation - no milk. Bermuda has no properly regulated, professional slaughter facility of an acceptable primary world standard, and no organised veterinary meat inspection and hygiene control on Island. This should be addressed before marksmen are deployed to destroy the wrong animal.

In purely environmental terms for Bermuda, the burden of these beautiful creatures so sorely out of place here is tremendous: Large amounts of nitrogenous waste in dung which cannot be spread out, as it is the normal practice on rural croplands for growing plants, and runs into the groundwater and out to the foreshore. Methane gas and carbon dioxide, which although locally insignificant considering the number of other effluent and far more noxious gases that are freely pumped out from vehicles and from the incinerator and Belco stacks, does have a global significance in terms of food value produced versus greenhouse effect. The physical damage of their heavy tonnage to the land is also remarkable. Intensive farming has been shown to exact a very high price in the cattle and dairy industry, as evidenced by the BSE and F&M (Mad Cow disease) problems in Europe and elsewhere. One of the fundamental realisations coming out of the analysis of these recent farming disasters, was that intensive farming, and unnaturally pushed production per individual animal are the very root cause of disease outbreak.

Finally there is the large amount of individual suffering which we are obliged to witness in the dairy farming industry here on Bermuda. Many are standing in mud and their own excrement for most of the time, hoof rot problems abound, with many individuals chronically lame and sore. Calving is often a problem and profit margins mean that professional care is shunned over the brute force option. I shall spare the reader anymore of the details, but this is not - with one or two notable exceptions - a happy place for bovines. How could it be? Nothing they require for a comfortable existence is here.

Chickens? Well that would be a sensible terrestrial farming option for Bermuda. After the 9/11 horror last year, and looking at all the grounded planes at the airport, I found myself wondering how we would feed ourselves if we were cut off for any length of time. I certainly know which animals would be culled first, and I am sure there would soon be a queue at my front door for fresh eggs.

DR. A.M. WARE-CIETERS M.R.C.V.S.

City of Hamilton

December 7, 2002

Dear Editor,

Today I have been moved by providence from the Somers Annex to the Somers Ward of St. Brendan's hospital. Today I have been moved by a beautiful partnership. Today I publicly thank The Royal Gazette Ltd., Bermuda Waterworks Co. Ltd. and the St. Brendan's volunteer services. Today I declare that most clients appreciate your daily gift of The Royal Gazette newspaper to us.

I particularly enjoyed an article in today's paper on page 42 in the Caribbean News section. The article was entitled ‘Cuba's unusual spontaneity'. Today I therefore end this letter by thanking all of you at The Royal Gazette, Bermuda Waterworks and St. Brendan's volunteer services for sending The Royal Gazette newspaper to the clients of St. Brendan's Hospital.

We view your gift with our eyes almost every day and we thank you from our hearts continuously. Please be encouraged. Sincerely yours

Eugene N Brangman

Devonshire