Hello, Africa!
South Africa's largest water bird breeder, Hilko Insel, is fighting the legal battle of his life against the Communist-ANC government, over claims that his entire bird collection must be put to death because they carry a strain of the bird flu.
Mr. Insel's water fowl collection is in jeapordy after the bird trader unwittingly purchased another farmer's birds that were hatched from eggs illegally imported into South Africa from Holland. The contraband duck and swan eggs were allegedly infected with a strain of the bird flu virus. Mr. Insel did not ask where the birds came from because they had already gone through all proper quarantine regulations before being offered for sale. All of those birds hatched from these eggs purchased by Mr. Insel have already been culled.
Mr. Insel says the SA Agriculture Department's demand for his entire bird collection to be culled is going too far, as he has not even been given a fair chance to have blood samples taken from the other birds to see if they are in fact infected.
With his farm being placed under quarrantine last week Saturday, the Agriculture Department had more than enough time to have every single bird tested, argues the bird breeder. "All I recieved was a culling order from the Department that was adament that every bird be culled," Mnr. Insel says in this exclusive radio interview, available for download below. At the time of this broadcast (Friday, August 25th) none of his birds still had been tested.
Another farmer who purchased birds from the same farmer had all his birds tested for bird flu and those results came up negative. Despite this, the court still ruled that all those birds be culled.
When the order came down in court for his water fowl collection to be culled, Mr. Insel was taken aback by Dr. Bothle Michael Modisane, National Minister of Animal Health, who "jumped up and down" in celebration of the ruling. However, Mr. Insel has gotten a temporary legal interdiction that will stop the culling order until Monday.
Mr. Insel's collection, located in Pretoria, South Africa, numbers more than 800. Several of the birds, such as the blue crane and the black neck swan, are on the list of endangered species. Published reports put the value of his collection at more than 2 million SA Rand (US$280,000).
There have been no mortalities among Mr. Insel's bird collection for at least three months, and no birds show any signs of any diseases. "Even the veteranarians [from the Department] tell me they cannot believe this is happening, but because it is an order from National, they are just fulfilling their job, otherwise they would be fired."
"I really don't know what the modus operandi is behind the whole situation, all I can say is that I don't understand, my common sense cannot tell me, why I cannot be allowed to have my birds tested to prove that they are not infected? In all fairness, I cannot even prove that my birds are not infected, but [the ANC-Communist government] does not want to listen. They just want to say, 'just kill all the birds'".
"There is not one infected bird on my farm," a defiant Insel states. "I was not given the opportunity to prove my birds are not infected by taking blood samples and having them properly tested, there are no birds are not dying so there is no epidemic. If there is such a crisis that requires my birds to be culled, why did they wait a week before they came to me and said they must be culled? And why wait another week with my birds in quarantine to have a culling order?"
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