CTV.Ca | Farmers Blame Ottawa in $7 Billion Mad Cow Suit

CTV.ca | Farmers blame Ottawa in $7 billion mad cow suit

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Tue. Apr. 12 2005 8:48 AM ET

Farmers blame Ottawa in $7 billion mad cow suit

CTV.ca News Staff

A group acting on behalf of 100,000 farmers launched a $7 billion class-action User Tools

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1113224896899_8/?hub=CTVNewsAt11 (1 of 3)4/12/2005 6:11:52 AM CTV.ca | Farmers blame Ottawa in $7 billion mad cow suit lawsuit against the federal government Monday. ● Print This Page

In the suit, farmers from Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan are accusing the ● E-Mail Story government of gross negligence in allowing mad cow disease to devastate the cattle ● Feedback industry. Video Specifically, they're accusing the government's federal monitoring program of losing track of 80 of out 191 imported cows it was supposed to follow in case they developed signs of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). ● CTV Newsnet: Farmers planning "By the government's own admission one or more of those 80 cattle are the most to launch lawsuit likely source of BSE in Canada," Cameron Pallett, the lawyer leading the Ontario 0:33 action, said in a statement. ● Canada AM: Ontario lawyer "Where was the monitoring? Where was the government's concern for the health of Cameron Pallett Canadians? Why did the Government fail so badly in the exercise of its regulatory 4:36 responsibilities?"

"The federal government has caused billions of dollars of harm so, they get to pay Related Stories billions of dollars," Pallett said, appearing on Canada AM. ● Canada optimistic According to the statements of claim, Ottawa introduced a regulation in 1990 that about Japan's mad allowed feeding cattle parts to other cattle -- which is how BSE is transmitted. cow move

● U.S. officials say But that was two years after Great Britain had banned the practice; and three years they'll appeal cattle after Canada banned cattle imports from the UK that weren't from farms certified as ruling free of the disease. ● Ottawa gives cattle producers $50 The lawyer leading the Quebec suit calls the government "grossly negligent" in not million boost taking into account and applying the common and scientific knowledge of how BSE is spread. ● Use contingency fund to help "The entire world knew about it," lawyer Gilles Gareau told The Canadian Press. cattlemen: Harper ● Canadian cattle The government would not comment "until there has been an opportunity to review safe for shipment: the full statement and assess the issues," said Elizabeth Whiting, a spokesperson for U.S. officials

Agriculture Minister Andy Mitchell. ● Japan confirms 15th case of mad At least one cow imported from the UK in the late 1980s was eventually ground up cow disease into feed, infecting a number of cattle that ate the feed, according to the lawsuit.

Ridley Canada, whose parent is Australia's largest stockfeed producer, is also named Web Links in the lawsuit for allegedly producing the feed. ● Details of the class- The farmers allege that the company knew, or should have known, that its feed could action suit be contaminated by BSE. ● Press release from lawyers Quebec farmer Donald Berneche told The Canadian Press that Ridley should have modified its feed recipe before the government ordered it to do so when it banned feed using ruminant meat and bone meal in 1997.

He alleges that the company by then had already undertaken to conform to stricter requirements in other markets.

According to the statement of claim, the company recklessly continued using the

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1113224896899_8/?hub=CTVNewsAt11 (2 of 3)4/12/2005 6:11:52 AM CTV.ca | Farmers blame Ottawa in $7 billion mad cow suit ruminants and bone meal in its Canadian products because it was cheaper than using soybeans.

The Minnesota-based Ridley is one of North America's leading animal nutrition companies. Its Canadian headquarters are in Winnipeg.

The company said in a release: "We are confident that the allegations will prove meritless and we intend to vigorously defend this suit."

A 2003 government investigation into the BSE case found no wrongdoing on Ridley's part.

With a report from The Canadian Press