Save Our Shropshires!
URGENT! Help Stop CFIA’s slaughter of our healthy flock of rare heritage sheep! Visit ShropshireSheep.org to find out more, send a letter to Minister of Agriculture Canada Gerry Ritz and CFIA.
MEDIA RELEASE—Dec 8, 2011 —Hastings, Ontario—The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has elected to destroy a healthy flock of rare heritage breed Shropshire sheep at Wholearth Farmstudio, a Northumberland County farm that conserves heritage livestock genetics. If the 44 animals are killed, the breed will be several steps closer to extinction with only 107 registered breeding females, 38 ewe lambs and 16 rams remaining in Canada. At one time the Shropshire was the preferred sheep breed in North America, with over a half a million registered animals. The Wholearth flock bloodlines trace back to their 1882 descendants by way of the first Shropshire sheep imported here from England at the turn of the century.
Heritage breed farmer/shepherd Montana Jones has spent the last 12 years preserving their rare genetics and is alarmed that despite lab results proving her entire flock tested negative for scrapie, CFIA officials have decided to ‘depopulate’ all of her beloved QQ genotyped sheep. Sheep that have a QQ genotype are considered less resistant to scrapie, however that does not necessarily mean those animals would ever acquire it.
CFIA recently destroyed 50 sheep at Coyote Acres farm in Alberta, after discovering a scrapie positive sheep there two years ago. CFIA’s investigation team has no definitive answers as to the original source of the Alberta farm infection, but is now targeting the Ontario farm flock because the Alberta case was allegedly found in a sheep born in the Wholearth flock more than 5 years ago. It was one of many tissues submitted for testing and concerns have arisen surrounding possible misidentification. Scrapie is not a human health risk but can affect the productivity of affected sheep and the CFIA mandate is to eradicate the disease. Read the entire media release at ShropshireSheep.org ….
American farmer/author/agricultural activist JOEL SALATIN says “CFIA’s intent to annihilate the Wholearth flock of Shropshire sheep owned by Montana Jones is deeply troubling. Without credible tests that empirically prove the existence of scrapie, to proceed with the planned extermination is both unscientific and tyrannical…”
A Likeable Sheep
To learn more about this exceptional breed, it’s history, and the very special Miller ram, read my article…
Saving Rare Heritage Breeds
Heritage breeds are traditional livestock breeds raised by farmers in the past, before the rise of industrial agriculture (factory farming) caused a drastic reduction in breed variety. In the past 15 years, 190 breeds of farm animals have gone extinct worldwide, and there are currently 1,500 others at risk of being wiped out. Within the last five years alone, 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses and poultry have become extinct.
There were less than 200 in Canada when we began our Wholearth Heritage Shropshire flock to ensure this important breed would survive here. Our pedigrees trace back to 1882 when the first British imports arrived in our country from England.
If you would like to help conserve rare heritage livestock while raising a beautiful sheep—look no further than the Shropshire. They’ve been dubbed “Easy Keepers” because their docility, sound constitution, extreme hardiness, prolificacy, and longevity, enables efficient flock management that involves minimal time and effort. Ewes make excellent mothers and have abundant milk, easily rearing energetic twin and triplet lambs for many years, often past the age of ten. Lambing percentage ranges from 170 to 200%.
If you’d like to “Talk Shrop” then please call or email for more information on our lovely Shropshires, or to arrange a visit to Wholearth Farmstudio.
Email us at the farm or Telephone: 705. 696.2556
A limited number of breeding stock will be available for sale this year, so if you are interested reserve your foundation lambs now, and join Wholearth in helping to save this exceptional breed from extinction.
Wholearth Heritage Shropshire sheep pedigrees can be viewed at Canadian Livestock Records Corporation.
True-to-Type Heritage Shropshire Sheep • Traditional Breed Character • Pedigreed 1882 Ancestry • long • low •deep • sturdy • stylish • blocky • beautiful • wide • wooly • weighty • well-muscled • growthy • prolific • hardy • milky • long-lived • open & closed face types
