Farmers claim millions in damages over BSE losses
Swiss farmers are accusing the government of negligence in its handling of the crisis over BSE or Mad Cow Disease, and demanding damages to the tune of SFr300 million ($178 million).
More than 2,000 small farmers have lodged civil lawsuits against the government over its handling of the BSE crisis in the 1990s, and a second outbreak of the disease at the end of 2000.
The claimants say they sustained economic losses as a result of the federal authorities’ failure to deal adequately with the problem, and the slowness with which they reacted to the outbreaks.
“By believing each time that everything was going well and that the illness would soon be eradicated, the federal offices – and in particular the Federal Veterinary Office – were too lax and guilty of culpable negligence,” the claimants assert in their compensation demands.
They are also angry at what they call Switzerland’s “amazing naivety, not to say complicity” in allowing BSE-contaminated foodstuffs to enter the market.
They say the authorities should have called a halt sooner to imports of animal-based cattle feed. A ban was imposed in December 1990, but more than 300 cases of BSE have been registered since then.
The federal authorities also came in for criticism over the way the crisis was presented to the public.
The farmers say the beef market collapsed partly because of doubts sown in the minds of consumers and partly because of the conflicting and often erroneous information coming from government departments.
They quote as an example the fact that the authorities said in June 2000 that Swiss cattle fodder could be considered safe, only to ban the use of animal-based feed a few months later.
The Federal Veterinary Office said it was not in a position to respond to the claims. “The farmers’ position is simpler: they can make public reproaches, while we have to adhere to the government’s rules,” spokesman Heinz-Karl Müller said.
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