Quarantine managers to blame' for horse flu

The senior lawyer assisting Justice Ian Callinan's equine influenza inquiry says federal quarantine managers should be held responsible for the escape of the virus into the eastern Australian horse population.

At the height of restrictions to control the horse flu outbreak the equine industry's income was down by $4.5 million a day.

Counsel assisting the inquiry says the evidence suggests the virus got out from Sydney's Eastern Creek Quarantine station.

But the inquiry cannot identify the person, or the first horse, which spread the flu.

However Tony Meagher SC argues the quarantine facility was under-staffed, under-funded, and poorly managed.

He says the virus would not have escaped if the head of the Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries and executives in the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service had ensured the "most basic" biosecurity measures were in place.

The Federal Government has postponed debate on a bill to levy the horse industry for the cost of containing disease outbreaks until it receives the Callinan inquiry report.

Bathurst mourns death of horse Charlie

Bathurst Island locals are farewelling a much loved horse with a special burial ceremony.

Charlie was about 28-years-old and spent his last 10 years as the last horse on the island, which is about 80 kilometres north of Darwin.

Bathurst Island local Eustace Tipilura says Charlie will be greatly missed by the community.

He says people tried to move Charlie to nearby Melville Island to meet other horses, but Charlie refused.

"They put him in a barge and took him across and then about ten minutes later him swim back. They tried to put across twice and he swim across twice as well."

Horse SA Letter to Minister Tony Bourke MP re Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 08

The Hon Tony Burke MP Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry PO Box 6022 Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 Friday March 7th, 2008

Dear Minister, Re: Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2008 Horse Disease Response Levy Collection Bill 2008 Horse Disease Response Levy (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2008 Horse SA is a not-for-profit industry advocacy body based in South Australia. The organisation, has a focus on key issues of horse health & welfare, horse keeping & the environment, trails & public land, road safety, community, industry and workforce development. Our organisation is writing to you, to respectfully provide some information in order that the Minister does not become embarrassed and have your first bill in the new parliament fail in the ‘dash for cash’. Normally, in our day to day role, Horse SA interfaces between the government and horse organisations and owners on a range of regulatory & voluntary compliance issues. However, we find we are unable to undertake our normal services to facilitate the introduction of the new bill (Horse Disease Response Levy Bill 2008), as we have not been engaged in any part of the process of its development, we only became aware of it’s introduction through a general media broadcast. Therefore, our action has been to empower horse organisations and owners on how to provide direct feedback through MP’s and Senators and to engage their respective State & National horse organisations. This has been a lost opportunity for the Minister. Horse SA cannot support any Bill that has not demonstrated transparency in it’s development, or due process, including a sound consultation process, independent evaluation for equity and capacity to collect or pay the tax, and an effective, accountable communication strategy. In addition, Horse SA cannot provide a “collective view” as we do not have adequate information, or opportunity, to undertake normal consultative processes with our members. Horse SA has a corporate (not a general membership) understanding of the Emergency Animal Disease Cost Sharing Agreement (EADRA) and why it is needed. EADRA participation is supported. EADRA, however this has not been signed. Does the proposed Levy Bill put the “cart before the horse?” It is noted in Parliamentary papers that by having the Levy Bill passed, that this will give the Australian Horse Industry Council (AHIC) confidence to sign up to EADRA. No mention has been made of the annual membership fee to Animal Health Australia – is this part of the mix? The level of understanding around EADRA by various horse organisations, of which there are over 90 national and many more state-based groups, depends very much on the capacity or interest level of relevant groups to engage in general industry issues outside of their core business. Broad understanding of the issues surrounding the Bill, achieved through consistent communication, clear messages and identified benefits, are not widely understood. Horse SA encourages organisations that do understand EADRA, and the resulting agreement for government to recover costs spent responding to any type of emergency disease, to remember their voting power at each election. While underlying principles may be sound, (and be applicable to other animal industries) there is considerable scope to debate, review, argue, negotiate and otherwise participate in a pro-active manner to ensure that the best result is achieved. There are several areas that concern us:

1. Due government process (this appears to be seriously lacking)

2. Equity. Most horses are not registered with any group. The minority will be paying for the majority. Cost recovery is not being borne equally across the (horse owning) community.

3. Capacity. What sort of risk assessment was undertaken to evaluate the skills, ability, (mainly volunteer) personnel, technology (some still do not have computers) to collect the tax? Is the government going to pay for extra staff, volunteer training or computers to meet compliance?

4. Lack of an “All of Government” approach. This seems against the government’s own policy. If so much time and effort is going into collecting a tax, yet no capitol gain is made from knowing where all the horses are, and which horse is which, then no learnings have been forthcoming from the Equine Influenza response.

Much of the EI response cost would have been on actually “looking” for those horses not registered with any organisation, from hiring helicopters to staff door knocking. Failure to address equity through choosing the “easy option” of picking horse registration bodies as taxation collection points adds the cost of looking for horses again to any future responses.

More cost (and future prolonged levy repayment period) for horse owners could be averted by a cross-portfolio approach. Environment & Water, Regional Planning & Infrastructure, Workforce Development & horse industry SME’s are just a few areas that could all be addressed through some forethought in information and/or tax collection. By not adequately considering these factors, the horse industry is still on the back foot and unable to effectively negotiate or be a competitive industry sector like the other animal groups.

1. A social justice policy statement based on capacity to pay needs to be provided.

2. “Future proofing” the Bill is also not evident. Australia is an active participant in the international horse meat marketplace. As abattoirs upgrade to meet EU or International standards, the point of origin for each horse will need to be validated as part of Australia’s commitment to improved food supply chains. Has the Minister adequately considered this aspect, especially as it is situated within your portfolio area. Revisited, the Minister has an opportunity to ensure that loved horses do not end up in the human food chain, as in the UK. There will be other considerations not mentioned.

3. The definition of Horse needs to include donkey, mule and zebra

4. The definition of a national horse body needs to be clarified further or a new definition devised. Some horses are registered through a state branch and the “national body” oversees rules & regulations, but does not technically register horses. This narrows the taxation collection base further. It should also be noted that further narrowing can be found through state based organisations, which register horses, but do not have a national body. These two scenarios considerably increase the taxation burden on the few individuals who are left to pay.

In closing STOP. Put the building blocks in place first. Horse SA understands to be in the game (that is, recognised by government) that you have to be a player, but not when the rulebook is taken from another sport, another era, another social economy and only a precious few are invited to play - with most being dis-engaged spectators, or worse still, in the “outer” as a millstone around the community’s (horse industry’s) neck through not registering horses. Horse SA looks forward to a reply from the Minister’s office in relation to our concerns.

Yours truly,

Julie Fiedler Executive Officer

Hi Horse Deals, thought your readers may find this letter interesting, I found it on the Horse SA website www.horsesa.asn.au they have some great info re this bill.

Escaped horses roam onto Corona freeway - California

About a dozen left Hart Ranch and another property before dawn, causing two accidents that left one of the animals dead and three motorists with minor injuries. A herd of horses trotted onto the 91 Freeway in Corona early Monday, causing two collisions that killed one of the animals, forced authorities to close the road for roughly five hours and left three motorists with minor injuries.

The horses, about a dozen in all, escaped from Hart Ranch and a neighboring property and bolted several hundred yards in the predawn darkness to the freeway, near Green River Road, said Donna Hart, co-owner of the ranch.

She said the animals apparently escaped through a hole in her fence. The fence had been checked Saturday and was in good condition, Hart said.

In the past, she said, hikers have cut the wire to get onto the property. She said the same thing may have happened again.

"We get a lot of people coming through here," she said.

The ranch, which has about 100 horses and offers horseback riding, is on about 300 acres of hills and grazing land adjacent to the freeway, Hart said.

As the horses ran on the eastbound lanes, a driver traveling about 65 mph struck and killed one of the animals about 3:20 a.m., the California Highway Patrol said.

The impact caused the driver to lose control of his vehicle and smash into the center divider.

The driver, described only as a 55-year-old Fullerton resident, suffered minor injuries and was treated at Riverside Community Hospital, the CHP said.

A second car swerved around the dead horse and smashed into the back of a third vehicle. The motorists, both 55, suffered minor injuries and were treated at the Riverside hospital, according to the CHP.

Traffic was snarled for several hours as ranch workers, aided by the CHP, rounded up the stray horses. Hart said the workers were able to run up to the animals and lead them off the freeway.

"They were pretty easy to catch. They knew they were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Hart said.

The freeway was reopened about 9 a.m., the CHP said.

By Monday afternoon, Hart said, workers had repaired the hole in the fence and built a second barricade as an added measure.

"It could have been a lot worse," she said. "Hopefully, it will never happen again."

Games come into focus for defiant Vicki

LOSING an eye hasn't stopped Vicki Roycroft's campaign for the Beijing Olympics, nor has the equine influenza crisis.

The only thing she is worried about as she bids for a fourth Olympic appearance is what's going on in her horse's head.

At 54, Vicki is the last member of the famed Roycroft clan still competing at elite level. The Roycrofts, Australia's first family of the Olympics, have an unbroken connection with the Games going back to 1960 and family patriarch Bill's heroics in Rome. Since then a Roycroft has been at every Games either as a competitor or coach.

Bill's three sons, Barry, Clarke and Wayne (now Australia's head eventing coach) are all Olympians, and Vicki, who married Wayne, joined the family firm in 1984.

Vicki and Wayne are now divorced, but both remain committed to the sport.

In July, Vicki was quietly going about her business preparing her latest horse, Infatuation, for this year's Olympic showjumping qualifiers, when she began to experience blurred vision in her right eye.

She was competing at the Gold Coast and saw a local doctor who assured her it was a temporary condition. When there was no improvement after she returned home to her property at Mount White, north of Sydney, she sought specialist advice. His diagnosis was devastating. She had a melanoma on the back of the eye.

"It's going to have to come out," he told her.

"I said to him: 'My business is riding horses over fences and I have to have depth perception from a long way out'," she recalled. "But he reassured me that my left eye would compensate, and it has. The only problem that I have is at arm's length, so don't get me to pour you a drink."

The operation to remove her eye was scheduled for October, just as the equine influenza outbreak reached her door.

"It was a pretty good time to be sick because I couldn't ride anyway," she said.

"I spent two months not sitting on a horse and that's a world record for me."

However, 10 days before her surgery Roycroft began wearing an eye patch while riding her horses so she could begin to adjust to her new view of the world.

She didn't get her artificial eye until December, but, in her no-nonsense way, she abandoned the eye patch much sooner.

"It was only cosmetic and I needed a parrot on my shoulder to make that work," Roycroft said.

"I no longer terrorise small children. Well not as much anyway," she announced on her website at the time.

"But the main thing that pleased me was after three days of jumping two horses per day, I didn't miss one distance."

Australia's most successful jumping rider, Roycroft has yet to compete since the surgery but she is not worried that her performance will be impaired.

It is Infatuation who will have to measure up when they compete at the Royal Easter Show this month as a warm-up to next month's national championships at the Sydney International Equestrian Centre.

"I have had no opportunity to test him, so I don't want to cart him off overseas until I know he's competitive," she said.

Roycroft is booked to travel to Europe on April 23 to prepare for two Olympic qualifying events in Germany in June but said she would only go if she had a "fair shot".

"Otherwise I will sell the horse," she said.

"He's 13 or 14, about his peak for a jumper. He's got the quality but he has a difficult brain. He's got that hot thoroughbred nature, and he's a giant. He's 17 hands and I usually like small horses. But I'm better with horses than with people."

Roycroft last competed at the Olympics in 1996, before coaching in 2000 and 2004. She is one of 11 riders in the national elite squad of which only four can win selection.

Other candidates include Europe-based Edwina Alexander and 2004 Olympian Tim Amitrano.

"At the moment I am making up the numbers," Roycroft said.

"But in our game it depends on what you are sitting on and I have got a pretty good horse."

Whether he has the big-occasion temperament to go with his athleticism is something she will find out when they compete in Sydney.

If he excels they will be a hard combination to stop because Roycroft is the one yet to meet a fence she didn't think she could jump.

"I am one of those people who thrives on adversity," she said, with massive understatement.

Sammy the seal pup on death row

• Sammy the seal is biting the hand that feeds
• Authorites say the wild seal may have to be put down
• Was moved 70km away from trouble but swam back

SAMMY the seal is under a death sentence for biting the hand that feeds him.

The threat comes after the public ignored pleas to stop feeding him and reports he has bitten several people at Stony Point, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.

Wildlife officer Glenn Sharp said the seal's fate lay in the hands of those who continue to feed him bait and fish scraps.

Department of Sustainability and Environment said euthanasia would be considered as a "last resort".

Mornington resident Penny Femino said her son Brody, 4, dubbed the seal Sammy, and knew not to interfere with him.

"It's fine for Sammy to be a local tourist attraction, so long as the public knows not to interfere with his natural instincts and behaviour," she said.

The DSE threat to put Sammy down angered RSPCA president Hugh Wirth, who said the seal should not be punished for human stupidity.

"If people are getting bitten because they are stupid and failing to recognise they are dealing with a wild animal, they deserve everything they get," Dr Wirth said. "I have absolutely no sympathy."

The year-old seal has defied efforts to move him to a seal colony at Sorrento, by swimming 70km back to Stony Point.

Mornington Peninsula vet and animal behaviour expert Katrina Gregory said she urged the DSE to move Sammy back in November, before he established Stony Point as his territorial home.

The department was reluctant to interfere, so Ms Gregory organised for Sammy to go by road to Sorrento on March 12.

But the seal, keen for the free feeds he has been enjoying at Stony Point pier, swam back.

He has resumed his habit of pestering fishermen for a cut of their catch.

Just 15kg now, he could reach 300kg as an adult, and the DSE warned he could become dangerous and unpredictable as he becomes increasingly reliant on humans for food.

"DSE hopes the seal will return to its colony before it becomes aggressive to people who don't feed it, and before its health begins to deteriorate due to a growing lack of inclination to hunt," it said.

Dolphin Research Institute president Jeff Weir said more people had been injured by seals than by sharks and they were wild animals best left alone.

Blood Analysis Shows Japan Horses Source Of EI

Counsel assisting the Callinan Inquiry noted in their closing submission that scientific evidence "pointed to a consignment of thoroughbred horses from Japan being the source of the outbreak of the virus from Sydney's Eastern Creek quarantine station last August" reported The Australian Financial Review. The Japan consignment arrived in Melbourne on August 8, and 9 of the 13 horses went to that city's Spotswood quarantine station, while 4 were flown on the same day to Sydney. Blood analysis showed 7 of the 9 horses that remained at Spotswood were infected with EI between July 24-August 24, but there was "no evidence of any contamination of horses in the general horse population in Victoria". Counsel noted it was "most unlikely" the virus would have escaped from Eastern Creek if it had "even the most rudimentary biosecurity measures". The failure to require such measures was a "serious failure" by senior management of both the Department Of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry and AQIS "who were responsible for managing quarantine risks". The submission identified a string of "acts & omissions" by AQIS employees & officers "dating from at least 2003, which had increased the likelihood that an infected horse would be imported & that the virus would escape into the general horse population".

EI Inquiry Lawyers Slam AQIS

The Callinan Inquiry into the equine influenza outbreak "has been urged to deliver a damning assessment of the Australian Quarantine & Inspection Service, a finding that would increase the likelihood of a class action to recover losses running into hundreds of millions of dollars," reported The Australian Financial Review. The arguments put by counsel assisting the inquiry (Tony Meagher, Alister Henskens & Rob Anderson) in a 191-page closing submission "will also result in extra scrutiny of a broader federal review of quarantine & biosecurity systems due by the end of July".