Farmers take coffin to presidential palace in protest against foot and mouth cullings

Farmers descended on the presidential palace on Saturday, bringing with them a coffin, to protest the culling of livestock amidst the ongoing outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

They had initially gathered at the GSP Stadium, at Nicosia’s southern extremity, before marching northwards to the palace, despite the veterinary services department imploring them not to do so for fear that they may spread the disease further.

When they arrived at the palace, they submitted a letter to President Nikos Christodoulides, declaring that farmers across the country are “in a state of despair”, and that they demand the “immediate end of across-the-board culling” of livestock.

“We demand that the massacre of healthy and asymptomatic animals be ended. The blind application of protocols which drive entire units to the slaughterhouse without the animals even being ill constitutes an economical and ethical crime,” the letter read.

The farmers also claimed that the fact that some animals have tested positive for the disease without exhibiting symptoms is proof that they contracted the illness at some point in the past and have now developed antibodies.

“We are not saying ‘no’ to the culling of animals which exhibit symptoms. The culling of healthy animals is tantamount to an ethical crime and a criminal offence. We demand the immediate halting of testing of animals which have already been vaccinated,” the letter added.

Additionally, it demanded “immediate and full compensation” for lost earnings, before pointing the finger at the Turkish Cypriot community, which suffered an outbreak of the same disease last year, accusing the Turkish Cypriot authorities of not properly halting the disease’s spread, and accusing the European Union and the government of facilitating them.

To this end, they demanded “immediate publication of the names and responsibilities of all of the officers of the veterinary services department who have been dispatched to the European Commission or who contribute to technical committees for the implementation of the Green Line regulation or of the protected designation of origin [PDO of halloumi] in the occupied territories”.

“The Cypriot people must know who is suggesting facilitations for the other side, while at the same time signing off on massacres of our own animals,” it added.

With this in mind, it then criticised the visit of the EU commissioner Oliver Varhelyi to Cyprus, saying that “it seems that [it] had the singular aim of eradicating the entire animal population, asymptomatic or not”.

“He has not mentioned how to solve the problem with the issue of the occupied territories. He mentioned that in the occupied territories, they do not implement European regulations and European directives,” it said.

However, it added, “at the same time, Mr President, he did not inform you that until today, the European Union has given grants of more than €100 million and has ratified the certification and whatever Europe foresees to four cheesemakers, 24 farms, and 325,000 sheep and goats, and 50,000 cows to obtain PDO registration”.

It then demanded “either the immediate cutting off of every single euro to the occupied territories or the cancellation of all the registrations which have been granted, given that they are not applying the same policies as our country”.

“In the end, Mr President, livestock farming in our country is collapsing. It is dissolving. It will not be able to be brought back,” it said, before declaring that the protest will continue “indefinitely”.

“We will not leave without clear, written, and satisfactory commitments.”