Jump to content

1969 Rabies outbreak containment - What would happen today??


catchthepigeonmutley
 Share

Recommended Posts

When looking for something else (as always) I found that there was a rabies scare at Camberley Common, Surrey, IN 1969. I vaguely remember it. It resulted in I think a 2 day shoot to cull foxes primarily, and rabbits and hares too. Here is part of a newspaper report on it.

 

 

Rabbits, badgers and other wildlife to be culled in two-mile radius of site in Surrey where dog died of rabies.

 

''An extensive animal hunt began in Surrey yesterday to wipe out all wildlife within a two-mile radius of where a pet mongrel went mad and died of rabies. On Thursday, about 50 men from the Ministry, armed with guns, will start a sweep to destroy foxes, voles, rabbits, squirrels, weasels, and other animals left in the area. The army will be asked to provide 200 troops to beat the area. Residents in the Camberley area will be warned to keep their children indoors for safety. They will also be told not to let out cats or any other household pets: any animals found on common land during the shoot will be killed The decision to eradicate wildlife was taken yesterday at a conference at the Ministry’s pest infestation control laboratories at Worplesden, near Guildford, but infestation officers were already at work searching out wildlife on common land around King’s Ride, Camberley.''.

 

I also remember the headline in the London Evening News, as it was in those days - ''Rabies shoot gets bag of 64''. Make of that headline what you will!

 

Anyway, if such an outbreak were to occur today, from a smuggled animal perhaps, what would happen? I assume that the bunny huggers would rather us all risk getting the disease? Discuss.......

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember this and it was along the same lines and dopey thought power as bombing the Tory Canyon and the indiscriminate spraying of the beaches with vast quantities of powerful industrial detergent that did hundreds of times more damage​ than the oil would ever have done. I remember a picture of the fox hunt where a fox broke the line and went back. Anyone who knows about fox drives understands that it's not just having random people out there. You have to know the ground and you have to have the right type of people as standing guns. A job like that would have to be a combination of trapping, snaring, baiting, night shooting and fox drives and even with this you could never be sure that you had managed to contain the problem to any specific area because Charlie generally seems to find the weak link in the line. If someone can't concentrate or gets bored or moves from their position Charlie will slip through.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If the money grabbing scum that are "vets" employed by the Govt are involved then everything within 50 miles would be killed and burnt. Vet gets hefty pay check while explaining the cost of disposable paper coveralls and it's not been proven fish don't carry rabies. Hand in your goldfish,destroy your bee hive and kill all.

Cynical ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Things were very different back in the 60's etc

back then the countryside was still for farming and the Maff employed all sorts of folk, many areas had maff (or parish council employed throu maff grants) rabbit catchers,.

In those days maff could (and i think still can) come onto ur land to control rabbits, ragwort etc and charge u for it if u were not keeping on top of it or letting them spread to nieghbouring farms.

Plus shooting stuff to contain a disease was still normal practice

 

Nowadays most pencil pushers would be too scared to make a decision nd stick there head out from there nice safe job.

So i doubt it would hapen now

Nowadays it would just spread and spread in no time the way people animals travel about nowadays

 

It seemed to work anyway!!

 

I doubt maff/defra would have the bottle/stomach to tackle the F&M outbreak the same way again and that was only 17 years ago

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hello, yes and what was that other incident when they found the source came from their own laboratory

Foot and mouth from the Pirbright research lab. No charges sought though. Quick cull of thousands of animals and snouts back in the government trough for those involved.

Didn't give a damn. Scum.

Edited by digger
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A bit off the subject in the sixties I would think lots of officials would have been ex www11 soldiers / officers the attitude they took was no messing about but just get on with it.Only saying cos a lot of my teachers in the school I went to in the sixties were ex services and they took no **** from us lot :lol: Most folk in the position to deal with an outbreak now will have an ology from uni so as said before after risk *** and safe method etc plus covering backs exercises we would all have snuffed it. :oops:

Edited by scutt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We should be thankful rabies is as scares as it is with free border control .as much smuggling that goes on it would run riot in this country , they cant do a little badger cull now how would they completely cull them in a area?.

Was it Jonny Depp and his wife that flew his two terriers straight into a country and totally missed out customs ? showing any diseases could be passed anywhere anytime

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember this and it was along the same lines and dopey thought power as bombing the Tory Canyon and the indiscriminate spraying of the beaches with vast quantities of powerful industrial detergent that did hundreds of times more damage​ than the oil would ever have done. I remember a picture of the fox hunt where a fox broke the line and went back. Anyone who knows about fox drives understands that it's not just having random people out there. You have to know the ground and you have to have the right type of people as standing guns. A job like that would have to be a combination of trapping, snaring, baiting, night shooting and fox drives and even with this you could never be sure that you had managed to contain the problem to any specific area because Charlie generally seems to find the weak link in the line. If someone can't concentrate or gets bored or moves from their position Charlie will slip through.

Deleted

Edited by wymberley
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...