Gov`t manuals for animal burial have many loopholes

“Bury livestock in a place not adjacent to a home or river, put enough sawdust, and make an appropriate outlet.”

This is part of “The Emergency Action Guidelines for Foot-and-Mouth Disease (enacted in October 2009)” and “The Emergency Action Guidelines for Avian Flu (enacted in December 2009).” They were written by the Environment Ministry based on the Act on the Prevention of Contagious Animal Diseases and distributed to livestock farms across the country.

These manuals govern animal farms and municipal and provincial governments in case of emergencies such as the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease or bird flu, but the rules are not specific.

Experts say the manuals have too many “enoughs” and “appropriates” so that what is needed to be done remains unknown. Many point out that the loopholed guidelines have caused fears of a “second environmental disaster” in areas where the diseased animals are being buried.

The guidelines simply say a burial site for culled livestock is described as a “place not adjacent to a house, water well, stream, river, road or place where people live collectively and can limit the access of people and animals.” They fail to mention how far away, large and flat the place should be.

Since culled animals were buried in places near rivers and streams or drains or on the mountain slope, the buried areas are likely to be lost or collapsed or water could leak from them, portending an environmental disaster.

On the burial method, the manuals only say, “Put the carcasses in a pit to the extent where it is more than two meters deep from the top of the carcasses to the surface of the earth. Fill earth one meter from the plastic in the bottom, and the height of carcasses should be two meter high.”

They do not mention specifically how many cows or chickens should be there per square meter. Many ambiguous expressions say pack "enough" sawdust with tents or plastic and fix it or make outlets protruding with "appropriate" intervals.

The Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, however, defends such guidelines.

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