Customer Reviews

Mad Sheep: The True Story Behind the USDA's War on a Family Farm

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A PAGE-TURNER! I couldn't put it down until I'd read the last page. As other reviewers say, "Mad Sheep" will make your blood boil!

Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison in 1787 that "a little rebellion, now and then (to keep the government from becoming tyrannical), is a good thing" and the story told in Mad Sheep demonstrates that that little rebellion is overdue.

To seduce the world into believing it's taking an extraordinarily vigilant approach to protecting the U.S. against BSE (mad cow disease), the USDA put on a well orchestrated, highly publicized show that victimized a small family-operated SHEEP dairy --that's right, SHEEP, not COW or CATTLE. At the same time, they quietly reduced the amount of testing of cattle for the disease to a tiny percentage of the cattle population. Undoubtedly, these politically motivated ostriches want to ensure that they do not discover or expose any evidence of BSE in cattle.

Challenged by the farmers, the startled USDA bunglers quickly manufactured laboratory data to support their claim that the Faillace sheep harbored "a TSE (the category of diseases that includes BSE) of foreign origin," one that is "suggestive of BSE." Since no sheep in the world has ever contracted BSE under natural conditions, this bizarre claim is one of the most unique in the halls of science, amounting to the discovery of not only a new and mysterious form of TSE but, as well, a disease transmission vector that would surely earn a Nobel prize. Their claim's tag line "of foreign origin" also suggests a level of knowledge about TSEs that simply does not exist.

These "minor" considerations, however, did not deter the USDA's ethically challenged BSE "experts" and watchdogs. Instead, they used their contrived data to mislead the media and public, and to intimidate scientifically naive politicians, federal court judges and, interestingly, the politically appointed head of the USDA. As a result, the Faillaces lost the support of their state's political leaders, each of their court cases and appeals and, ultimately, their sheep and livelihood. Their story is not unique; it's happened with far less publicity to many other small farmers. What is unique, is that they challenged and exposed the corrupt duplicity of a federal agency controlled by vested interests and is now running amok.

Read the book and, after you've calmed down, think about the meaning and intent of Jefferson's advice.

In 2001 the USDA swooped down on two farmers in Vermont and killed all their sheep without proof of any disease in the animals. This is a scary foreshadowing of the USDA's plans for <a href="http://NoNAIS.org">NAIS</a> and <a href="http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05214.pdf">depopulation</a>. What happened to these people and their livestock is something I've thought about often. The government has no business doing what they did. There was no emergancy. There was no need to rush. It was not a wildfire. In the end, the hundreds of sheep the USDA killed turned out to not be diseased after all. Our government simply over reacted and in the process they not only killed innocent, healthy livestock but they violated the Constitutional rights of citizens and destroyed the dreams of farmers. And our government officials wonder why we don't trust them???

The government should not have these sorts of unlimited powers that allow them to reach into our homes and lives. It is time to rein the mad dogs of government in and muzzle them.

This true story of a family's struggle to keep their sheep alive in the face of unjust persecution by the USDA will leave you simultaneously hopeful in human nature and dissillusioned with the US goverment. The Faillaces spent many years planning for their dream of establishing a family sheep farm and cheese making establishment in the hills of Vermont. After considerable money, effort and rigourously following the USDA guidelines for importing sheep from Belgium, they were notified that their sheep were suspected of having a form of Mad Cow disease. The goverment wanted to seize and kill their sheep. The only problem is that no sheep has ever had Mad Cow disease, even the Faillace's. What follows is a heroic attempt by the Faillace's to fight the US government and keep their sheep and family business alive. I found this story totally engrossing and enlightening. Anyone interested how our government treats small small family farms compared to big agribusiness needs to read this book.

We tend to forget that this country was founded on agricultural principles. With the industrialization of food, farmers have come under scrutiny by various agencies of the government because of the multi-national business arrangements they, particularly the USDA, have. Mad Sheep is a perfect example of what is happening on family farms in the United States. Driven by greed and fueled by fear of being condemned in the global market, USDA makes up a scenario that could absolutely not happen, that being BSE in sheep, and ruins the dreams of another law abiding family.

I read this book in just 24 hours. It has been a long time since a book just wouldn't let me put it down. Perhaps it is because I too am a homesteader and have sheep every year. When the USDA came to take the Falliace's sheep, my tears started to flow, hard.

Mr and Mrs Consumer who know nothing about farming, know nothing about where your food really comes from, know nothing about the encroachment of the government into our personal lives, you need to read this book to get a glimpse of what life will be like for you once an agency of the government decides they want something that you have.

That seems to be the biggest question one has to ask by the end of this very sad story. It was sad on so many levels. It was sad because the Faillace's lost an opportunity to begin a new agricultural venture for a state that badly needs sustainable small agriculture. It was sad because they lost animals they dearly cared for. They had to send house raised bottle lambs on a trailer with sheep they weren't used to. To have perfectly healthy animals seized by a government for no good reason was devastating. It was sad because the Faillace's and their children were failed by the duly elected representatives, both Senator Leahy and Governor Dean waffled back and forth and never really did back them up to the degree they should have (and these were DEMOCRATS not corporate hugging Republicans). It was amazing that Howard Dean, a medical doctor, said the science was too complicated for him (I wonder how he ever got through medical school!). It was sad because once again it was demonstrated that our government cannot be trusted to do what is best for the little guy, that, in point of fact, the little guy is at the mercy of the wishes of bigger guys.

One question that occurred to me at the end of the book is this. After the tainted beef (BSE tainted that is) was sold and consumed did anyone think about putting an immediate freeze on organ donations from any person who might have eaten ground beef in the states that received the tainted beef? I seriously doubt it. Yet people who lived in England during the time of the BSE outbreak are not allowed to be organ donors. I know this because my sister died a couple of years ago from natural causes (not CJ disease), at the time of her death the hospital was informed that she spent 6 months in England during the BSE outbreak. Her corneas, etc. were declined because of that.

It's amazing how much energy went into making the Faillace's look like dangerous people in the mind of the public. It's amazing how quickly the actual exposure of consumers to BSE tainted meat was hushed up. It's not amazing, given the information in this book, that organic farmers of all types don't trust the government. It's amazing, given the information in this book, that consumers do.

If I had told friends I was reading about alleged disease in sheep they would have missed the true significance of this book. It's about big government intervention against the rights of citizens. It's about a Vermont family's creativity and dedication and how all of that was trampled by the USDA run amok. It's also about what happens when special interests and lobbyists overwhelm a government agency.

It really was a page turner.

After reading Mad Sheep you will really wonder what in the heck our country is doing "bringing democracy" to the middle east when we clearly don't have democracy here at home. The treatment of the Faillace's (good friends of mine and my husband's) by our government is sickening. While we have heard their story first-hand many times, reading the book brings it all together. When my husband Ray read the book a few months ago, he said that his biggest concern is that people won't believe that this really happened - how could this happen in the United States of America? But it did. Linda has done an amazing job presenting complex science in a way that everyone can understand and then interweaving it with the heartwrenching story of how government officials from the USDA and Vermont Agency of Agriculture destroyed their business and killed their sheep accused of having a disease that does not exist in sheep (substantiated by ALL negative tests). If you believe that this can happen in the US this book will confirm what you already know and make you angry! If you don't believe that this can happen in the US, then you really need to read this book and make your own decision. Just be sure you have lots of Kleenex and a punching bag available!

This book is about a small family with a few imported sheep, who became embroiled in a whirlwind of government conspiracy regarding the big beef industry, international trade, manipulated scientific data, and the irresponsible panic of one powerful government agent regarding Mad Cow disease. The result was the terrorizing of a family, murder of healthy sheep, and the disillusionment of anyone interested in healthy eating or in the ability of their government to protect their right eat safely.

If you have any suspicions that the USDA is not monitoring agriculture and food safety the way they should, this book is a must-read. It tells the story of a family farm destroyed by the government agency designed to protect food safety. Mixed messages, lies, secrets, big business pressures, international trade, spies, good science and poor science--they're all in here, interspersed with the very personal details of a mother who watched her children's hearts broken as they were betrayed by their government.

I find it ironic that this book brought to mind the works of the "muckrakers" of the early 20th century. After Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" revealed the horrific conditions of the meat packing industry in the US, the government responded by creating the USDA. It is that very agency which is at the heart of Linda Faillace's fight with her government and with the USDA's highly questionable science and politics. Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech in 1906 about the "muckrakers" (who were really just the first investigative journalists.) In his speech he said:

"There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful."

Even if Linda Faillace's story is colored by righteous anger and bitterness, the truth is in the details. She and her husband are well educated scientists, and back up their side of the story very clearly and persuasively.

In 2001 after months of surveillance and harassment armed federal agents seized a flock of some 100 organically-raised dairy sheep. One might think this an isolated incident, but MAD SHEEP: THE TRUE STORY BEHIND THE USDA'S WAR ON A FAMILY FARM holds implications for farming and food distribution channels as a whole. USDA chief Linda Detweiler claimed the imported sheep had been exposed to a disease, but the flock's owners - here, the authors - weren't about to let the judgement pass silently: they weren't just farmers but scientists, and demonstrated the impossibility of their sheep being infected. And then the fight really begins - documented here in eye-opening pages of detail.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Linda Faillace takes us on a journey from England, where she and her husband studied scrapie in sheep. When the family moved back to Vermont they decide to start their own sheep farm. They researched intensely which breed of sheep were the least likely to contract scrapie (East Friesian) as well as produce plenty of milk for cheese-making. They worked closely with the USDA and imported a couple unique breeds of sheep from Belgium, Holland and New Zealand. They also helped to set up a regulatory board in Vermont to monitor scrapie-they understood the importance of not feeding the animals bone meal. They made sure all of the sheep they imported had certified records of their feed.

A few years later, things changed. BSE was a big fear for the US cattle industry, and as a result there was a fear of animals imported from Europe. The Faillace's sheep became the target for a campaign to show that the United States was on top of the BSE issue. This incredible story takes us, with the Faillace family from trusting and working with the regulatory boards in Vermont and federally, to understanding the depth of deception, manipulation of science and media and how our institutional systems encourage power-plays by the people we need to be able to trust to work in the interest of the general public. Unfortunately, the way our world operates currently, competition in both the scientific communities as well as in government regulatory boards for money, prestige and recognition means that there is no time left for truth, integrity, transparency and basic respect for life (be it human, animal or plants).

This story is an important example of how badly things can go when large regulatory institutions go rogue. I highly recommend reading it if you are involved in food security issues and are concerned with food safety. One thing I would especially like to point out is that the Faillace family did their best to work with the USDA until they realized that the science the USDA was using to back their actions was bogus. Even when their animals were slaughtered, their argument was not for NO regulation, but for localized regulation which is transparent, based on good science, and assists farmers through open communication and understanding.