Rare Breed of sheep in need of help

As a owner and conservationist to rare breed livestock including a small flock of critically rare sheep,I wanted to pass this info along and strongly encourage you to sign the petition to help save a rare breed flock of Shropshire sheep in Ontario.

This truly breaks my heart....

Dec 8, 2011—Hastings, Ontario—The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has elected to destroy a healthy flock of rare heritage breed Shropshire sheep at Wholearth Farmstudio, a Northumberland County farm that conserves heritage livestock genetics. If the 44 animals are killed, the breed will be several steps closer to extinction with only 107 registered breeding females, 38 ewe lambs and 16 rams remaining in Canada. At one time the Shropshire was the preferred sheep breed in North America, with over a half a million registered animals. The Wholearth flock bloodlines trace back to their 1882 descendants by way of the first Shropshire sheep imported here from England at the turn of the century.

Heritage breed farmer/shepherd Montana Jones has spent the last 12 years preserving their rare genetics and is alarmed that despite lab results proving her entire flock tested negative for scrapie, CFIA officials have decided to ‘depopulate’ all of her beloved QQ genotyped sheep. Sheep that have a QQ genotype are considered less resistant to scrapie, however that does not necessarily mean those animals would ever acquire it.

You can read more about them here or at the blog  here

There is also a facebook page Save Our Shrops- ShropshireSheep.org that I recommend you join if you have facebook.