Despair in Olt. The farmers who were also left without animals and without compensation want to go on hunger strike in front of ANSVSA

Seven farmers from Olt, whose authorities killed more than 3,000 sheep and goats, as an action in a smallpox outbreak, are preparing for a hunger strike. They have been waiting to receive compensation for over three months. In the meantime, they also sent notifications to the DNA.

Over 3,000 animals were slaughtered in Tufeni and Crâmpoia PHOTO: farmers' archive

The ordeal of the seven farmers, six from the town of Tufeni and one from Crâmpoia, began in July of this year, when several animals on a farm showed signs of illness. The owner of the animals sought the help of the veterinarian and tried, for almost two weeks, to treat them. The confirmation that it was sheep pox came many days later, when the county committee was convened and the action measures in the outbreak were decided. As a result of that plan of measures, a total of over 3,000 sheep and goats belonging to the seven farmers were killed.

In the farm of the Burcea family, another farm that owned at that time over 230 sheep and over 150 goats, the killing of the goats was done with scandal, almost two weeks after the killing of the sheep, the farmers arguing that the animals (goats) did not show signs of disease and requesting the collection of laboratory samples to confirm the presence of the disease. The authorities instead fined Liliana Burcea and implemented the plan to kill the goats with the support of law enforcement.

Left without animals, the farmers hoped that they would rebuild their farms with the help of the sums they would get as compensation. In October, instead, the Olt Veterinary and Food Safety Directorate informed them that they would not receive their money, the reasons for each individual farmer being detailed in the addresses submitted.

If, in the case of certain farmers, the difference between the number of animals registered in the National Database (BND) and the animals actually found on the farm was cited, in the case of Alexandra Burcea, for example, it was mentioned the contraventional sanction that was applied to her because she opposed the killing of goats and thus would not have respected the veterinary sanitary restrictions in the restricted areas. Also, on the day the animals were killed, the veterinary authorities would have found fewer sheep than appeared in the register of the farm. The people tried in vain to explain that between the moment when the disease started to manifest itself in the sheep and the time when the entire herd was killed, more animals affected by the disease died, the corpses being, moreover, buried with the knowledge and support of the representatives of the town hall. In the case of the goats, for which the owner insisted not to kill them, the goats being cared for separately from the sheep and showing no signs of illness, the difference between those found in the field (several) and those in the farm register was, according to a DSVSAA Olt document, only two animals.

Approaches with an uncertain end

The farmers say that the reasons mentioned in the addresses that DSVSA Olt sent to each of them are mere pretexts to deny them compensation. Each of them would have to collect considerable sums, over 100,000 lei, money with which they intended to repopulate their farms and resume their activity, because they live from this occupation, and this for two generations.

“Only bad news. After so many trips and so many steps, I received the same answer after the lawyer appealed to the original address. I believe that the BND did not correspond with what they found. Well, for example, two goats were present at my place, but only because they did not have an earring, to tell me that they are not present? I don't know what else to say. I also went to Slatina, the minister promised us then that solved, nothing was solved (…), I also went to the president of the Agriculture Commission, I did not receive anything. Today, I filed complaints with the High Court of Cassation and the Constitutional Court of Romania. I filed today, and so did the others today.”said Alexandra Burcea, for “Adevărul”.

DSVSA answered Alexandra Burcea why they do not grant her compensation FOTo: farmer archive

Even if DSVSA Olt would have approved the compensation, the amount at which the slaughtered animals were valued is considered too low by the farmers anyway.

“At my place, for 388 animals, one billion seven hundred? Did he evaluate 9.7 lei per kilogram for sheep and 8.6 lei per kilogram for goats? Not even to be able to buy a quarter of everything I had. That's what it says there, in the evaluation sheet. At least he gave me those, but he didn't give me those either”, cried the woman.

Farmers have started various actions since October. They addressed a memorandum to Olt Prefecture, and a few days later, learning that the Minister of Agriculture, Florin Barbu, will participate in a political meeting in Slatina, they came to meet him and ask for his help.

The official replied that he knew their situation, that a “taken over the issue for at least two to three weeks”because he would also have been called by the mayor of the town. “I know the situation there, it's with ANSVSA on the compensation side and I'm trying to solve it with the prime minister (ed. – ANSVSA being a structure subordinate to the Government Secretariat). I don't have ANSVSA”, Minister Barbu told them.

“If you don't give us the money, compensate us, let's take our animals, I'm in trouble!”, threatened one of the animal breeders at that time.

After that meeting, through the farmer Ștefan Muscă, the seven ended up presenting their problem in the Agriculture Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and also had a meeting with representatives from the top of ANSVSA. He would have received, according to Alexandra Burcea's statement, promises that “in two weeks it's fixed, but three have passed and nothing.”

In the meantime, they turned to the lawyers and thus found out that two articles of the government decision regulating the payment of compensation were annulled by the High Court of Cassation and Justice, so that the injured parties cannot be conditioned in the granting of compensation by certain situations that are not related to the killing of animals. This argument is, moreover, used in the complaint that Alexandra Burcea submitted to the three previously mentioned institutions.

“Go on hunger strike”

“There are some donkeys that the vet made. He says that if you received sanctions, they are not obliged to give you compensation. (…) I helped them, I took them to the Committee for Agriculture in the Chamber of Deputies, they explained, they told me that it will be resolved, I see that nothing is moving. The president of the commission assumed that he would solve this problem and that he would get in touch with those from the General Secretariat of the Government, to which ANSVSA belongs. (…) Now, those from the General Secretariat have sent a paper to those from ANSVSA in which they ask them to state their point of view. Well, do they screw themselves up? He's going to give them an answer to affect these people again. I guided the people to go to court, which is not right, because those people cannot sit for four or five years now, as long as a trial lasts in Romania, because they have children, they have nothing to feed them, they have a critical situation”. said the president of the Union of Patriotic Farmers, Ștefan Muscă.

“People ask me to go and go on hunger strike at ANSVSA”Muscă added. Alexandra Burcea confirmed, for her part, that they thought of this approach as a desperate solution, because they were left without a source of income.

“That's what we've done since we've known each other. Since I came here, since I was 17 years old, my husband had a few sheep, since then I have been breeding them, every year I have bought. When I got the children's allowance or when I made another penny where I went during the day, I didn't buy what I needed for myself, to get dressed or something, I bought an animal where I could find it cheaper. I multiplied them, after reaching 70-80, I stopped every year of them. Now we had 234 sheep, 232 were passed to the BND, two were without earring, they were lambs, we were going to slaughter them at baptism, and 133 goats”Alexandra Burcea also said.

Asked if there is a solution to the problem of the seven animal breeders left without animals and without compensation, the director of DSVSA Olt, Veronel Bolborea, told “Adevărul” that everyone has already received an answer.

“From the point of view of the sanitary-veterinary laws, my point of view, that I have seen a lot of footage, comments and so on, within the framework of the sanitary-veterinary law, the measures that were imposed on the scene were taken. From the point of view of the decision on granting or not granting compensation regarding what happened there, the Sanitary-Veterinary Directorate made the decision not to grant sanitary-veterinary compensation. More far, I had meetings with you at the management, I told them what it was about, I communicated to them, they have all the official communications from DSVSA regarding what happened, regarding the requests that were made, I don't know what I could say further”stated Bolborea.