Four Charged in the Unlawful Removal of Sheep Quarantined for Scrapie
By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
An Ontario farmer best known for his legal battle for producing and selling raw milk is now facing theft charges for taking sheep from a quarantined farm. The sheep were being quarantined by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) over concerns that the Shropshire sheep had a disease known as scrapie.
Schmidt is one of four who have been charged with what’s becoming known as the Montana Jones Scrapies case. The other three who are facing charges in addition to Schmidt are Montana Jones, Suzanne Atkinson and Robert Pinnell. The charges were laid following an investigation into 31 sheep that had gone missing from an Ontario farm on April 2, 2012. The charges include obstructing a CFIA inspector, transportation of animals under quarantine and conspiracy to defraud the public service. The sheep were later tracked back to a farm near Chesley, Ontario.