Bulgarian Defense Min Refuses to Dispatch Commandos against FMD Cows

A cartoon by Bulgarian daily Novinar's cartoonist Chavo exposes the ridiculousness of Bulgaria's FMD measures. Agriculture Minister Naydenov (left) is depicted calling for minesweepers in addition to sharpshooters to kill infected cows.

Bulgaria's fight against the spread of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) along its southeast border has reached ridiculous dimensions after a statement snipers will shoot down infected cows caused a scandal.

On Thursday, Bulgaria's Defense Minister Anyu Angelov denied any kind of involvement of the military in the hunting down of FMD-infected cows in the regions bordering Turkey.

In January-February and then again since mid March Bulgaria has been struggling to contain the spread of FMD, a disease that does not affect humans is devastating to livestock; because of it, on Wednesday the Bulgarian government decided to restore the Cold War fences along the Turkish border since it is believed that wild animals brought the infection from Turkey. The Bulgarian authorities have slaughtered thousands of animals to contain the FMD in the recent months.

"We are not going to take part in any way, and I think that no one is taking seriously what was said earlier," Gen. Angelov commented on Thursday after three days ago the head of the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency Yordan Voynov said the military had promised him to send snipers from the special forces in Plovdiv to take out about 25 "wild cows" infected with FMD and wandering in the affected region.

"The special forces are special forces. There are enough hunters in Bulgaria – I think about 130 000 – and they can take care of any cows," Defense Minister Angelov said.

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