Cattle breeder victim of dirty tricks campaign?
A livestock breeder claims she is the victim of a malicious campaign to stop her bid for show glory after she was wrongly accused of doping her cattle with steroids.
Yvonne Hughes said animal health officers turned up unexpectedly on farm asking to test her beef for steroid use after receiving an anonymous tip-off.
She and her husband Dylan had just scooped a number of prizes at the Anglesey Winter Fair Show, including champion heifer, reserve champion heifer and reserve supreme.
They had been looking forward to building on their success at the Royal Welsh Winter Fair Show when two animal health officers turned up without an appointment at their farm in Ty Cerrig, near Corwen, Denbyshire.
“They arrived at our yard on the Monday before the Royal Welsh Winter Fair and said they had come to test the cattle,” said Mrs Hughes.
“I thought they had turned up for routine TB testing, but when they told me they had received a phone call about an allegation of using steroids on our cattle, I was absolutely stunned.
“My legs turned to jelly and I broke down in tears. It was a terrible thing for someone to have accused us of doing, especially as I knew we had done nothing wrong. It was the worst week of our lives.”
Blood tests confirmed there were no traces of steroids in the cattle, and Mrs Hughes received a phone call from animal health officials confirming the results, which was a “big relief”.
An official letter from the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency confirmed the results.
“Whoever did this to us clearly did not want us to enter the Welsh Winter Fair,” said Mrs Hughes.
An AHVLA spokesman said the organisation did not comment on individual cases. But the spokesman added: “The AHVLA carries out sampling for the National Surveillance Scheme for residues of veterinary medicines.
“A large component of the scheme is the surveillance for unauthorised substances, such as those hormonal treatments which might be used for growth promotion but are banned in the EU.”