Farmer calls for ban after 'killer' Chinese lantern
fells another cow
16-12-2009 By Daily Mail Reporter, The Daily Mail, UK
A farmer is backing calls for a ban on 'deadly' Chinese lanterns - after one of them killed his prize cow. Huw Rowlands branded the floating wonders a danger to livestock after his most impressive animal suffocated after eating one.
Farmer Huw Rowlands says the 'tasty' lanterns - the remnants of which are shown here by his father David - are a massive threat to livestock.
It is not the first time a death has been blamed on the Chinese novelties - another farmer suffered a similar catastrophe when wire from a stray lantern in the Wirral punctured a cow's stomach valve and went through its heart.
A third, Mick Heath, hosts weddings at Heaton House Farm in Rushton Spencer, Staffordshire, and announced earlier this year that he had banned the release of lanterns saying 'a box of 50 could result in 50 dead animals'.
Mr Rowlands' cow, named Sprite, took a fancy to a lantern when it landed at Grange Farm in the village of Mickle Trafford, Cheshire - but the wire and paper wreckage proved too much.
The wire pierced the animal's windpipe leading Mr Rowlands to back calls by the the National Farmers’ Union for an outright ban. It was the eighth lantern he had found on his land in just a month.
The lanterns, which have a wire frame covered with bamboo, light up the sky at night and can float for up to 30 miles powered by a single candle. They can be bought for as little as £5 and emerged as a symbol of hope in 13th century China.
The only problem is livestock think they look 'tasty'.
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It took Sprite, a pedigree valued at more than £1,000, over than two days to die after her neck swelled, causing her to slowly suffocate.
Mr Rowlands said: 'I found her on her side down in the field. She didn't look quite right and she couldn't even stand up. We got the vet and then we brought her up on the buck rake which is attached to the tractor.
'At first we thought it was milk fever and we treated her for that but she got worse and worse. Her neck had swelled right up and she couldn't move or eat or drink."
After she died he marched down to the field to investigate and found the remains of the lantern. It looked like it had been 'half-eaten' and the vet concluded it was to blame.
The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) say the lanterns are such a threat they should be outlawed.
Mr Rowlands added: 'The main danger is they are covered in bamboo, which the cows will think is a tasty treat.
'They think it's just a plant. Cows also have four stomachs so when they eat they regurgitate their food. Sometime during that process the wire had gone through her oesophagus and punctured her windpipe.'
To protect his other 156 Red Poll cows, which Mr Rowlands sells to a number of restaurants and pubs, he is hoping to stop people sending them airborne anywhere near his farm.
'They are more commonly used at this time of year close to Bonfire Night and the New Year,' he said.
'But the lanterns also pose a risk to fields of crops during the summer months. There is a risk of them setting fire to the whole field.
'People don't realise the effects that debris has on the natural environment. They also don't realise how far they can travel. This was a horrible way for the cow to die and it is rather expensive as well.'
(Bron: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/)
(Bron foto: Daily Mail)
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