Three southern Saskatchewan schools have canceled their youth tours of Europe this spring in response to concerns about the spread of foot-and-mouth disease.
“Some of the local cattlemen complained and made us aware that people were not happy,” said Richard Gehl of Hodgeville, Sask.
His wife and two teenaged daughters canceled their trip following an emotional meeting of 100 people in their community. Thirty students at Shaunavon had planned to see England and France this month, while 50 from Hodgeville and Swift Current were headed to Italy.
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“I respect their decision and am relieved they’re not going,” said Gehl. “These kids need a big pat on the back for what they’re doing.”
“My kids, they’re upset, but they know it’s our livelihood and that it would cripple our industry,” said Gehl, who has 200 head of cattle near Hodgeville.
He said many cancelled too late to be refunded money. Some will lose about $2,500 each, getting back only 50 percent of their costs in travel vouchers from EF Tours.
Most youth worked for a year at odd jobs pulling weeds, rototilling and working bingos. Some borrowed money to make the trip.
Many Shaunavon families pulled out in time to meet the trip cancelation deadline, said parent Brian Fritz of Shaunavon. They are expected to get half their cash back, but will still lose about $1,400 each.
Fritz noted the cost to the community could be much higher if the students brought back the disease.
Still, it’s a lot of money to a teenager, said Fritz, whose son responded to the news of the cancelation with the comment, “this thing really sucks.”
Cattle producers have offered donations of beef that could be raffled off to help students get back some of their money, said Gehl.
More meetings were planned in the community this week to encourage others to avoid travel to Europe.
Gehl and Fritz said people continue to travel between Europe and Canada daily. They think the government needs to do more to keep the disease out.
“They are more concerned about Chrétien’s golf course than this coming to Canada,” said Fritz.
Gehl said cattle producers have been forced to target school groups to get their point across to government about the potential harm to Canadian agriculture.
“They’re not tightening up airports enough,” said Gehl.
He hoped the federal government would pressure the airlines to refund people who have had to cancel because of the prevalence of foot-and-mouth in Europe.
Some tours are going ahead as planned. Sixteen teenagers with the Allan French Cultural Group are off to France this Easter, after parents met and gave the trip the go-ahead last week.
Yorkton Regional High School will take 60 students and 14 adults on a tour of Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
Trip co-ordinator Dennis Nesseth said they are not traveling to countries infected with foot-and-mouth disease. He said his group is aware of the risks and is following the advice of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. They will change footware and seal clothing in plastic. Farm youths will stay in town for 48 hours to two weeks upon their return.
“We have $175,000 worth of airline tickets; we can’t make rash, uninformed decisions,” he said. “The informed decision is that it is safe to go as long as we take precautions.”
Fritz said his group was also prepared to disinfect and dryclean clothes. In the end, they made their decision not to go.
“Once I looked at the bigger picture, there was enough influence from this community to not go.”
