Nieves asks to see cow 217 and Baldomero takes nine days

“Show me 217,” I said as I walked into the byre, and Baldomero Ferreiro planted himself in front of the back door.

I state the following for the record. I am Nieves Aldecoa, vet for the district unit, and on 14 March I ran the tuberculin test on all forty-one cows of the Ferreiro holding. Three came back positive. Number 217 was not in the yard: her owner said he had taken her up the hill.

I went back on the 16th, the 19th and the 21st. She was still up there. On the 23rd a dealer from Sarria rang me to ask whether the holding still had its clearance, because someone had offered him a nine-year-old cow at an odd price.

That afternoon I went in with the Civil Guard. Number 217 was at the back of the byre, her ear tag torn out, coughing. Nine days.

Baldomero is sixty-two and owns forty-one cows worth less than what he still owes on the tractor. I understand that. What I cannot do is put it in writing.

I asked him to ring the office himself, because it is one thing for me to report him and another for him to say it. He dried his hands on his trousers, dialled and waited for someone to pick up.

“Ferreiro here, from Vilarmide. I have three positives and a cow I have been hiding since the 14th.”