Fish­er­men and Friends of the Sea (FFOS) is urg­ing the Prime Min­is­ter to redi­rect the more than $2 mil­lion saved from the can­cel­la­tion of In­de­pen­dence Day cel­e­bra­tions to as­sist pig farm­ers who have been se­vere­ly af­fect­ed by the out­break of Porcine Re­pro­duc­tive and Res­pi­ra­to­ry Syn­drome (PRRS).

Al­though of­fi­cials have re­peat­ed­ly as­sured that PRRS does not pose a threat to hu­man life, the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture, Land and Fish­eries has put down the in­fect­ed pigs, a move that has dealt a heavy fi­nan­cial blow to farm­ers.

One farmer, Bri­an Ma­turine, lost his en­tire herd of over 250 pigs, val­ued at $700,000, and is await­ing a com­pen­sa­tion pack­age from the Gov­ern­ment.