There has been much in the media recently, and I include iNews Cayman, regarding the Cayman Islands Turtle Farm (CITF) and the accusations made against it by the World Society for Protection of Animals (WSPA), which highlighted what the group described as animal welfare abuse at the Cayman Turtle Farm.

I have dwelt enough on the pros and cons in articles and Editorials on the subject and to repeat the claims by the WSPA and the CITF) would be superfluous.

“Facts” from both sides are slanted and other “facts” that would hinder the opposing parties claims are left out. That is the nature of the “beast”. The letter ‘s’ is conveniently added to give more weight to even more “facts”.

Somewhere in all of this is truth and I have tried very hard to root out hard facts from opinions.

However, when blatant lies are stated by government ministers as facts then the person stating them must be brought to task.

I am referring to a claim made by British Member of Parliament, Conservative Sir Peter Bottomley, who tabled a motion in the London Houses of Parliament in relation to the WSPA Report last October 2012. In his motion he said:

“I congratulate the WSPA for bringing to light evidence of animal welfare abuses at the Cayman Turtle Farm, which is the last remaining facility in the world that commercially farms the endangered green turtle; believes that as an Overseas Territory, which has received $430 million from the government in the last three years, the government has an obligation to work with the Caymanian government to see this out-of-date practice finally ended; and calls on the government to condemn the practice of producing turtle meat for consumption and help assist the farm in moving towards practices that promote the protection 
of turtles rather than the production of their meat.”

Where Bottomley obtained this figure from is not known but by associating it with the WSPA who supplied the rest of the “facts” in the motion it certainly gave the appearance of being true.

The actual figure over the last FIVE years according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is £635,046 “for specific projects in the Cayman Islands, which support our criminal justice strategy, promote good governance and protect the Islands’ environmental biodiversity. The FCO has not lent money or provided aid to the Cayman Islands government.”

This equates to $1,015,400 so the exaggeration becomes over FOUR times what it should have been.

The facts for this Editorial have come from a Caymanian Compass article published on 15^th January, 2013 entitled “MP hugely overestimates UK’s Cayman spending”.

The use of the word “hugely” was being kind.

Why in this day and age public figures publish unsubstantiated figures as facts is beyond me. What is even more amazing is there is a body of people who believe them.

After all, the majority of the facts that were given were true – or were they?

When just one figure is given out as a fact in a report is proved to be a lie it passes much doubt upon the rest. Even “facts” slightly distorted.