I received an agitated telephone call last night from someone who'd discovered that the Little Britain House Dairy in Palmer, Alaska had --- without permission --- simply stolen the copyrighted banner from our website, and a whole section of information about the history of Guernsey cattle.

In the case of the history section, they are even stealing our bandwidth.  It's a little complicated to describe, but the images shown on their website are actually hosted on the EGCS website.  So when a visitor to their site looks at a page, the images are actually coming from our site, and using our bandwidth allowance.

The Alaskans have incorrectly said that the Guernsey images are reproduced "with permission W. Luff."  I can assure you that no permission was requested or given.  But the Alaskans also say that the photo of the Queen with a Jersey cow is with "Gracious Permission of HM The Queen."   Hmmmm.

I've contacted the Little Britain House Dairy by telephone and e-mail, and have also contacted the press team and "abuse" team at their web host, Freewebs.  I hope that their unauthorised usage of our copyrighted material will come to a quick end, and without the need to involve solicitors.

Their website is interesting in other respects.   They indicate, "We sell herd share contracts in our milking herd so that the owner of the share then owns a  share in the milking herd and therfore can take home the fresh milk produced from their cows."  They go on to explain that they are not actually selling fresh milk, but rather "shares."  

A share costs $25.00, non-refundable.  There is then a monthly fee of $30.00 to cover "husbandry" -- such charges as feed, labour, and veterinary care.  This, in turn, entitles the shareowner to one gallon of fresh milk per week, which the shareowner must pick up at the dairy.    Excluding the initial cost, and factoring in their 10 months per year of lactation, that's $9.00 (£4.60 at today's rate of exchange) for a gallon of milk.

If you'd like to sign your contract, and start picking up your gallons, here's a map that shows their location:

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