Curtains for Phoenix, the calf twice saved from slaughter

LONDON - Phoenix, the calf which became a national celebrity in Britain after she survived two attempts to slaughter her, has been offered a starring role in a stage play.

The Daily Telegraph said that the calf's owner, farmer Fred Board, had been offered £100,000 ($339,000) if he let her appear in a six-week pantomime run of the play Jack and the Beanstalk this Christmas.

A theatre production company called Qdos had made the offer in an attempt to cash in on Phoenix's new-found fame, said the newspaper.

Board said he had not yet decided if he would accept the offer, but told the newspaper: "It beats farming."

Phoenix, a month-old Charolais heifer, was part of a herd culled by Government vets fighting the foot-and-mouth epidemic. She miraculously survived and when vets returned to finish the job there was a national outcry.

Her photograph featured on the front pages of Britain's newspapers and she was credited with persuading the Government to ease its mass slaughter policy.

Her owners were quoted as saying that they had also been approached with offers to make cuddly Phoenix toys and to put her face on T-shirts and coffee mugs.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Blair is due to announce today that the battle against foot-and-mouth is nearly over but that there will be "no complacency" in the final stages.

The confident assessment, in his first formal press conference on the crisis, is expected to pave the way for a general election on June 7.

Blair is also expected to say that, according to a report, the current outbreak has been controlled more effectively than that of 1967.

The BBC said that the last of the carcass backlog was expected to be burned in Devon today. This compares with a week ago when 83,000 carcasses were waiting for disposal.

Despite the Government's upbeat message, a new case of foot-and-mouth was confirmed in Somerset yesterday, 10 days after the county was declared free of the disease.

Anthony Gibson, regional director of the National Farmers Union, said the outbreak - only the county's second case - was "shattering news."

- AGENCIES

Herald Online feature: Foot-and-mouth disaster

World organisation for animal health

UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

The European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease

Pig Health/Foot and Mouth feature

Virus databases online