Slaughter of child's pet adds to dossier against cull

STEVE BOGGAN looks at claims that the number of slain animals is overwhelming officials.

LONDON - The worst time for Mark Shadwick did not come on discovering that his dairy herd had foot-and-mouth disease, nor did it hit him when the animals were shot, rotting even now where they fell.

It was when his 5-year-old son, Ben, realised his pet cow, Gidget, would have to be slaughtered.

"Ben got the camera out and asked us to go outside with him to put the halter on the cow so he could have his picture taken with her," said Shadwick.

"He said he wanted a photograph of her before she went to heaven."

It was just one moment in a horrific week for the Shadwick family. Their experiences have been passed to Joyce Quin, the British junior Agriculture Minister, as part of a dossier demonstrating appalling delays in disposing of animals struck down by foot-and-mouth disease.

The dossier, containing around 20 cases, was handed over by the National Farmers' Union as part of its efforts to dissuade the Government from culling healthy animals.

The message, which clearly made an impression on Quin, was simple: If the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food cannot cope with disposing of sick animals, how can it hope to slaughter a further half a million healthy sheep and pigs?

Shadwick, 38, first became concerned about one cow in his 401-strong herd of pedigree Jersey Holsteins the weekend before last. Until then, Raughton Farm in Dalston, near Carlisle, had been mercifully free of the disease.

"The cow was salivating and appeared to have trouble chewing, so after milking I rang the vet and he told me not to panic but to look at the tongue," said Shadwick.

"I opened her mouth and saw lesions, then I put my hand inside and the surface of her tongue came off on it. It was terrible."

What followed is a stark demonstration of the Government's inability to cope with the crisis with the number of ministry vets available - already increased in this area from 11 to 79.

Shadwick's own vet, David Black, was convinced the animal had foot-and-mouth yet the ministry insisted on waiting for saliva samples to be taken and tested.

It was not until Tuesday, therefore, that the positive diagnosis was made.

"I was told that a Maff [Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food] official would be straight along to see me, but I didn't see anyone until Friday," said Shadwick.

Three slaughtermen and a vet took 10 hours to kill the animals inside farm buildings on Friday. Within three hours the cows' stomachs began to bloat. Yesterday, they were still lying there.

"They have begun to smell pretty badly, but I don't think there is a health risk to us," said Shadwick.

"What worries me is that there are 401 foot-and-mouth infected animals lying dead on the farm.

"Crows and Starlings can get into the barns and on to the carcasses - and there are 10 other dairy farms within a one-mile radius of here."

But the story doesn't end there, because the infected cattle of Raughton Farm are still nowhere near being made safe.

Diggers are on the site, building a road that will provide access to a pyre. Only last night, 700 railway sleepers were delivered; 200 tonnes of coal must still arrive.

It will then take two days to build a fire and a further two to move the carcasses to the pyre.

"They have told me nothing will be burning before Thursday and it will take a further five days for them to burn completely," said Shadwick.

"The animals will be in a terrible state by then. I want to know why we can't simply bury them.

"The report into the 1967-68 outbreak recommended burying them with lime and said burning could spread the disease.

"I have to ask the ministry how they could possibly hope to cope with another half a million carcasses when they can't even deal with the ones we already have?"

At a local question-and-answer forum in Keswick, Quin was asked the same question. Burial was now being rejected, she said, to prevent the disease leaking into the water table.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Online feature: Foot-and-mouth disaster

UK outbreak map

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