The Guardian

Out of the spotlight,
Foot & Mouth Rages On

The Culls Continue
as Forgotten Farmers Complain about 
their Cruel Treatment

Special report: foot and mouth disease

John Vidal, environment editor and Sally James Gregory
’01.07.17

You think it's all over? Not a bit of it," says Roy Benson on his farm near Tiverton in Devon. From a window overlooking the valley up which he believes the disease was carried by the wind, he sees only empty farmyards and fields. 
Benson is officially Case 1737. The ministry vets came a month ago, the animals were slaughtered after a legal fight and, like farmers on up to 5,000 other premises, he's getting used to life without beasts. 
Since just before the election, when the numbers, as predicted by the scientists, fell to only a handful a day, there have been more than 200 cases - not what was predicted. In the last week there have been 12 in Cumbria, 17 in Yorkshire and a handful in Powys. They are taking place quietly, beyond the glare of the media and often without the sympathy of the public. 
"The numbers are around three and five a day in the three hotspots," says the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It blames the farmers for the continuation of the disease. "These cases are due to people and equipment. Being vigilant is the only way it will be eradicated. Sunshine should kill the virus but it is the movement of people which spreads it." 
Empty fields
Many farmers are furious over this attitude. "That isn't right," says one, whose farm was struck in the last week but did not want to be identified. "I haven't been off this farm in weeks and no one brought it to me. How can those scientists explain that? That's not what they were saying at the start. Then it was all about wind." 
Even in places which the disease has supposedly left, the slaughter of animals continues. In Devon, there have been just seven confirmed cases since the election, but there have been eight cases in that time where blood tests on sheep have found positive antibodies, suggesting the sheep had the disease at some point. Four of these have been classed as "direct contacts" and the flocks have been quietly culled. 
Only one is regarded as a full outbreak. There are no official figures, said Maff in Exeter, on how many Devon sheep have been culled in the past month. But the overall figures are staggering. 
Including the slaughter of more than 1.2m animals in the welfare scheme for animals at risk of not being fed, the total is now more than 4,787,447 with 4,000 more being killed each week. On top of this, there is now the likelihood that up to 2m lambs born in the past six months around Britain may have to be killed due to the export ban and the fact that there is no market for them in Britain. 
Privately, Defra admit that the disease could leap easily and start over again in new areas. Publicly, it is not even talking about the autumn when the weather conditions are more likely to spread the disease. On the ground there is growing belief that it is now effectively endemic. 
The truckers sitting in their compound at Hatherleigh Market's abattoir in north Devon, think the disease is far from gone. Brought in from round the country, their companies are being paid £35 an hour to cart carcasses, and now lime and ash, to landfill sites. Their contracts have been renewed by Defra for a further six months. 
Peter Boyers, manager of the abattoir knows there is a long way to go, too. At the height of the epidemic, his firm was working seven days slaughtering animals which could not be fed or looked after. Today the abattoir is working five days a week just on foot and mouth-related cases. "Half the animals coming here are in a really bad condition," he said. He sees welfare problems through the winter because the hay for winter feed has not been cut. 
But as the number of cases declines, and the farmers begin to meet again and talk, sometimes for the first time in months of isolation, the stories emerge of widespread financial waste, divided communities and the human toll. 
Maff is despised in some Devon and Cumbrian communities, with people bitter at what they say have been gross insensitivity at times and steamrollering of people. 
Divided communities
Steve Phillips in the village of Knowstone feels raw. With his partner dying of cancer, and his animals at no risk of being infected, he said Maff began to bully him to gain entry to his farm. "They knew my situation, they also knew that my neighbour's test results were negative," he said. "But they harassed me non-stop. When my partner died I couldn't arrange her funeral for fear that they would come in and kill our animals. They would give no assurance that they wouldn't come, even when I was at her funeral. It had to be delayed for weeks." He has received no apology or explanation. 
Gordon Wilmott has not recovered from May, when marksmen botched a cull at a nearby farm and began taking potshots with rifles at berserk animals which fled on to his land. But worse was to follow. Maff then insisted his uninfected sheep had to be slaughtered. The ministry arrived with barely any warning, backed up by the army and police, said Mr Wilmott. 
In another case, the ministry stopped a cull on a farm disputing the legality of the slaughter, and then left cattle walking around the yard half full of dead animals for a week. The distress to the elderly farmers was immense. 
"It was sustained cruelty," said Matt Knight who objected to his uninfected animals being culled. His family was isolated for 42 days and kept on tenterhooks over whether his cows would be culled. "They knew the animals were healthy but said they would be coming in, like it or not. Our civil liberties were being infringed. What is it in the job description of Maff officers that allows them to treat people so cruelly?" 
Maff said: "It is possible people were given little advance notice. Things moved fast. It wasn't pleasant for anyone. We deny any allegations of bullying. People were given four hours to lodge an appeal."

How crisis escalated

February 20 First case at an abattoir at Orchard farm, Essex, with more at two nearby farms in two days. 
February 23 Fourth case confirmed at a pig farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall, Northumberland, now thought to be the root of the epidemic. 
March 6 Eighty cases confirmed. Most of the countryside declared no-go area. At the end of the month there are 50 new cases a day. One outbreak in France and four in the Netherlands. Army is called in to help contain the spread. 
Easter As the bank holiday approaches there are 1,262 cases. Epidemic is thought to have peaked. 
May 3 Tony Blair announces "the end is in sight" but delays general election. 
June 20 Government announces future inquiry. 
July 16 Defra figures show 3,575,000 animals slaughtered or identified as being for slaughter with 22,000 pending an appeal. 

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