Answers wanted over cull climbdown
23 May 2001
Answers wanted over cull climbdown
By Robert Davies, Wales corrspondent
WELSH farmers are demanding an explanation for a decision not to cull livestock on a farm next to a holding with a confirmed case of foot-and-mouth.
Ministry of Agriculture lawyers have withdrawn from an attempt to obtain a High Court injunction to slaughter animals on a Powys farm.
Their withdrawal came eight days after the Lloyd family first refused slaughtermen entry to Pentresollars Farm, Bronllys.
A spokeswoman for the National Assemblys agriculture department, acting as the ministrys agent, said no reason would be given for ending the action.
MAFF recently made an eleventh-hour withdrawal from a case involving six Anglesey smallholders who were resisting the cull of 40,000 sheep on the island.
Alan Morris of the Farmers Union of Wales said every farmer would understand the delight and relief expressed by Winston Lloyd and his family.
But the climbdown must be explained to the hundreds of farmers who had allowed their healthy stock to be culled, he added.
“This is the second time MAFF have backed down in Wales, and there have been several examples elsewhere,” claimed Mr Morris.
“Farmers are now asking whether the Government can legally enforce the cull on neighbouring farms without evoking emergency powers.
“This decision has serious implications for the slaughter of contiguous units to control the serious new outbreak in the Yorkshire Dales.”
Malcolm Thomas, director of the National Farmers Union Cymru-Wales called for reassurances that the decision not to cull was scientifically sound.
“We have to trust the veterinary experts, but the NFU is determined to get some answers for members who allowed the slaughter of their stock.”
Eleanor Lloyd insisted that her familys nightmare crisis was not yet over.
Daily veterinary inspections of the animals will continue and the family would have to wait to see if their animals stayed clear of the disease, she said.
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