Labour accused of cull cover-up

1 June 2001



Labour accused of cull cover-up

By Shelley Wright, Scotland correspondent

TWO MILLION animals may have been left out of government foot-and-mouth slaughter statistics, FARMERS WEEKLY can reveal.

The official figures are artificially low because the government is excluding hundreds of thousands of young livestock from its statistics.

Figures from the Ministry of Agriculture (MAFF) on Friday (1 June) suggest that a total of 3,145,909 cattle, sheep, pigs and goats have been killed so far.

But data from Scotland reveals that the true number of animals lost could be more than 70% higher than the government is willing to admit.

The MAFF website lists animals slaughtered because they had foot-and-mouth or because they were deemed to be at risk from the disease.

It says that 42,372 cattle have been killed in Dumfries and Galloway.

But Scottish Executive statistics seen by FARMERS WEEKLY reveal a much higher death toll for cattle of 72,700 – 71% higher than the MAFF figure.

There are similar discrepancies for sheep.

The Scottish Executive figure of 544,309 animals slaughtered in Dumfries and Galloway is almost 64% higher than the 332,516 animals listed by MAFF.

If this degree of under-reporting is typical of the rest of the country, then 2 million cattle and sheep could be missing from official slaughter statistics.

A MAFF spokesman admitted that only adult animals were included in statistics. Hundreds of thousands of young livestock are excluded.

“The figures we publish do not include lambs and calves,” he said.

The spokesman added: “Animals that cant stand on their own feet are not counted because they might have died anyway.”

He said: “Our people in the field compile the statistics that we need to combat this disease, and the number of calves and lambs slaughtered is not relevant.”

No estimate was available of how many lambs and calves might have been slaughtered in England and Wales without being recorded, said the spokesman,

Conservative agriculture spokesman Tim Yeo said it proved the government was deliberately trying to conceal the true extent of the disease.

“It is unbelievable that it takes another government, in the form of the Scottish Executive, to get to the truth,” he told FARMERS WEEKLY.

If the Scottish Executive is prepared to provide full figures for the numbers of animals slaughtered then there is no reason why MAFF cannot do the same.”

Mr Yeo said the figures were the first proof that the death toll exacted on Britains livestock industry was far greater than the public realised.

“The government has deliberately tried to shuffle foot and mouth disease out of the way in the run up to the election,” he said.

“I think MAFFs explanation of why it fails to include young animals in the slaughter total is completely inadequate.”

The public would be distressed to find out that all the lambs and calves that have been destroyed are not deemed important enough to count, said Mr Yeo.

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