MAFF vets were clowns, BSE Inquiry told

29 September 1998

MAFF vets were ‘clowns’, BSE Inquiry told

By FWi staff

MAFF vets were “clowns” who failed to prevent banned meat by-products being fed to cattle, the BSE Inquiry was told this morning (Tuesday).

Offal was still being fed to cattle six years after it was banned under Government regulations to control mad cow disease, said meat industry consultant Peter Carrigan.

Unscrupulous people within the meat industry were able to pass banned offal products into the animal feed chain because the rules were not properly policed, Mr Carrigan told the inquiry.

“In my experience I was more likely to meet a Martian than a MAFF vet within the confines of an abattoir,” he said in a statement.

Mr Carrigan accused MAFF vets and meat inspectors of being “barely interested in appropriate controls being applied”.

Offal as animal feed was banned in November 1989. In a letter dated June 1995, Mr Carrigan wrote to the Chief Veterinary Officer, Keith Meldrum, claiming that offal was still being fed to cattle.

“Put simply, people have cheated and will continue to do so because the legislation… has gaps in it large enough to accommodate a horse and cart,” wrote Mr Carrigan.

Mr Carrigan said today that the impact of BSE had devastated the UK meat industry from the farmer through to the high street butcher.

“I am not clever enough to be able to assess the impact in financial terms, but I am a damned sight cleverer than some of the clowns whose total ineptitude brought this once-prosperous industry to its knees,” he said.