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Mass sheep slaughter for Scotland?

- 02 September 1999
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02 September 1999

Mass sheep slaughter for Scotland?

By Allan Wright

A £6 MILLION plan for the humane slaughter and disposal of 400,000 worthless hill ewes has been presented to agriculture minister Nick Brown.

The scheme, presented on Wednesday, was devised by David Croston, head of sheep strategy at the Meat and Livestock Commission.

It proposes that money should be paid to fund haulage from collection points, slaughter at abattoirs, and disposal at rendering plants rather than to farmers.

Scottish and Welsh ministers are standing by to see if an all-Britain scheme is accepted by Westminster, but both have indicated unilateral action if it isnt.

A small element in the budget was earmarked to help cover haulage costs from farm to collection points, which will most likely be auction marts.

Mr Croston said that the MLC plan, which he envisages would run for three months, was put forward as a British solution to the cull ewe problem.

“We have not looked in detail at the possibility of individual schemes for Scotland and Wales,” he said.

But he did estimate that 35% of the British sheep population were hill ewes, with 45% of them in Scotland and 25% in Wales.

It was reasonable to conclude that the same percentages would apply about 180,000 ewes in Scotland, 120,000 in England, and 100,000 in Wales

Mr Croston said funding a disposal scheme was a delicate matter and, to win EU approval, could not contain any element of compensation for farmers.

“It has to be seen as something based on welfare and environmental grounds,” he said.

“We are well aware that the EU Commission is challenging the Irish cull ewe scheme of last year which included paying farmers about £1m compensation.

“We feel that basing our scheme on humane slaughter and disposal is the safest way to approach Brussels,” he added.

The scheme has the backing of all the farming unions, and if approved would be put out to tender among abattoirs and renderers.

But Scotlands MLC manager, Alistair Donaldson, warned that it might prove difficult to find participating abattoirs.

“This cull would coincide with the peak period for slaughtering lambs and some abattoirs may not be prepared to set aside days or facilities for cull ewes,” he said.

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