Union calls for mass cull on Anglesey

20 March 2001



Union calls for mass cull on Anglesey

by Robert Davies, Wales correspondent

THE president of the Farmers Union of Wales has shocked some of his members by calling for the mass slaughter of sheep on Anglesey.

Bob Parry, himself a sheep farmer, said the almost daily confirmation of cases outside exclusion zones threatened the future of livestock farming.

“If one more is declared in the next 24 hours I believe that we have to bite the bullet and have a mass sheep cull on Anglesey,” he said on Monday (19 March).

Mr Parrys comments followed the confirmation of three new outbreaks on the island on Sunday (March 19) where the virus first appeared in Wales.

His words are unlikely to please some members of the unions Montgomeryshire county branch who oppose the cull of apparently healthy sheep.

Local farmers are discussing ways of resisting the killing of all sheep that had contact with sheep that passed through Welshpool Market on 19 February.

The meeting was called by Phil Owens, who resigned as branch chairman at the weekend over the unions decision to reluctantly support the cull.

The union had initially questioned the cull, but said it was now satisfied that the only scientific way to halt foot-and-mouth disease was to kill more animals.