Viva! 8 York Court Wilder Street Bristol BS2 8QH Tel: 0117 944 1000 Fax: 0117 924 4646 email: media@viva.org.uk	29 March 2001 MAFF Slaughter Policy a Dad’s Army Disaster The government is fighting the war against foot and mouth disease with a 1940’s mentality, claims the animal charity Viva! Captain Mainwaring has taken over from Corporal Jones, Pyke and Uncle Arthur and he is determined to increase the slaughter of the invading hordes on Britain’s green and pleasant land. The policy, says Viva!, is about as realistic as a Dad’s Army script but without the laughs. “We are looking at an economic disaster entirely of the government’s making”, says Juliet Gellatley, director of Viva! “It has again shown that it is entirely subservient to the powerful lobby of the National Farmers Union (NFU), who first introduced the notion of mass killing years ago to protect the landed gentry’s rare breeds. The NFU is still instrumental in promoting slaughter but now it’s to protect the export markets of its members. This entirely selfish attitude is a growing disaster for the wider economy. We seem stuck in a forelock-tugging time warp around the end of last war.” Britain’s export market for meat and live animals is only £1.2 billion and falling rapidly. It is almost exactly the same as the figure for direct subsidies to livestock farmers. Viva! maintains that if all subsidies were removed and the export market disappeared entirely, the country would be no worse off and would not even notice the change. But with the countryside closed for business, rural industries are facing ruin for the sake of an export product that few people want. While farmers are being compensated, other industries receive nothing and are facing bankruptcy. “It isn’t just the animals who are being sacrificed”, continues Ms Gellatley, “but the whole rural economy. Guest houses, hotels and small businesses are suffering terribly. This ill-conceived mass slaughter is also scaring away foreign visitors and jeopardising an industry worth £62 billion annually - over £9 billion of which is normally spent in rural areas. These are the economics of the mad house. “Infected animals stand a 95 per cent chance of recovery and will eventually develop immunity. If it was dogs which were being massacred there would be barricades on the streets. Farmed animals simply don’t count - which is why four million lambs die every year because their mothers are forced to give birth in mid winter; day old bull calves are taken away from heir mothers and shot because they’re perceived as having no value; and now culled animals are being burned and buried alive because they’re not even being killed properly”, concludes Ms Gellatley. For further information contact Juliet Gellatley, Tony Wardle or Becky Smith on: 0117 944 1000.