UK: foot and mouth cull claimed to be illegal
It appears that the ‘contiguous cull’ of millions of animals (those on farms within three kilometres of an infected farm) in the UK’s fight against foot-and-mouth disease last year was illegal. The government used a 1981 law which permits the killing of animals only where there is evidence of infection or of direct exposure to infection but figures now released by the government ministry in charge of the cull show that, of the many thousands of farms which had their animals slaughtered, only one tested positive for the virus.
Even accepting other evidence from Defra, the government department previously known as the Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (MAFF), it shows that 98% of the animals killed were done so illegally since the figures would indicate there had been no evidence of infection or direct exposure.
