Vaccination is not the answer

I live close to a farm where hundreds of healthy animals have been culled and burned because their owner came into contact with foot and mouth. Believe me, I have seen the futility of this disease.

However, I have also read many reports in the national press and seen the facts represented on the news, and they all say the same thing, vaccination is not the answer!

It is not 100 per cent reliable for one thing, so what good would it be injecting the sheep and cattle in the hope that they MIGHT not catch it?

No good at all. I don't agree with the culling policy. I may be naive, but I genuinely believe we should let the animals fight the disease themselves, with their own natural immune system, and thereby raising a level of resistance to it in future generations.

But no, I couldn't see the government letting that happen, think about the lost trade! And of course, that would far too forward thinking.

So instead, the animals lose their lives, the farmers lose their livestock, and we pay for it.

Next time it happens, perhaps another 30 years, there will be so few cattle (owing to the lack of demand for meat with so many of us turning vegetarian), that they may just let them recover naturally.

Animal lover, name and address supplied.