25/05/01
Farmer's daughter Tina Jones gives a personal account of how the contiguous cull of her father Les Winslade's herd at Knowstone will affect the family for the rest of their lives.

This was a cruel and worthless culling, a totally evil form of injustice. It seems that the European Union's agenda proposes that the UK should become an arable state.

They pick on poor defenceless farmers in their late 60s using threats and totally devious methods.

Tony Blair, MAFF and the police, who for some inhumane reason totally support the culling of healthy animals, have no feelings. I hope this will lie on their consciences until the day they die.

What happened at Beech Grove Farm was totally unnecessary. To pick on someone in the last few years of farming who cares so much about his animals is totally wrong.

My dad has farmed all of his life and my grandfather before him, always putting their animals first. Dad was so proud of his animals and would be there night and day to make sure all was well. He has never taken a holiday in all his life. What will he do now that there are no animals?

Why the animals were not just monitored I cannot understand. The evening before I waited for a Ministry vet to give the results of a health check. He came out to the gate and said immediately they were all OK. We thought this would stand in our favour. He told my dad that another vet would be back to check.

We still do not know if the sheep in the adjacent field actually had foot and mouth. No written documentation has been seen. For some ridiculous reason these sheep were moved there seven to ten days before they were slaughtered with suspected foot and mouth.

An inquiry should investigate this. I remember the distraught phone call from my dad saying he could not understand what was going on. Sheep had been moved into a field adjacent to his buildings and they should not be there. He rang MAFF who would not make any comment, but kept passing the buck from one department to another without ever giving my dad any real answers.

The ultimate end to this gave MAFF the excuse to perform another worthless cull of healthy animals.

There was no reason for this. Because of my parents' age the farm would have finished anyway in a few years' time and Tony Blair and the Government would have got their way in any case.
To do this to people who are in their latter years is so wrong.

The vivid memories of the past few days will remain in my mind for the rest of my life.

In spite of my father's wishes, I watched the cull take place. I had to know if this would be done humanely after the horrific events here in Knowstone on May 13 when animals were chased around fields by men with rifles in a bungled cull.

I could only think what a needless slaughter as these poor animals – baby calves and cows in calf – were anaesthetised and slowly passed away in front of my eyes.

In the end my dad was bullied and blackmailed and told that to go any further would incur huge legal costs they could not afford. Although I had tried my hardest to convince them that they had huge support and money would be there he was also very worried about my mum, who was gradually getting weaker and had lost half a stone in a week. She is only a tiny little lady and dad's love for her made him give up.

I got in my car and I drove away. I met the lorries along a small country lane on the way to the farm to collect the dead animals. It was an awful sight.