A letter from a soldier serving with the Green Howards who assisted with the slaughter operation in the Worcester area, and second a compilation of statements made by people who have assisted on farms and at the killing grounds in Powys.
" we were briefed that we'd be 'clearing up' - burning and/or buryingcarcasses of animals humanely destroyed by trained vets and slaughtermen. But that's all turned out to be more spin and propaganda. What we're actually doing is 'mopping up' - killing animals they've left behind or can't be bothered to finish off.
My regiment has got all sorts of battle honours for fighting Britain's enemies all over the world, but we're now engaged in heroic hand-to-hand combat with lambs. Their mothers have been shot but some were so frightened by the noise that they'd escaped all over the place. As we don't have any humane killers, the cleanest way of killing them is just to throw them in the river. We might be trained to kill enemy soldiers, but slitting the throat of a spring lamb, or beating its brains out with a blunt instrument, is just too much for some of the lads, so they'd rather drown them, even if it's not really as quick.
One of my mates was detailed to stand by a pig which was giving birth. As each piglet was born and crawled away he had to smash it with the back of a shovel. Once they'd all been born the pig was shot with all the others.
Worst of all are the cows that have been shot but not finished off by the slaughtermen. Some are still crawling around, others are clearly still alive but unable to move. We have to beat them to death with lorry spanners or other heavy lumps of iron.
If people really knew what was going on I think there'd be a revolution. All the animals
I've seen appeared to be quite healthy. The MAFF people say it's the only thing that can
be done, but if you ask them why they can't vaccinate, they all come up with different
reasons, none of which sound very convincing. Please publicise this. The more people know
what a mess this is, the sooner we can stop being unarmed slaughtermen and go back to
being proper soldiers"