Foot-and-Mouth Leaves Britain With Serious Pollution Problem

Liz Spring
for National Geographic News

April 25, 2001

SALISBURY, England—Dangerous threats to the environment are
seriously hampering efforts in Britain to dispose of the carcasses of
livestock slaughtered as a result of the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

Farmers and residents in areas affected by the disease have been in open conflict with overstretched Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Maff) officials over the handling of the carcasses.

After witnessing the sacrifice of thousands of their animals, farmers "are now having to face the grisly prospect of watching their carcasses decompose, often just a few feet from their homes," says Ian Johnson, a spokesman for the National Farmers' Union, "It's pandemonium out there. It's ridiculous to say things are under control when the farms are littered with dead animals."

Maff's statistics are confusing due to constantly changing reports from officials in the field, but April 19 figures state that nearly 1.3 million animals have been culled, while over half a million still await slaughter. More than a quarter of a million carcasses await disposal.

Air pollution from massive pyres in infected areas is causing such concern that Environment Agency (EA) officials have stopped burnings in some parts of the country. Now the stench from mountains of rotting carcasses is stoking public outrage.

Disposal Sites a Problem

Finding suitable sites to bury or burn the carcasses has become a major problem as disposals must conform to the EA's regulations.

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) Minister Michael Meacher says that burning is unavoidable given the scale of the slaughter. "Of course it is a problem. It is a health risk. But pyres have been sited in locations to minimize risk to water supplies," he says.

Decomposing sheep and cattle in County Durham were recently buried on an incorrectly designated site. EA officials insisted they be dug up and reburied as the site would have polluted an underground spring supplying nearby farms and villages.

The EA says that the geography of Durham County severely limits availability of suitable sites.

Maff officials admit they face a "very serious problem" in Devon, one of the worst hit areas. A start has been made on the disposal of 200,000 rotting carcasses after controversy over delays in preparing a suitable disposal site. The animals have been lying for weeks in fields where they were slaughtered. "It is not a pretty sight, but we've heard nothing from Maff since they were slaughtered," says Courtney Heard, a farmer in the area.

Plans were abandoned to burn 40,000 sheep at an airfield in Anglesey as protesting residents prevented the passage of trucks carrying the carcasses. Their fears were confirmed when blood from 4,000 carcasses already dumped formed a half-mile (one-kilometer) slick in a stream close by.

The North Cumbrian Health Authority has suspended further burnings until the risks have been assessed. Two pyres may have to go ahead as the health risk from rotting carcasses outweighs air pollution and other concerns. The Department of Health says that an assessment of the public health implications of the pyres will be released "imminently."

Rivers Endangered

In Wales, 15,000 sheep buried on a site used for incinerating cattle infected with the much more serious BSE, or mad cow disease, will have to be dug up and burnt, as a test borehole found blood and body fluids 100 yards (100 meters) from the site. This site endangers two of the cleanest rivers in Europe, the Usk and the Towy, notable for trout and salmon fishing.

Complicating the massive clean-up operations in Britain is growing pressure to slaughter isolated animals to prevent them from starving.

Due to restrictions on movements of livestock to contain the risk of infection, animals have been trapped in fields with no food. Many of them have given birth. Prohibited in terms of the same regulations from approaching their stock to render assistance, farmers have requested the slaughter of their animals out of compassion.

Janet Kipling, representative in Devon for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, urged officals to consider easing restrictions as "there are lambs dying in the mud and lambs staggering around virtually unable to stand up. It is just not acceptable."

Government officials, embattled by the enormity of the problems caused by the foot-and-mouth epidemic, are facing mounting anger by farmers and animal rights protesters opposed to further mass slaughters.

Last weekend celebrities, farmers, and animal welfare protestors joined forces to condemn the culling of healthy livestock. The pressure group Compassion in World Farming aims to force Maff to abandon culling in favor of vaccination. Actress Joanna Lumley told a cheering crowd: "The truth is, vaccination is the only way out of this hideous crisis."