Phoenix brought hope in epidemic

By Jonathan Morris
BBC News

Phoenix has years ahead says her former owner. Pic: Ross Board

New fears over foot-and-mouth have reignited memories of how a Devon calf brought hope in the last crisis.

Phoenix the calf became an icon of the 2001 epidemic when she was found alive, after continuing to suckle on her dead mother in a slaughterhouse.

Public outrage at the slaughter of cattle led to her being saved and the start of new rules allowing vets to let animals live at their discretion.

Now Phoenix is creating her own family with her fourth calf, now a year old.

Phoenix, born at Clarence Farm near Axminster, was one of the farm's cattle taken for slaughter in the 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth.

But she was found alive in the slaughterhouse after apparently not being given enough sedative to kill her.

It would be sacrilegious to slaughter her Philip Board

Farmer Philip Board and his family bottle-raised Phoenix in the garage of their 45-acre farm, resisting a demand that the calf should be culled by the then Ministry of Agriculture.

Mr Board, 48, told BBC News: "We initially wanted to call it Lucky, but we called it Phoenix.

"It just came into my head because of all the pyres of dead cattle around us."

The growing public outcry over the slaughter of cattle, fuelled by Phoenix's plight, led to a change in government policy.

"I don't think the public could take much more of the slaughter," said Mr Board.

"There was so much doom and gloom - all you could smell was death - and of course it was election time."

Phoenix was found alone in a slaughterhouse

The story caught the spirit of the time and Mr Board and his wife Michaela faced widespread media interest.

"I am just an ordinary country bloke, but I had people calling from radio stations in America and Australia," said Mr Board.

"I don't regret it all. It was quite an experience."

Mr Board, who lost about 70 cattle and sheep in the last foot-and-mouth outbreak, said: "It would be sacrilegious to slaughter her.

"She is doing very well with her new calf and she has a lot to come.

"A cow like her could live for at least 25 years."

The photogenic Phoenix, a pure white Charolais, also toured country shows and raised hundreds of pounds for a local cancer charity.

Mr Board has handed over the farm to his brother Fred and gone into the landscaping business.

Mr Board said: "Farmers are having a very hard time of it.

"It would break the back of many if there was another big outbreak of foot-and-mouth now."