Growing complaints at cull management

Thousands of cows are awaiting slaughter

Farmers in Wales have been growing increasingly dissatisfied with the way in which a scheme to kill their animals has been managed.

The Welfare Livestock Disposal Scheme was set up to alleviate the pressure on farmers whose animals could not be moved during the foot-and-mouth restrictions.

But farming unions have been receiving complaints from members who say that it is taking too long for animals to be slaughtered.

Barrie Lewis: 'It has become very difficult to continue'

One man farming near Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, even claimed his sheep and cattle were starving to death because he had run out of food for them and had no money to buy more.

Another farmer, who grazes animals at Llanwern, near Newport, has complained that he cannot move his sheep and the ewes have started lambing.

He has applied to the Intervention Board to have them culled under the welfare scheme, but says he has heard nothing back.

Tenant farmer Barrie Lewis from Abergavenny said his application to the Intervention Board three weeks ago had not yet been processed.

Crisis in Wales

Total confirmed cases UK-wide 1,366 - with 73 in Wales

Powys - 44 cases

Anglesey - 13 cases

Monmouthshire - 15 cases

Caerphilly 1

Mr Lewis has been unable to move livestock on his 150-acre farm, with ewes forced to forage for food.

The £300 weekly bill for feed for his 40 pregnant heifers has proved too much.

He said his efforts to get the Intervention Board - appointed by Maff to manage the scheme - to humanely cull the animals has become ever more desperate.

"Every day I ask the same questions," he told BBC Wales.

"The health of the animals has been deteriorating rapidly.

Peter Rogers AM : plea to farmers to get help

Peter Rogers - the Conservatives' spokesman on rural affairs in the assembly, and a farmer himself - urged Mr Lewis and others suffering similar hardship to contact the RSPCA for help.

Speaking on BBC Radio Wales, he told Mr Lewis :"Don't let those animals suffer any more. The RSPCA have promised me that they have got provisions to feed animals and to make sure that they are lying in clean and dry places."

The Intervention Board has said that up to a million animals in the UK are waiting to be slaughtered. Cull targets have been set at between 250,000 and 300,000 animals a week.

In north Wales, Maff officials have confirmed that a farmer has mistakenly been granted a licence to take over uninfected 200 sheep onto land inside the Anglesey cull area.

Concerns growing

aff said officials granted a licence for the sheep to be moved because they had been confused by different place names.

The animals arrived on land near Brynsiencyn on Monday night and may now have to be slaughtered.

Concern at other aspects of animal disposal continue to grow in other parts of Wales.

It was confirmed on Wednesday that the controversial dumping of carcasses at three rubbish tips had been put on hold while discussions continued.

The Intervention Board has said it still hopes to use sites at Wrexham, Trecatti and Pontardawe.

Houses nearby

Protesters have returned to the gates of the Trecatti landfill site at Merthyr Tydfil, south Wales, to try and halt plans to dispose of animal carcasses.

They said they felt strongly about dead bodies being dumped at the tip, which is normally used for household waste.

The nearest households are just 200 yards from the tip.

In mid Wales, the Epynt Action Group has said it will press ahead with its plans for court action to stop the assembly burning and burying carcasses on the ranges.

Group chairman Edwin Roderick said court action was likely in the next couple of days - once the group had received the results of surveys of the site from Maff and the assembly.

Slaughterman video

The Epynt protesters have said the burial of carcasses would create an "ecological time bomb".

In south east Wales, a demonstration is expected outside the offices of Monmouthshire County Council against the shooting of stray sheep.

A home video captured a council-employed slaughterman shooting stray sheep in public view near a farm at Gilwern last week.

The RSPCA had described the incident as "shocking" and an investigation has been ordered by MAFF.

In London, Carwyn Jones is due to attend a monthly meeting with UK ministers to discuss progress in dealing with the UK crisis.

National Assembly for Wales foot-and-mouth helpline 02920 825572