Hear all sides

I AM sure I am not the only person to be horrified by the stories of pregnant ewes being left to lamb, unaided and without shelter or protection of the elements for them and their new-born lambs.

It is impossible to imagine their suffering. Surely there must be some way to give them warmth and help at such a time?

Even some sort of tented covering (courtesy of the Army perhaps?) would be better than nothing, together with human assistance with the appropriate disinfecting procedures in place.

The farmers who own these flocks must be at their wits' end and deserve all the help we can give them.

I cannot believe that we can allow such inhumane action to continue in what is supposed to be a civilised country. - Ruby Davison, Northallerton.

CONGRATULATIONS to Harry Mead for a superb article (Echo, Mar 28) on the foot-and-mouth fiasco, a copy of which should be sent to the Minister of Agriculture for him to read and digest.

A lone voice in the wilderness, backed by some positive advice, on how to deal with the situation.

I agree entirely with everything he says. - Eric Carter, Redcar.

CONGRATULATIONS to Harry Mead on his excellent article on the senseless slaughter of this nation's heritage.

We must be the laughing stock of the world. Maff and the NFU must put a stop to this before the country is ruined.

Two old sayings spring to mind - a sledge hammer to crack a nut, and the cure is worse than the disease. - William Mawston, Ferryhill.

OH what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive.

There has been no cover-up, we are told. Yet according to Maff's own website, one of the first indication of foot-and-mouth is the high death rate of lambs and large numbers of abortions.

In early January, some shepherds in the Galloway hills were experiencing a "massive loss of lambs". This is very rare and indicated that something unusual was happening. Maff animal health officers were asked to investigate. Requests for information on the issue were rebuffed. One farmer reported double the level of abortions.

The facts are there but, typically, this Government is so arrogant that it ignores the facts and tells people to go back to the countryside. - Diane Ellis, Maunby, North Yorks.

IT has come to my attention that unscrupulous suppliers have hiked up the price of the disinfectant needed to combat the foot-and-mouth epidemic, from £10 to £50 per drum, realising that it is a commodity that is in increasing demand.

Now that the Government is encouraging visitors back to the countryside, it is imperative that landowners have unrestricted supplies of disinfectant available at the original price.

Failure to curb this increase in cost may cause farmers to dilute this disinfectant to such an extent as to make it totally useless, or they won't bother at all, thereby allowing the disease to spread far and wide. Alternatively, those farmers already struck down with the disease, and willing to pay these prices, have already incurred enough financial difficulty without making things harder for them and their families.

This can only hamper the efforts of the Government to stop the foot-and-mouth epidemic from spreading.

Action needs to be taken now. - Derek Mitchell, Hartlepool.

THE people who brought us the Dome are now turning the foot-and-mouth crisis into a catastrophe. We will now be given permission, by our EU masters, to vaccinate as a firebreak.

But will Tony Blair and Nick Brown, who has continually told us he has everything under control, be able to admit they were wrong and authorise its use.

Burying of the dead animals, which should have taken place immediately, is now getting underway, but I cannot believe the RSPCA will stand by and allow the proposed transport of live animals in airtight vehicles to this site, where they will be slaughtered.

The sheer scale of slaughtering is now overwhelming and there is now every likelihood, with the delays in culling, that a large proportion of the sheep now being led have actually lived through the worst aspects of the disease, building up an immunity to it.

Therefore, it may have reached the stage where it would be far better, in conjunction with selective vaccination, to allow the disease to run its natural course and cull only the animals that are suffering.

As most cattle have been inside for the winter, they have escaped relatively unaffected, but as winter fodder runs out and they have to be turned out to grass, they will become very susceptible. The only way to prevent the escalation of the disease into the more valuable cattle herd will be to vaccinate.

With the news that the disease has spread into the heart of the Lake District, how many businesses and lives are we going to let our Government destroy when there is a better alternative? - Stephen Feaster, United Kingdom Independence Party, Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Ryedale, Pickering.

I HAVE a great deal of sympathy for the farmers. I also feel for the redundant shipwrights, steelmen and the Teesside chemical workers. ICI was once a huge employer.

I don't expect any sympathy for myself. I am only an ex-coal miner who worked in a burrow underneath the North Sea.

When Margaret Thatcher closed the pits, she did me an unintentional good turn. I found work on a building site. It was a lousy job, but at least it was in the fresh air, just like the farmers. It was in the days of boom and bust, work today, dole tomorrow.

When the houses were built and the site finished, our services were no longer required.

It was then that we took the advice of Norman Tebbit, we got on our bikes and looked for another job. Norman was a nice chap, all heart.

It is not true that farmers have always been moaning minnies. I remember the days when they had huge smiles on their faces, when they were paid not to work, when they were paid to leave their fields fallow to keep up the prices.

It is the prerogative of the Prime Minister to decide the date of the General Election. It is not for the farmers to decide. In any case, they can vote by post. The election should be held as normal. - P Dawson, Easington.

I NEARLY caused a number of accidents when walking on moorland roads at the weekend.

As cars swerved to miss me, they came close to others travelling in the opposite direction. I felt that I should be walking on the verge, but that could cost me £5,000 and it conflicted with my desire to avoid spreading foot-and-mouth.

It was a miserable, cold and wet day with almost no other walkers and few cyclists, but what happens when the fine weather comes and we still have restrictions?

There will be many walkers, even Ramblers' Association crocodiles, and what happens to road safety?

A speed restriction on cars would have to be punitive to be effective and unhelpful to a Government still hoping to be re-elected.

Is there a significant difference to transmitting disease, between walking on the edge of the tarmac and walking on the verge? We probably don't know, but we do know that mixing cars and pedestrians is a certain recipe for death.

The Government is caught between risking the lives of humans and the lives of sheep. A terrible choice that should not be ignored. - Derek Smithson, Ormesby, Middlesbrough.