Animal disease failure ‘criminal’

North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson has spoken out against the Government, claiming it should have exercised more control over animal disease and calling its failure to tackle age-old diseases “criminal”.

Speaking at the Shropshire Chamber of Commerce Farmers’ Club, Mr Paterson said it was “tragic” farmers in his constituency had been forced to put their livestock down because they had contracted deadly diseases.

He said he sympathised with the plight of farmer Ed Seaton from Market Drayton.

“It is tragic when constituents such as Ed Seaton see their pedigree cattle taken to the abattoir because the Government believes that it is kind to allow Bovine TB to run rampant in wildlife.”

He said: “The Government’s failure to tackle these age-old diseases is nothing less than criminal. We desperately need a change of Government which wants to see healthy cattle living alongside healthy badgers.”