THROUGHOUT the Foot and Mouth crisis, most media commentators, who mourn the killing of lambs and their mothers, remain silent when those same lambs, just a few weeks later, are despatched to the barbarity of the slaughterhouse or to long distant transport.

They say nothing when their worn-out mothers are shipped over to France to have their throats ceremoniously cut while still fully conscious.They remain uncritical when farmers, often the same ones, remove day-old bull calves from their mothers and shoot them because they have no value. If export restrictions were not in place, they would still happily be consigning them to the misery of veal crates abroad.

The reason for this mass slaughter is purely economic. Ninety-five per cent of animals will recover. Imagine if a vet told you that your dog had a disease with a 95pc chance of recovery and the Government stepped in and said -- "we are going to kill all dogs in the area, so we can export dogs again for meat." This whole crisis illustrates how farmed animals are viewed as disposable items -- not living beings.

Jackie Mellor

Bolton Road, Kearsley