Letter: Time to look at the bTB issue from the cow's point of view

I have read reports of farmers, who have large setts on their land, but are completely unfazed by them, having no incidence of bovine TB in their animals, and saying it is not the badgers, but bad farming practice, that is at the root of the problem. Which, of course, will provoke howls of wrath from many farmers.

But I would offer a different argument. Cows are deeply loving and devoted mothers, yet most of them have to endure the anguish of losing their babies, almost as soon as they are born, not once, but annually. Multiple griefs in their short lives, before they are hauled off for slaughter, when their milk output becomes financially unviable.

Humans, in their grieving process, after losing a loved one, are vulnerable to cancer and depression, amongst other illnesses.

Cows are vulnerable to depression and bTB. It's a bit of a no-brainer, but, as yet, I have heard no-one else make that connection. We all have a compromised immune system in the wake of loss, and that includes cows. You only have to listen to a cow, which has had her child taken from her, to know the depth of her despair.

Also, it has been proven that maize is a mineral-deficient crop, which, again, leaves cattle vulnerable to disease. Poor grass management by farmers, meaning cows have the stress of over-wintering inside sheds, exacerbates the problem, and most farmers would benefit us all, by following the system created by Arthur Hollins, and still practised at Fordhall Organic Farm today, where cattle are able to stay out all year.

"Stressed and malnourished" cattle, which includes "dairy and intensively farmed beef", are particularly vulnerable to this disease, but, as usual, humans create the problem, and then blame the animal kingdom for the consequences.

The Tories, not known for compassion towards animals, (Andrea Leadsom, minister for the environment, regards foxes as "vermin" and thinks fox hunting is a good idea, so presumably sees badgers in the same light) tend to believe that assault is the answer to everything.

I don't think it is just, in this instance, the urbanites, who disagree with their destructive and inhumane badger policy, to which all the experts in this field are so very definitely opposed.

As Gandhi famously said, a nation is judged by the way it treats its animals. Seems we in the UK still have a long way to go.

N Jones, Shrewsbury

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