THE out-of-control foot and mouth epidemic that is spreading ever closer to York started at one farm in Heddon-on-the-Wall. The infection was then passed on to other animals at the market in Cumbria and then due to current practices was distributed throughout the country. The disease has made a three-week journey from Heddon-on-the-Wall to Rawdon, Leeds, via Penrith. It is ridiculous that legislation and farming methods actually promote the spread of such disease.

The only reason animals are allowed to travel so far to slaughter is financial. We are allowing finances to come before infection control and animal welfare.

What can the public do to help avoid this happening in the future? It's simple, only purchase local produce. We could go into any supermarket and ask them where their meat is from. Not which country or continent, but which farm. I can guarantee they could not tell you.

However try asking your local butcher where his meat is from, he would tell you the exact farm. His animals would have travelled no more than 20 miles to slaughter and not the hundreds of miles that can be associated with the large multiples.

Mr D O M'Benga,

Manor Meats,

Ryedale Court,

Haxby, York.

...farmers' lives are facing sheer destruction because our Government has decided to kill perfectly healthy animals. Why can't they come up with a more humane solution?

The easiest answer is to segregate the healthy animals then the farmer would only lose a few of his stock and not the entire herd. They would then be able to rebuild their farms again.

Culling animals is not the answer and no one in this world should be allowed to perform such a horrible injustice to farmers who have worked very hard to establish a livelihood .

Dawn Moore,

Amberley Street,

York.

Updated: 10:49 Tuesday, April 03, 2001