03/10/2007
After a group of cows on a farm in the village of Wanborough close to Guildford, Surrey were found to be suffering from Foot and Mouth disease (seemingly due to a leaking pipe at a laboratory authorised by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs –Defra), the epidemic of 2001 ahs been during the last months in everyone’s minds. Back then millions of animals were killed in order to stop the disease from being spread.
In fact, slaughters such as the one which took place six years ago are due merely to economic reasons. Only one out of three or four thousand among those who were slayed in 2001 were infected. What is more, most of the animals who actually had the disease would have recovered from it. Those animals who are infected may suffer significant weight loss, and they may not recover for several months. However, foot and mouth disease is rarely fatal. Their killing, for being burned afterwards in horrific pires is another example of the fact that when human and nonhuman interests clash, the former always prevail in our society, even when the latter are significant, as it is the case now.