Pig cull threat not being taken seriously by PM, says vet

Pig snout

Farmers have warned that a mass cull may be necessary if the labour shortage is not addressed soon

By Jennifer Meierhans
BBC News

The prime minister is not taking the prospect of a national pig cull seriously, according to a top vet.

Some 600 pigs have already been shot and a mass cull is "the next stage", the National Pig Association said.

Boris Johnson asked a journalist if he had ever eaten a bacon sandwich, saying: "Those pigs when you ate them, were not alive".

Vet Duncan Berkshire, who is involved in planning any cull, said the remarks were "enormously disappointing".

Mr Berkshire is liaising with the Department for Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) over the logistics of tackling farms' overcrowding concerns as adult pigs are not being slaughtered fast enough.

Abattoir labour shortages are being blamed on Brexit and the Covid pandemic.

Mr Berkshire said: "Unfortunately those discussions are around the horrific case where we are looking at not only when, but also how, we will have to enact a cull of healthy animals which would then just go for incineration," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He said the numbers of pigs that had already been culled "are unfortunately starting to rack up".

"We are already at a few hundred at the moment. But if we don't get movement soon on the backlog of pigs that is present on farms at the moment, we are going to have to enact some of these more drastic actions."

Reuters

Pig farmers protested outside the Conservative Party conference in Manchester on Monday

Mr Johnson made his bacon sandwich comments to Times Radio journalist Tom Newton Dunn.

When asked about the prime minister's remarks, Mr Berkshire told Today: "He is unable to see the difference between what we have as a UK supply chain...[and] the absolute abhorrent food wastage that will be the case if we end up having to shoot healthy pigs".

He said the animals "in every other way would be fit for everyone to eat but we are just going to end up having to put them in a skip and send them for incineration".

"It's distressing enough just having to start planning for that absolute wastage," he said.

'Absolute insult'

Pig farmer Kate Morgan said Mr Johnson's comments were an "absolute insult" and a "kick in the teeth".

She said unless the government solves the shortage of butchers in processing plants by issuing short-term visas for foreign workers, she may have to cull pigs on her East Yorkshire farm "by the end of October".

Zoe Davies, chief executive of the National Pig Association said there was difference between animals being killed for food and culled.

Responding to the PM's comments, she said: "These animals were going to feed the nation. It should not be allowed to happen."

She called on the government to increase the number of worker visas for abattoirs, and to lower the English language requirement.

"At the moment it's the same level as doctors or vets", she said.

She warned that while there has not been a mass cull of pigs yet, such a measure is "the next stage in the process".

One Yorkshire farmer had to kill hundreds of "perfectly healthy, viable piglets" as he no longer had space for them, a friend told the BBC.

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