The Foot-and-Mouth crisis and the UK Countryside

Edale region, England This account is of a member of a DOE expadition which undertook the walk in October 2001. The footpaths for one were much more beaten on the second walk. This was certainly good see as this meant that more people were using them now. The first expedition that I undertook consisted off path after path being completely camouflaged by nettles thorny weeds and more weeds on top of that. That fact that the most of us were wearing shorts at the same time made it a very memorable experience. However the second expedition was much more successful in this area. First the paths were much more obvious. This was mainly due to the fact ...  Read the complete review

I have recently been on holiday to Cumbria...since the outbreak of foot and mouth the number of tourists dropped considerably... ...i know a lot of people who were totally took in by foot and mouth...foot and mouth is a disease in which cattle, sheep and goats develop boils in their mouths and on their feet... they said you could smell the fires when they were burning the cattle and that you wouldn't see any sheep because they had all been slaughtered... ...this isn't true...when i went, we saw more sheep than i'd ever seen before, they were in every fields we went past and on any hill you could find... so if you want to go ...  Read the complete review

Foot and Mouth has gripped the country for many months now but I cannot help thinking that we could all be back to normality if it wasn't for a complete lack of common-sense. I live in the Scottish Borders, an area currently caught in the latest outbreak thanks to an individual from the Hexham farming community being able to walk right into a local farm possibly bringing foot and mouth with him. How was this possible? Surely the farmers are still taking every precaution to stop the spread of the disease? Well - the answer is no, they are not, and they haven't been for quite a while. My home is close to a number of sheep farms, ...  Read the complete review

Foot and Mouth - I'm sick of it. Not because I'm a farmer and it's going to kill my animals, because I'm the poor sod who was to go the MAFF (or should I say DEFRA) website EVERY day to check on the news. And then hear the moans. It's almost as if they complain at me for reporting bad news. But anyway, I shouldn't moan, I get it easy compared to the farmer types. I live in the countryside, up in the grim North, about a whole mile away from the nearest case of Foot and Mouth disease. So how has it affected people around here? Some farmers I know have had all their animals killed. If you want my honest take then the problem is ...  Read the complete review

I live in Cumbria and have seen how foot and mouth has effected our countryside and killed the Farming Industry. There are no cattle or sheep in the fields around here anymore; cattle are still being slaughtered although it is hardly mentioned nowadays. I was driving through a village not far from my town a month ago and had to slow down for the soldiers in the middle of the road, they were slaughtering animals right by the roadside believe it or not and it was a horrible thing to witness. Coming back a few hours later all I could see were clumps of sheep wool in the fields and not an animal in sight. I felt really sad, and it felt quite eerie. The ...  Read the complete review