Why pigs cull is national scandal, Boris Johnson – Yorkshire Post Letters

IT is often joked that East Yorkshire has more pigs than people, but few here see any joke in Boris Johnson’s flippant and dismissive remarks about farmer’s having to cull 120,000 pigs.

Johnson cruelly quipped that a cull does not matter as pigs are bred to be slaughtered and are destined only for bacon butties.

This cull is not for animal or human health reasons, but a direct result of the shortage of abattoir vets, slaughterers, and butchers.

As 90 per cent of abattoir vets and 25 per cent of meat processors were EU citizens, this deficit was a clearly predictable result of Johnson’s hard Brexit and something for which successive Conservative governments should have planned.

Farmers will be put in the appalling position of having to kill their healthy livestock – probably by shooting – and disposing of the bodies on their farms. Quite apart from the acute distress caused, this is a shocking waste of food at a time when poverty and use of food banks is growing apace. Farmers will have to face huge losses through no fault of their own.

Our British farmers work extremely hard to keep food on our tables and Johnson’s mockery of their efforts beggars belief.

From: James Cannon, York.

LIKE many others, I have seen the heart-rending story on TV reports of Vicky Scott and Kate Moore facing financial and emotional challenges at their pig farm. Their plea to have a chance to express their views to the Government seems to be falling on deaf ears.

In all of these reports, it appears that the absence of Sir Greg Knight MP explaining that this was a consequence of Brexit is noticeable. He has failed to present any comment about the situation and his website is out of date with latest news of anything – let alone the current farming and fuel crises.

Instead of bluster and jokes from the Prime Minister “the pigs are all going to die anyhow – how else do you get a bacon sandwich?”, we need to see positive action. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem very likely.

I am sure there are lots of people who are feeling sorry for the desperate situation of our farmers and as a consumer, I will continue to support British farming as much as possible.

Perhaps Sir Greg Knight, the East Yorkshire MP, and the Prime Minister might do something as well?

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