Reconsideration of Slaughter of Healthy Animals

That the Parliament calls for the reconsideration of the mass slaughter of healthy animals purely because they live within a certain radius of a farm where animals are infected with foot-and-mouth disease; is alarmed at the additional heartbreak and financial disaster caused to farmers by this practice; questions whether more funeral pyres of healthy animals is the answer to the problem; upholds respect for animal life in demanding that other methods of disease control be investigated immediately; recognises that it has a duty to ensure that famous Scottish breeds of cattle and sheep are not endangered permanently through mass slaughter, and asks the Scottish Executive to consider carefully how and from where farmers will replace livestock lost.