>>Yahoo news 07.05.02

Farmer 'not blamed for foot-and-mouth outbreak'

The trial of a pig farmer accused of being at the centre of the foot-and-mouth disease crisis has been told he would not be blamed for causing the disease.

Bobby Waugh faces 16 charges relating to pigs which he kept at a tenant farm in Northumberland.

Bobby Waugh, 56, and his brother Ronald, were tenants of 20 Burke's Road, part of the larger Burnside Farm, Heddon-on-the-Wall.

Bobby Waugh, of St Luke's Road, Pallion, Sunderland, faces a total of 16 charges, brought under the Animal Health Act 1981, the Protection of Animals Act 1911 and the Trade Descriptions Act.

He denies five counts of failing to notify officials of a foot-and-mouth outbreak, four of cruelty to animals, one of taking unprocessed catering waste on to premises where pigs are kept, one of feeding unprocessed waste to pigs, four of failing to dispose of animal by-products, and one of failing to record the movement of pigs.

All the charges are alleged to have been committed on dates in February last year.

Charges against Ronald Waugh have been left on file because of his ill health.

Mr Paddy Cosgrove QC, prosecuting, made reference to speculation that the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak started at Burnside Farm and went on: "There is no charge either laid against Mr Waugh, nor available to be made, which can make such an allegation."

But he said they fed their animals with unprocessed catering waste, which should have been treated to kill off disease under the terms of a licence.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2002