A Silsden farmer's heartbreaking decision to allow her uninfected animals to be slaughtered for their own welfare led to the first public revolt against the Government's culling policy.

Helen Waite tried to save her livestock which was grazing on land in Burnside, Skipton, after foot and mouth disease was confirmed at her Silsden farm.

The five mile distance between the two areas was not enough to stop the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) from wanting the animals culled.

Helen realised that even if she gained a reprieve for the animals, it was unlikely she would be granted a licence to move the herd.

This would mean they would have to stay on the land all winter and their well-being would be put at risk.

Helen said: "We had hoped that the distance between the farm and the grazing area would mean they were okay.

"I had been fighting for a week with the ministry and lost. We tried to make DEFRA realise that we didn't think they were a risk but they thought they were. The animals had to go.

"The animals would have been stuck there right through the winter and we would not have been able to get a licence to move them.

"They would have had no shelter and we did it for their welfare," she said.

"They were up there for the summer grazing and we would have brought them down with their calves in September. There wasn't anything we could do, it wasn't fair on them."

Despite Helen and Malcolm Waite accepting compensation for the herd, last Thursday protestors from across the country started to gather and a 12-hour stand-off began against the cull.

It was the first public revolt against the Government's contiguous culling policy, which calls for animals to be slaughtered which are not necessarily infected, as a precautionary measure.

Residents from Burnside estate accompanied by the Foot and Mouth Action Group blockaded the entrance to the land to stop DEFRA officials carrying out a midnight cull.

Last Friday a solicitor from Leeds, Stuart Jackson, applied for a last-minute judicial review and the protestors were within one hour of getting the injunction when DEFRA shot the animals.

The Waites had wanted to get the whole ordeal over with quietly because of the animal's welfare and had not asked for the residents' support.

Helen said: "We didn't want a big fuss and when the police put the bollards out everyone knew and it angered them, but at that stage it was too late to do anything.

"It was finished before everyone got involved. We had signed them over to DEFRA and they belonged to them.

She added: "The protest had nothing to do with us. It was their own doing, we didn't ask them to do it.

"They couldn't help us but I hope they help people out in other places who are in a different situation to us."

What started off as a few local protestors grew as farmers from across the country began offering their support.

Helen said: "We had calls all day from farmers across the country, from Wales and Cumbria, saying they would come up and join the protest but we told them it was too late."

Heights Farm, on Heights Lane, in Silsden, was confirmed as having foot and mouth disease on July 10 and 788 livestock were culled.

The farm's 43 other animals grazing on land at Burnside were slaughtered on the afternoon of Friday, July 20.

The Waites are not going to let this terrible disease defeat them, and they intend to rebuild their farm.

Helen said: "It is horrendous to live through. I hope we will see the big picture in months to come.

"We are just hoping that the ministry is right in doing the culling and that our farming neighbours will all survive."

She added: "We are in limbo at the moment - the animals have died and we are grieving. The next step is to begin cleaning up and we will start again."