SIR - Like many other local farmers we have just had our entire farm cleared of all livestock. We are writing to you in the hope that you will publish a thank you letter, from ourselves and on behalf of the Taylor family thanking the MAFF team.

We would like to give special thanks to Marcus Lazenby the liaison officer, and all our friends and neighbours who gave use advice and support during a very difficult time, many of whom were going through the same ordeal.

The ministry has had a bad press of late over their handling of the foot and mouth crisis but we cannot stipulate enough how efficient, supportive and understanding the team which dealt with the slaughter of our animals was.

The time taken from notification to completion of the task was just 48 hours. The team working until 3.30am then returning by 8.30am the following day to ensure the work was completed as quickly as possible.

We would also like to thank David Brown from Craven Cattle Marts and both vets involved for their support, sensitivity, efficiency and kindness throughout this time.

Mr and Mrs Richards,

Friars Head Farm,

Winterburn.

SIR - Foot and mouth has struck Craven with a vengeance indeed, and the farmers are to be pitied aren't they? But let's put things just a little into perspective.

Whilst you print pages of words and photographs about the harm done to farming, tourism is dispensed with in around one line on the front page, viz: "Sadly businesses will receive no financial compensation."

And amongst the letters printed only one seems to be on behalf of businesses.

The facts are very simple. The farmers will be aided, and in some cases aided so well that suspicion of aiding the disease by illegal movement of animals is under investigation in around 300 cases is reported in the national press.

Indeed a farmer who is believed to have carried the disease to Devon has been given £1.3 million of government (our) money to help him get over the shock. This compares with a total of £2.5 million given to the whole of Northumberland and Durham for non-farming industry.

Tourism has a turnover of six times farming in this country, it employs eight times the number involved in farming, and it receives very little in the way of subsidies, unlike farming. The village shops, the village inns, and the village post offices need tourists.

A hundred years ago, when they were built, farming was labour intensive, now the average farm is just a few people and machinery, the village pub probably employs more staff than the average farm. Those businesses don't just want tourists, they desperately need them.

Times change, we may not always like the way things change, but trying to hold back change was shown to be futile by Canute.

Those little lambs and calves in the fields are not there to make the countryside the prettier, they are there to grace our tables, accompanied by new potatoes and peas.

Whilst no one could deny that farmers work hard, and care about their stock, running a rural business is hard too, and the owners care just as much about their businesses, but there's no safety net for them, they can just quietly go broke, leaving our villages without those guest houses, those pubs, and those post offices.

It's noticeable that the media can get lots of 'oohs' and 'aahs' for lambs and calves, those lambs and calves that are usually bred for just one purpose, to be eaten, but don't bother themselves overmuch with the thousands of business tragedies that are simultaneously happening. Well lambs are so much more photogenic aren't they?

English Tourism Council research estimates that tourism will lose £5.2 billion this year, £2.6 billion next, and £1 billion in 2003 as a result of foot and mouth. Around 150,000 jobs are under threat, along with 3,000 small businesses, businesses which whilst small usually employ more than the average farm.

Not for them payouts in the order of £1.3 million, for them there is nothing but the dole queue, as they sit and watch the value of their business dwindling to unsaleability.

So yes, let's have pity for the farmers, it would need a heart of stone not to, but let's not forget all those others involved in heavy losses, and please, Andrew Rankine, (deputy mayor of Skipton) don't add insult to injury by placing the words "held to support the Dales community" under the Skipton sheep day event, whilst telling us that all profits will go not to that community, but only to local farmers.

We are all part of the community, and many taxpayers who will see their businesses collapse this year whilst subsidising farming may not appreciate that slogan.

Alan Perrow,

Bannister Walk,

Cowling.

SIR - So successful was the determination to hush up the true extent of the foot and mouth outbreak in the Dales that last Monday I inadvertently drove into an affected area.

The narrow minor road past Airton should have been closed. It was not - just blocked by a huge lorry, and other drivers were struggling to turn their vehicles. A farmer, obviously in a state of deep shock, advised me to do the same if I did not want to see his carcasses loaded. It would take two hours.

Of course I did not. Who would? I left the area at once, and would like to express my deepest sympathy to him, and to all farmers involved in this appalling tragedy.

Although distressed, I was also filled with a terrible rage. There is much glib talk about human and animal rights, but neither appear to matter in this crisis, the mishandling of which is an absolute disgrace.

For weeks on end, every farm gateway has borne an unequivocal 'Keep out'. All footpaths have been closed. Car tyres have been disinfected. Livestock movements restricted. None of these precautions have prevented the spread of the disease, and neither has the massacre of countless thousands of perfectly healthy animals.

In God's name, where are the next generation of livestock to come from when this crisis is over? Quite apart from the strictly practical matter of disposing of the bodies, none of the methods used are environmentally acceptable, and all are sick-making. All for a non-fatal disease which poses no threat to humans, or the food chain. What madman started a policy like this?

Who cares? Not an incompetent government, hell bent on re-election, whose sole interest in rural affairs is to ban hunting on grounds of cruelty! Not the MAFF , apparently unable to apply humanity and common sense. Not the national press, whose front pages have been occupied by trivia all week. Not the general public, misled and misinformed.

The Craven Herald this week is not easy or pleasant reading, but at least we now know the story.

Monica Sutcliffe,

Salisbury Street, Colne.

SIR - Everyone should be in no doubt that the current foot and mouth crisis, the slaughter of livestock and the very understandable distress caused to many of us is solely due to a political decision that was made in the 1950s.

The foot and mouth disease has never been a danger to animal or human health and farming communities all over the world have lived with it for centuries. The decision was made to attempt to eradicate it from the UK for the benefit of a small number of pedigree herd owners.

The UK adopted a slaughter policy and Europe, and then other countries, were persuaded to follow. Other widespread diseases in livestock (e.g. orf in sheep) are tolerated. So does this irrational stand on foot and mouth really benefit the whole community?

Seeing the mass destruction of livestock, the financial ruin of businesses, the restriction on people's movements and enjoyment of the countryside and the widespread fear and grief across the country I wonder whether the price we are being asked to pay is too high.

Foot and mouth is as natural as the flu virus and as such cannot be eradicated whatever we do. We therefore should be looking at coexisting with this rather innocuous virus which according to Abigail Wood, a vet and researcher into foot and mouth based at the University of Manchester, is "as serious to animals as a bad cold is to human beings".

We surely would not consider slaughtering all children at a school because one pupil arrived with a runny nose? When this particular foot and mouth crisis is over, no-one can guarantee that another outbreak will not be with us within a month or next year. Will we really have to go through all this again before we learn to live with nature and not try and fight against it?

Many other countries across the world exist quite happily with foot and mouth, why can't we?

David Ellis

Romille Street, Skipton.