The main case against the mass cull has never been financial. The ready resort to slaughter when other methods are available is inimical to the concept of care for other creatures - perhaps especially animals that we raise to serve us, and which look to us for their welfare. That is the stand which this column has taken since the first piles of bodies appeared. And the Treasury will be denied future cash through reduced tax payments of those who have lost income through the crisis. But, if the Government is worried about the impact on its finances, there is very little sign of it.
New outbreaks keep occurring.
More animals are culled. The cheques go out. Scarcely a word is said. And thought did inward tend, On my own past and self to dwell.