Mass killings predominate. And, no, this isn't in any way comparable to the Balkan nightmare, but it is horrifying nonetheless. As you read this, more and more animals are being herded into pens or fields and shot dead in the head, their carcasses tossed into mass graves or burned on huge, odoriferous pyres. One cow managed to drag itself across a barn floor a day after it supposedly had been killed. At first I thought it was an emergency measure to contain a disease that could kill animals and threaten human health.
Most cows survive it and are well again within a few weeks.
Nor is it even remotely dangerous to humans. The meat of these cows is perfectly edible and poses no threat to those who eat it. It's a cow flu with cold sores. But, at the moment, Tony Blair's government is planning to kill not merely thousands of infected animals but many thousands more healthy livestock as well, in order to create a buffer zone around the infected areas. This time around, nearly half a million have already been killed, and hundreds of thousands more are being marked for slaughter.