What turns the animal-loving British into mass slaughterers of cows and pigs without a word of protest? The answer is money. As foot and mouth once again stalks the land, we should remember that this disease is no threat to humans, nor is it a matter of animal welfare. Because the European Union has declared its presence a bar to beef exports (originally to keep out non-European imports), the British meat industry demands that the government treat any outbreak as a national catastrophe. The worst that could happen if Britain were unable to export beef to Europe is that the price of beef would fall.
The 2001 outbreak, fought entirely to maintain the exportability of beef, cost the British economy a staggering £12bn. While farmers who lost their stock were fully compensated and contractors won fortunes, other industries such as tourism were devastated. They received no compensation for losses that, unlike foot and mouth to farmers, were nothing to do with them. Though far more vital to the economy and employing far more people, tourism had no Whitehall department to lobby for it at the Treasury and no tear-stained press coverage. They had to regard the impact on them of someone else's affliction as an act of God.
There is absolutely no reason for the government to involve itself in this matter, except that it now regards agriculture as a nationalised industry. Compared with bovine TB or other diseases, foot and mouth is a mild illness, from which most animals can recover. If producers wish to avoid them becoming ill and if the National Farmers Union wishes to maintain exportability, they should vaccinate them - or lobby Brussels to change its ridiculous and protectionist rules. If they wish to prevent a contagious disease from escaping a district, they can combine to vaccinate all animals within range. That is literally their business, not a matter of national health or welfare. Nor is there any reason why the rest of the nation should be held to ransom - its country closed down, its entertainments cancelled and its pockets picked - for one group's commercial interest.
For anyone in business to lose their stock-in-trade is heartbreaking. But trade panic is a dreadful guide to policy. When the fishermen catch salmon disease or hotels suffer from a lack of sun will ministers also dive into the Cobra bunker to rescue them with government regulation and taxpayers' cash? It is one thing to worship the fatted calf, another to slaughter it for the sake of fool's gold.