Britain's "safety first" strategy to contain foot-and-mouth was under threat yesterday as farmers in Cumbria said they would resist government plans to kill thousands of healthy animals.
As the number of confirmed cases rose to more than 260, the National Farmers' Union in Cumbria, one of the worst hit areas, said members were devastated by the government's decision to slaughter up to 300,000 sheep and pigs unaffected by the disease in an attempt to stop the spread of foot-and-mouth.
The countryside lobby group, Farmers for Action, said it would launch legal action to prevent the measures and, predicting a "rural revolt", said farmers would barricade themselves inside their farms rather than allow official vets access to kill their animals.
"This is all-out war and I don't use those words lightly," the group's spokesman, Mr David Handley said. "If this is the way they want to handle it I'm afraid they've got a fight on their hands."
With sheep and pigs on farmland from Cumbria to southern Scotland facing slaughter, one farmer in Cumbria yesterday had his firearm confiscated after he allegedly threatened to shoot Ministry of Agriculture officials. It is understood he said he would shoot any officials who came to his land to kill his animals.
However, police in Cumbria said that while they understood farmers' distress they would not tolerate threats and would enforce laws to slaughter animals. Agriculture Minister Mr Nick Brown, said he would visit farmers in the area to explain why the measures were necessary. Earlier, he was forced to apologise over his "ambiguous" Commons statement on Thursday giving details of the slaughter programme, explaining the policy would automatically apply only to sheep and cattle in Cumbria and southern Scotland, but not cattle.
The NFU and farming economists said they believe the real number of animals slaughtered under the new plan will be more than one million, but the government has declined to put a precise number on the cull.