The Duke of Westminster has said he fears British farmers may yet experience "terrible suffering" on the scale of the 1967 foot-and-mouth epidemic.
He uttered his dark warning as the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Nick Brown, put hundreds of thousands more animals under sentence of death through the government's new "safety first" approach to combat the disease, and as the UK's confirmed number of cases rose to more than 240.
Up to 300,000 seemingly unaffected sheep could be destroyed where there exists a strong possibility of infection. Hardest-hit Cumbria will be a primary target of Mr Brown's "pre-emptive" strike, announced in the Commons yesterday, allowing the intensified slaughter of animals "in the areas of the country - thankfully still limited - where the disease has spread".
The new slaughter programme will include the culling of all animals within three-kilometre exclusion zones in Cumbria, and the deployment of vets and trained lay staff in "intensive patrols" within the zone of infected farms in Devon.
However, with as many as 200,000 animals to be slaughtered in Scotland alone - and 100,000 sheep which may have come into contact with the disease through markets at Welshpool and Northampton to be traced and destroyed - it appeared impossible last night to calculate what the final toll would be.
As the duke, one of Britain's richest men and biggest landowners, matched the donation of £500,000 sterling by Prince Charles to relieve the hardship of farmers, the president of the National Farmers' Union, Mr Ben Gill, captured the mood.
"There will be many tears around the British countryside," he said: "Our farms should be starting to jump to life with new-born lambs and calves. Instead, many will feel that spring has been cancelled and their farms are simply dead."
However, he welcomed Mr Brown's announcement as "draconian but necessary".
And Mr Anthony Gibson, south-west regional director of the NFU, said the Minister's strategy represented a "real step change in the government's policy and attitude towards controlling and eliminating foot-and-mouth".
As Downing Street continued to resist pressure to cancel the May local elections, the duke said his donation was inspired by the "terrible suffering" he had witnessed in 1967.
"As a young man in Cheshire I saw terrible suffering . . . and I am fearful it will happen again on the same scale. Those of us who are close to the land are aware that there are acute welfare problems already, particularly among hill farmers, and I hope these donations will help the charities deal with the immediate welfare and stress problems."
Meanwhile, Barclays Bank offered all its farming customers a three-month "break" in scheduled loan repayments in an attempt to ease immediate cash flow problems.
Farmers warned the British government it faces a "rural revolt" after it said yesterday that hundreds of thousands of healthy animals will be slaughtered to halt the spread of foot-and-mouth disease. --(AFP)