IN April 5 issue of the Gazette & Herald, you asked for views on vaccination with regards the foot and mouth disease.

As owners of pet goats in the North Yorkshire area, one of the first things we did at the start of the crisis,was to contact MAFF for vaccination. We could not believe it when they refused.

The UK cannot maintain its free status if vaccination goes ahead; MAFF explained that there was no way of differentiating vaccine from disease in the animals.

Since that day we have spent hours on the internet gathering information.

Professor Fred Brown of the Plum Island, US Department of Agriculture is the world's leading authority on FMD. Mr Fred Brown, FRS, United States Department of Agriculture, says we must vaccinate and if it is decided to ring - vaccinate, this would reduce the virus load enormously. In addition it would be ludicrous to slaughter the vaccinated animals subsequently

Also Miss Chang Yi Wang, the chief executive of UBI which specialises in FMD vaccines and testing, says that the company's test to distinguish infected from vaccinated animals can be made available immediately. The existence of this test makes a mockery of claims that vaccinated animals cannot be distinguished from infected animals.

We fully support the vaccination without cull and have so far written to Mr Tony Blair, our MEP plus adding our names to petitions in support of vaccination.

This mass murder of livestock is totally unnecessary and barbaric. How the government, MAFF or anyone else can justify such actions is totally beyond our comprehension.

I am ashamed to British.

Updated: 16:45 Wednesday, April 25, 2001