Farmers paid twice for culled stock 

        Insurers offer up to £500,000 compensation for foot and mouth
        on top of government cash

        Special report: foot and mouth disease 
        Anthony Browne, environment correspondent
        Sunday August 26, 2001
        The Observer 

        Almost a thousand farmers are being compensated twice for livestock
        culled in the battle against foot-and-mouth disease.

        The double compensation comes on top of the excessive amounts paid to
        farmers because they colluded with valuers to deliberately overestimate
        the value of their animals. 
                                                   
        John Pieri, an insurance broker in Cumbria, who has made payouts to two
        customers, said: 'They are all deliberately underinsuring. One farmer 
        had valued his stock at £140,000 for insurance purposes, but got a
        cheque from the Ministry for £350,000.' 

        The insurance gives an extra incentive to farmers either to deliberately
        spread the disease or at least not to keep up the precautions to stop it
        spreading. 

        There have been numerous reports of parts of diseased animals being left
        on previously uninfected farms. The Government's main adviser on the
        disease, Professor Roy Anderson, said the outbreak is still continuing
        only because it is being spread by farmers. 

        The compensation of farmers responsible for spreading the disease is
        causing anger among rural businesses destroyed by the outbreak. One
        Cumbrian businessman, who has been forced to sell his guesthouse because
        of the collapse of tourism, said: 'It is outrageous that while I am 
        getting no help from the Government, farmers are making profits out of it
        by getting money from taxpayers and insurance. It's disgusting.' 

        anthony.browne@observer.co.uk

        From "The Observer" an English Sunday broadsheet

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