MINISTERS have been defeated in the House of Lords over plans to opt for mass slaughter, rather than vaccination, in the event of another foot-and-mouth outbreak.
Peers last night voted by 171 to 123 to change the Animal Health Bill to give priority to vaccination - which would avoid a repeat of the killing fields in last year's outbreak in Worcestershire.
The Lords also defeated Ministers over calls for more prominence to go to disease detection measures when slaughter was being considered.
The vaccination amendment was moved by crossbencher the Countess of Mar, who urged the Government to write "a little humanity" into the Bill.
She criticised the "bloodbath" which had followed last year's epidemic, adding: "It would be politic to begin the Bill with a statement that doesn't give the impression that it gives a permit to kill every animal in sight."
Agriculture Minister Lord Whitty had argued the option of vaccination as a first resort already existed in law and therefore did not need to be spelled out in the new proposals.
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