The family hand-rearing Phoenix the calf are celebrating today after the animal was unexpectedly reprieved from the slaughterman's gun.
Farmer Philip Board and his wife Michaela fed the week-old calf her breakfast of a bottle of milk after Downing Street stepped in to save her last night.
The case has also prompted the Government to announce a major relaxation of its slaughter policy today, with Ministers preparing to release fresh evidence that foot-and-mouth is on the wane.
"It is absolutely fantastic - a ray of light for the farming industry," said Mr Board, 42, who runs Clarence Farm in Membury, Devon.
Phoenix survived a cull on a Devon farm but was due to be killed by Maff officials under foot-and-mouth regulations.
The calf had survived for five days next to its dead mother, among a herd of 15 cattle culled because of the disease, before she was discovered on Monday when officials came to disinfect the ground at Clarence Farm.
The Board family refused to let MAFF officials back to kill her.
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