THE distraught owner of hand-reared pet cows has accused Government vets of bully-boy tactics in refusing a stay of execution after they were tested positive for bovine TB.

Eight of 100 beef cattle at Lower Snead Farm, Pensax, tested positive but the owners claim the skin test is not accurate.

Samantha Qureshi - who raised three of the eight (six of which are in calf, including pets, Flick and Mini) and farm owner, Margaret Booton, are refusing to allow the animals to be killed.

They have appealed to be allowed to have a second test after 60 days in case the first skin test was not accurate but have been refused.

The routine screening test has an accuracy rate of 99.9 per cent in finding uninfected animals but the accuracy rate falls to between 77 per cent and 95 per cent in finding infected animals.

When four pregnant cows from the farm were tested positively two years ago and killed they turned out to be healthy.

Mrs Booton, who has the eight cows in isolation, said she is banned from selling any of the herd at market until the matter is resolved.

She said state vets run by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Defra - had threatened legal action to remove the animals.

Miss Qureshi, a family friend who runs a Stourport company, said: "They are using bully-boy tactics to make you lose your animals."

She said they were being denied the retest after 60 days partly because bovine TB is so rife in the area.

She said Defra vets had also come down heavy on them because the testing had been overdue following a family bereavement and because of the earlier positive testing - even though those animals turned out to be uninfected.

A spokesman from the State Veterinary Service in Worcester, however, said the retesting after 60 days had been stopped 12 years ago because it was found that tested animals developed an immunity which skewed the results of the second test.

He added that post mortality tests could not always confirm the presence of TB because, in the early stages, there might not be any lung damage.

"We are hoping to persuade Mrs Booton that it is in the best interests of both her and her herd to have the cows culled but, if she continues to refuse, we will be forced to take legal action," he said.

Miss Qureshi and Mrs Booton say badgers are spreading the disease.

The SVS spokesman confirmed that Defra is looking at reversing controls which might include combating TB through wildlife and cattle controls, although he stressed that badgers are a protected native species and current Government policy is not to cull.

A vet was due to visit the farm today.