Farmer wins right to challenge cull

British organic farmer Peter Kindersley has won permission to seek High Court orders blocking the policy of slaughtering healthy animals to combat foot-and-mouth.

In the first legal action of its kind, a judge ruled that Mr Kindersley, 59, had "an arguable case" which should be heard as a matter of extreme urgency.

Mr Justice Richards said the challenge should come in a full hearing on Monday at 2pm.

The multi-millionaire farmer's lawyers had argued that the policy adopted by the Government of slaughtering animals "suspected of being infected" or which might have been exposed to foot-and-mouth went too far and was unlawful under both European Community and domestic law.

Mr Kindersley said afterwards: "Though farmers have achieved a victory in court this is not a time for celebration.

"For weeks, my wife and I and millions of other people have been appalled by the impending slaughter of a million or more animals as part of a policy that has demonstrably failed.

"Hence my legal challenge and my concern to get vaccination introduced, albeit it should have been introduced a lot earlier."

He added: "Even though the court was unwilling to review government policy, that policy is now being judged by the people of this country in the light of better information about vaccination instead of myths and guesswork."

Mr Kindersley continued: "I will continue to work on getting people to understand that vaccine works just as well on animals as on humans."