Girl's secret diary chronicles killing of pet cow

A British farmer has released to the public the secret diary of his eight-year-old daughter who is distraught after her pet cow was killed over foot-and-mouth.

The diary, which was found under Jessica Cleminson's bed at her home in West Auckland, Co Durham, UK, is one of the most poignant images of the disease.

On the day the cattle and her 14-year-old pet called Caroline were condemned, she wrote her diary entry in black and circled two smudges with an arrow indicating "my tears".

News that Caroline and the rest of Jessica's father's herd were to be culled came the day after the little girl wrote that the prized pet was expecting a calf.

Last Friday, Jessica wrote: "Dear diary, today I found out that we are in Category D and that is bad. That means I cannot leave the house much and it isn't fair."

Alongside a colourful drawing of a cow, she added: "My favourite cow Caroline is having a calf, maybe twin calves."

But the following day, Jessica wrote a note in which she could not bring herself to say the word 'killed'.

It read: "We have foot-and-mouth. Caroline has to be ... I can't even say it and she has to be ... with her baby inside. Please Lord, how come you did this to us?"

Her father, Stephen, said: "We didn't know about this diary until my wife found it under Jessica's bed. We were heartbroken when we read it. The cow, Caroline, was a cow in a million - I have never known a cow like it. She was as friendly as a dog. The children would ride on its back. She would stand for ages with her head in your arms."

He added: "The cow was almost human, she used to cry at times. Caroline cried when they came to put her down. She was within 24 hours of calving which made it all the worse because the expectation in Jessica was that she would have a baby. That was a terrible blow."

The Cleminsons had to get special MAFF permission for Jessica and her sister Laura, 13, to be allowed off the farm the day before slaughtermen came to cull 172 cattle and 18 pigs on the New Hummerbeck Farm and the family's other farm at Kirk Merrington, near Spennymoor, Co Durham.

Mr Cleminson said: "An Army soldier led my daughters down the lane with tears rolling down their faces. It was an awful situation."