Alistair McConnachie asks... these were circulated on the Internet and published in a Special Sovereignty Report "This Green and Unpleasant Land" distributed with the April 2001 issue.

Below: the Veterinary Oath was prominently displayed around Mossburn Animal Centre when MAFF attempted to kill its healthy animals.

We can stop the mass slaughter policy by breaking the consensus for mass slaughter. That will only require a few vets to start speaking out and publicly disassociating themselves, and their own professional reputations, from this policy.

Therefore, the following 10 questions are addressed to those conscientious vets who are uncomfortable with the present slaughter policy, and who need to speak out NOW.

Answer these questions, and then please speak out.

1- Since when has it been veterinary practice to slaughter animals which have a perfectly curable illness?

2- How do you feel about killing animals with a curable illness when you, presumably, became a vet in order to heal sick animals?

3- What is the point of being a vet if you regard slaughter as the appropriate response to a curable illness in an animal?

4- Since when has it been veterinary practice to slaughter animals which do not even have any illness at all?

5- How do you feel about killing healthy animals when you, presumably, became a vet in order to heal sick animals, not kill healthy ones?

6- What is the point of being a vet if you regard slaughter as an appropriate response to no illness whatsoever in an animal?

7- How can you justify killing hundreds of thousands, and potentially millions, of healthy animals in order to prevent a curable illness afflicting a smaller number?

8- How do you feel about participating in a slaughter policy which is being conducted for economic reasons, and not for animal health reasons?

9- How do you feel about abusing your professional position and betraying your professional motivations in this way?

10- Finally, when are you going to stand up and condemn this policy?

The veterinary oath obliges each vet "to ensure the welfare of animals committed to my care".

Please, if you are a vet concerned to uphold your professional reputation and remain true to your professional motivation to heal sick animals, then you need to speak out now against the mass slaughter policy.