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Champion bull that was heading for slaughter after testing positive for TB wins a reprieve

DAILY MAIL

By DAVID WILKES Last updated at 9:01 PM on 26th January 2011
Down on Forlorn Hope Farm, things might just be looking up at last for Boxster the champion bull.

Confined to quarantine for ten months, he has been living alone in an isolation paddock surrounded by two fences, one electric and one spiked. To give him a friendly scratch, his owner has to use a stick and then dip it in disinfectant.

'It's heartbreaking,' said farmer Ken Jackson, 66, of the plight of his beloved ton-and-a-quarter animal, which has won dozens of best-in-show rosettes and is worth £20,000.

TB or not TB? Boxster the prize bull has already avoided one appointment at the slaughterhouse
TB or not TB? Boxster the prize bull has already avoided one appointment at the slaughterhouse

'It is hard to believe an animal which looks so fine has got anything wrong with him.

So what is the cause of this beastly agricultural tragedy? Well, with apologies to Shakespeare, TB or not TB, that is the question.

Boxy, as his owners call him, was deemed to have bovine tuberculosis during routine tests at the farm in Stubbs Walden, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, in April last year and condemned to slaughter.

Ever since then the four-year-old pedigree British Blonde has been at the centre of wrangling between Mr Jackson and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and kept in quarantine after being given a stay of execution while the unusal - and hugely costly - legal battle is waged over his future.

The lastest twist in the case came yesterday at the High Court in London when Mr Jackson won permission to challenge the decision to slaughter Boxster (or Hallmark Boxster, to use his full pedigree name) as a judge granted his application to seek a judicial review.

Afterwards Mr Jackson, who had sat listening intently through the two hour hearing with his shirt sleeves rolled up and wearing a tie emblazoned with a bull motif, declared: 'It's absolutely brilliant. Boxy lives to fight another day.'

Less likely to be celebrating, however, are taxpayers.

After three court hearings already and a further day and half to come for the jucidical review, it is estimated Defra will by the end of it have spent £50,000 fighting the case - which, claims Mr Jackson, they could have avoided if they'd only agreed to re-test Boxy, something he even offered personally to pay for.

'Let's put it this way, my legal bills are a lot more than Boxster is worth,' Mr Jackson said.

'God knows how much Defra's are.

'We were devastated when Boxster failed the test but I believe the results were unreliable. Ten months later we are still here. We should be standing together with Defra, not at logger heads.

'They are wasting thousands upon thousands of taxpayers money on this. I don't want to give up. I have a right to right for my family business, my livelihood.'

The TB alert on the farm arose after a bought-in beef heifer was found to be a carrier. The vets then condemned six more animals, including Boxster, because there were grounds for suspicion that they, too, had been exposed.

He was first scheduled for slaughter on August 26 last year after talks to save him failed. But two days before the deadline Mr Jackson obtained an interim injunction to save him.

The High Court heard there is currently no evidence of TB in the rest of Mr Jackson's herd.

The dispute centres on a blood sample taken from Boxster. Mr Jackson, whose farm is humorously named after an old battle site, argues the officers who took the sample mixed two half-full vials in the field, contrary to written procedures. He wants the positive test declared null and void by the courts.

In a statement to the court, father of two Mr Jackson described how Boxster was not only 'something of a star on the show circuit' but also outstanding as a stock bull and crucial to the development of his herd. There was no guarantee another animal could be found to replace him 'given the chemistry of Boxster and the herd on the farm'.

But Defra maintain that, under EU law, once an animal has tested positive, it must be slaughtered and cannot be saved by a retest.

Barrister Julie Anderson, representing Defra, told the court yesterday the department was 'unhappy and concerned' that the bull had still not been slaughtered as he posed a disease threat.

She argued 'there was no evidence whatsoever' that the positive blood sample had been contaminated, adding that Defra was not being 'high-handed'. But it was now 'far too late' to conduct an effective fresh test and it was impossible to prove the bull was free of TB.

Deputy High Court judge Rabinder Singh QC ruled Mr Jackson had 'an arguable case' and ordered that his bid to overturn the bull's death sentence should be heard at the court as a matter of urgency.

The judge said: 'This bull is a much-loved animal. He is a prize animal and it would appear that his value to these claimants is not simply to be assessed in montetary terms.'

After the ruling, Mr Jackson's daughter, Kate McNeil, who has shown Boxster at showgrounds across the country and accompanied her father to court with his wife Anita, 65, said: 'We just don't believe the test was carried out correctly, according to Defra policy, and therefore we feel the result cannot be valid.

'If Boxster turned out to be positive, he would be taken to slaughter just like any other infected animal.'

Meanwhile, it emerged that even being in quarantine has not stopped Boxster's winnng ways. Mr Jackson said last summer he won the North of England best stock bull for his class - after the judges came to inspect him in his isolation pen.

Last night a Defra spokesman said: 'Bovine TB is having a devastating effect on many farms and farm businesses, so we must have strict measures to control it.

'Our overriding concern must be the containment of disease and the protection of neighbouring cattle herds and local wildlife from infection with bovine TB. We are committed to preserving the bovine TB status of a part of the country where the disease is not endemic.

'It is regrettable that this case is taking so long to resolve. However, it would be inappropriate to comment on the case until a final decision has been reached.'

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