Army prepares for apocalypse as 500,000 animals face death
A burial site is prepared for hundreds of thousands of sheep at a disused airfield in Cumbria
THE word wasn’t used lightly, and the huge mounds of earth piling up by the side of the disused runway lent it a gloomy resonance.
"Apocalyptic" was how the man in charge of the first mass grave for hundreds of thousands of culled livestock in the foot-and-mouth crisis described his task.
And just to make sure there was no mistaking the threat posed by the virus, the army officer in charge of the burial operation said his troops would be carrying out the job with suits and chemicals normally reserved for biological warfare.
Whether the pits - each 150 metres long, 15 metres wide and four metres deep - represent a more horrific sight than cattle and sheep being burnt on massive funeral pyres is a moot point.
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