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The Phoenix factor


British newspapers campaigned to save the baby calf

CNN's European Political Editor Robin Oakley looks at the case of the week-old calf who survived the foot-and-mouth cull and became a symbol of changed UK government policy.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Was Phoenix saved for scientific reasons or for electoral ones? The answer is probably a bit of both.

Tony Blair and his team have always been famed for their public relations, as when the British prime minister caught the mood of the nation so much better than the royal family over the death of Princess Diana.

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UK to relax foot-and-mouth cull

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Ministers have been looking for a way of signalling to the public that the tide has turned in combating foot-and-mouth and the discovery of Phoenix alive four days after the death of its mother has provided the symbolic opportunity.

The publicity accorded to the survival of the Charolais calf has enabled Downing Street to make a gesture which touches the heart of a nation always ready to sympathise with the plight of animals. It will do Mr Blair and his team no harm with an election approaching.

They know there has been considerable public dismay over the policy of killing healthy animals just because they were on farms near to outbreaks of foot-and-mouth.

In some cases, it was felt, animals were being sentenced to death on a technicality because a single far-flung field on their farm brought them within a specified range.

With veterinary scientists content that they are getting on top of the outbreak the time was anyway approaching for them to be able to abandon the brutal policy of slaughtering automatically on suspicion.

The national concern for Phoenix has given ministers the opportunity to make that welcome revision of policy with maximum publicity.

Culling will not end overnight but more flexibility is being introduced, at least in areas where the disease is not rife. Now animals on neighbouring farms will be killed only if they test positively for the disease.

Suspicions will linger that Phoenix has been saved for electoral reasons and many animal lovers will see no harm whatever the reason.

But against the background of the foot and mouth horror ministers simply could not afford to make a decision which flew in the face of scientific evidence. The risks are too great. Phoenix proved to be the right survivor in the right place at the right time.