Sir,

Why has eating horse meat suddenly hit the headlines on television and the national newspapers? I purchased a second farm in 1982 which was part of a slaughterhouse complex. Prior to my purchasing the land, it was quite common to see over 200 horses virtually on a weekly basis being delivered and turned out onto the land.

On Saturday and Sunday, those same horses were rounded up for slaughter and on Sunday evening the carcases were loaded onto large container lorries for transportation to arrive early on Monday morning at Smithfield market to be sold to the wholesalers.

Where did the meat go? All I know is this happened frequently and we never thought to ask any questions. By choice, I would never eat horse meat, but with the volume handled, we must have all eaten some concealed in pies. My only consolation is that horses have never had BST or picked up TB from badgers.

All I can ask is, with so many dairy cattle leaving our farms for compulsory slaughter because of the spread of TB among our dairy herds, will we in future, because there will be no beef left, have no alternative but to eat horse meat? What are we going to do about milk? I do not feel like milking horses who, after all, have only two teats.

Sir Eric Howells CBE,

Lampeter Velfrey.