You dare not put even slightly iffy animals on a
lorry these days for fear of prosecution.  

We certainly have much more
regulation and cost. We used to take those that had been injured or were
slightly lame to the local abattoir with the Landrover and trailer.  No more
than 5 miles.  (People injured on the motorway have to travel further to get
to hospital).  ...all the local slaughterhouses have gone
and I doubt those new industrial ones would want to be bothered with a
casualty.

At the moment we dairy farmers are "lucky".  If the animal is over 30
months, you get the vet out to declare on the official form (4 copies) that
the animal is fit for human consumption, he then kills it on the farm by
lethal injection or the tried and tested gun.  You then ring the British
Cattle Movement Service (BCMS) for a Casualty Reference number,  fill out an
OTM17 form (4 copies), find the passport, sign all the appropriate bits,
stick on the bar code stickers, send a tear off bit back to BCMS, contact
the local knacker transport service (more paperwork) and he will remove dead
beast to an incinerator approved by DEFRA.  If you have not made a mistake
on any of the paperwork and the animal has all the necessary tags/ID, you
will eventually receive a cheque from the RPA (Rural Payments Agency) for an
animal that was deemed fit for human consumption, but due to BSE
restrictions had to be incinerated.

Now when the BSE restrictions come off next Jan (on certain age groups) or
the animal is  under 30 months, I think you go through all the above
procedures except the incinerator.  Problem is you need a slaughter house to
take it and I don't know of one in the UK - so I have buried those - but
now the EU says I cannot bury (or burn) them anymore and the Gov't have just
announced that they are not going to fund the expensive process of transport
and incineration of casualty/fallen stock.  There used to be an incinerator
6 miles down the road but it lost the DEFRA contract and now they have to be
hauled nearly 100 miles to the next nearest  I gather the French Govt are
paying disposal costs ..................!!!

David