Actor backs Super Dairy protests

 

Owain Yeoman (right) is a big hit in America, playing Agent Wayne Rigsby in the police drama The Mentalist, but the committed vegetarian has spoken out against the controversial plans for Lower Leighton Farm.

 

The 33-year-old star of Hollywood blockbuster Troy described the plan as factory farming and has written to Powys County Council with his objections.

 

In the letter, Mr Yeoman said: “As a proud native of Wales, I was disturbed to learn that an application to build an industrial dairy-farm operation – where 1,000 cows would be subjected to physical torment – has been submitted. I respectfully ask that you reject this application immediately.

 

“In addition to causing massive animal suffering, industrial farms are, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, an “opportunity for emerging disease”. Intensive confinement and unsanitary conditions create a breeding ground for disease, and cows are often fed a steady diet of drugs to keep them alive – until their worn-out bodies simply cannot endure another day and they are dragged off to an agonising slaughter.

 

“Industrial farms are also destructive on a global scale. According to a UN report, the meat industry is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global”.

 

“Allowing this operation to be built would lead to immense animal suffering and the defacement of our beautiful country.”

 

Farmer Fraser Jones strongly refutes that his plans would result in animal suffering and his resubmitted plans were approved by Powys planners in November. He claims it will turn around an ailing milk industry without having an environmental impact on the nearby village and school.

 

Meanwhile, Welsh Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development John Griffiths has told protesters that the Government needs more time to deliberate over their ‘call in’ request.

 

He said: “A direction has been issued under Article 14 of the Town and Country Planning (General Development Procedure) Order 1995 to provide Welsh Ministers with more time in which to consider the call in request.

 

“The Direction prevents Powys County Council only from granting planning permission; it does not prevent it from continuing to process or consult on the application. Neither does it prevent it from refusing planning permission.”