REGARDING the outbreak of foot and mouth disease.

This morning I was walking my dog along Mill Lane at the overbridge to the M4. I decided to take the footpath across the fields, that would bring me out near Comet.

On this footpath, crossing the filled-in old canal, was a dead sheep which had been there a long time, rotting badly and missing a leg, possibly to wild animals.

My real point is that most farmers are crying out to Joe Public to respect the countryside, so surely this cannot be acceptable alongside a public path, this must be a source of disease.

W NEWMAN

Dean Street

Swindon