A WOMAN who hand-reared three cattle as pets is distraught that two of them will be eaten after they are slaughtered after they tested positive for bovine TB.

Mini, Felicity - known as Flick - and Duncan are among eight cattle that will be taken from their Pensax farm on Tuesday, ending a three-month battle to save them.

Lower Snead Farm owner, Margaret Booton and family friend, Samantha Qureshi, failed in their bid to persuade Government vets to allow the animals to be re-tested because of concerns over the accuracy of the routine skin test.

They claim the State Veterinary Service had offered to allow the youngest cattle to be put down at the farm and for the others to be taken to one abattoir for slaughter but that it has changed its mind following the issuing of a court order for their removal.

Mini and Flick and one other animal, which are all over 30 months old, but born after 1996, will go to an abattoir in Leicestershire and will be sold on for meat.

Duncan and another cow, which are aged under 30 months, will be slaughtered in Oxfordshire but will not enter the food chain because there will not be enough meat on their carcasses.

The other three cattle, born before 1996, will be taken to an abattoir in Derbyshire and will not enter the food chain under the BSE regulations.

A tearful Miss Qureshi said: "I am absolutely disgusted because my animals were never reared to be eaten by someone. I am outraged that they won't listen to us - it's just money to them."

A spokesman for the State Veterinary Service - SVS - said the cows had to go to different abattoirs because of their varying ages.

"If the owners hadn't delayed and allowed the cows to go last year they could have gone to two abattoirs but the BSE rules changed in the new year, which means three have to be used now," he said.

He added it would never have been possible for any of them to be destroyed on the farm.

Miss Qureshi said she and Mrs Booton were worried that being separated and sent on such long journeys would distress the cows and that they would not be able to personally ensure they went through the abattoirs quickly.

The SVS spokesman said vets would check the animals through the process and the owners could send their own vets to oversee the post mortem examinations to make sure they were carried out to their satisfaction.

Police will accompany a valuer to the farm today to establish the amount of compensation to be paid to the owners and a police presence has been called for by the SVS when the animals are taken on Tuesday.

Miss Qureshi said: "They don't need to send police or the three trading standards officers they are planning to bring along."