BBC - Devon Features - Phoenix the foot-and-mouth cow has given birth

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27 November 2009
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Phoenix gets used to being a mum!

Phoenix hit the headlines at the height of the foot-and-mouth crisis

Phoenix, the calf which became a symbol of hope after the foot-and-mouth epidemic, has given birth to a calf.

Members of the public were asked to suggest a name for the new arrival - and she's called Wiggy.

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Phoenix the cow, a pure white Charolais, made the headlines in 2001 when the Prime Minister intervened to spare her life days after she was found next to her mother's body at a Devon farm.

Now, two years on, Phoenix has given birth to a daughter, who has been named Wiggy after members of the public were asked to suggest names.

Phoenix was just a day old when slaughtermen culled 70 cattle and 47 sheep at the farm of owner Philip Board and his 36-year-old wife Michaela because animals on a nearby farm had contracted foot-and-mouth.

Phoenix was hand fed

Somehow the slaughtermen failed to kill Phoenix - born on 13 April 2001 - and her survival went undiscovered for five days.

The Boards bottle-raised Phoenix in the garage of their 45 acre Clarence Farm, near Axminster, and resisted a demand that the calf should be culled from the then Ministry of Agriculture.

Media furore

A media furore followed, and the Government ultimately announced a change in contiguous culling policy which spared Phoenix.

"The birth of the calf will be the start of a new herd," said Mr Board.

And Mrs Board said: "Phoenix is really pleased with herself. She's a very good mum, and she's very protective."

Since Phoenix was born, she has been the star of agricultural shows across the country, helping to raise cash for leukaemia research.

"People still come to see her, we had a visit from an Australian and three Americans whose car broke down nearby, and they had all seen her on TV at home," Mr Board said.

Article updated: 16th July 2003