WHEN your budgerigar dies, nearly everyone buries it in the garden. In fact when almost any pet dies they get buried in the garden.

I don't know what the statistics are, but a large proportion of people are buried in churchyards in cemeteries, and even, these days, in some other sites in the country.

It is certainly common for ashes to be scattered in favourite spots, especially on sports grounds.

From an early age most people are aware of the saying "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust".

It is an acknowledgement of the fact that from the moment any sort of life is started, there is only one way out.

Few of us are happy with the prospect but, so far, despite the efforts of those such as Walt Disney who have themselves frozen for future revival, eternal life, by definition, is not an option for mere mortals.

If it is not an option for humans it is certainly not an option for the animals in our care. So, when life has gone, something has to be done with the remains.

It was a member of the Sykes family from Sledmere who first noticed that grass grew better where the hounds buried the bones they had been eating.

This led to more research which indicated there were beneficial side effects from the use of meat and bone meal.

For many years gardeners and farmers used meat and bone as part of their fertilisation of the land.

Then along came the BSE crisis, caused by a combination of greed and faulty science, and the use of animal by-products for fertiliser was banned.

What to do with the remains now?

Throughout this period many farmers had buried the remains of their dead animals. It is an old saying, but true, in the way of these old sayings, that if you have livestock, you will sooner or later have deadstock.

It is a sad fact that when a litter of pigs is born, it is quite normal to have one or two born dead. They may not have been properly formed, or they just never reached viability.

Pigmen have been trying to find a way round this problem for many years, but we are not much nearer a solution. Then more piglets die after they have been born, by being laid on by their mothers or whatever the problem is.

If the Minister for Animal Welfare, or whatever Elliott Morley is calling himself at the moment, has his way and bans farrowing stalls, there will be more dead piglets of which to dispose.

So all the time, most days, anyone who keeps a pig breeding herd will have need to dispose of deadstock. Much the same analysis will apply to all other forms of livestock farming. I suppose that during the years we must have buried hundreds of dead piglets.

On the odd occasions when we have accidentally dug up an area which we have previously used for burials, there is no evidence left. The bones have completely dissolved.

Anyone who has sung all the verses of the Yorkshire Anthem, On Ilkla Moor Baht 'At will know that everything goes round in circles.

Amazingly, those who increasingly rule our lives, the faceless ones from Brussels, have now decided that the lessons of history are wrong. Farmers are no longer to be allowed to bury fallen stock.

No sensible alternative solution has been suggested. Neither can anyone police any new arrangements. Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.

The authorities must think we are all as daft as they are.

Updated: 10:56 Tuesday, April 08, 2003