COUNTRY landowners in Yorkshire have called for tougher action to eradicate a "pretty killer".

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) wants all private and public landowners to help wipe out ragwort.

They describe the plant as "a pretty yellow flower which is really an insidious killer spreading across the countryside", which "condemns horses, sheep and cattle to lingering deaths each year".

Dorothy Fairbairn, regional director for the CLA in Yorkshire, said: "Ragwort looks so pretty, but its prettiness is no more than a cloak because it is deadly to farm animals and horses. The danger has been written about for years but ragwort marches onwards.

"The trouble is that a single plant can produce more than 100,000 new plants for the following season. It is a menace in pasture, wasteland, roadsides, open countryside, and farm crops and in parks and gardens.

"In its green state, ragwort is relatively unattractive to most grazing animals - but when cut, particularly in hay, it becomes palatable and can be inadvertently eaten.

"In its dried state ragwort is highly toxic to horses, cattle and sheep, causing progressive and irreversible liver damage."

Updated: 10:28 Thursday, August 16, 2001