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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
John Bett & Joel Cooper

British farmer prepares for Brexit by importing Nazi-engineered cows

A British farmer worried about the impact Brexit will have on the industry is turning his land into a safari, which will be home to Nazi-engineered cows.

Ecologist Derek Gow is transforming his land into a safari, as he fears the farming industry will struggle after Brexit .

The safari will be home to exotic animals such as wild boar, English wild cats and a herd of Heck cows.

The breed of Heck was engineered by German zoologist brothers Heinz and Lutz Heck, who were commissioned by the Nazis.

Derek has imported a herd of the breed onto his farm in Lifton, Devon, in the hopes they will help his business flourish after Britain leaves the EU.

Derek has now imported the cows onto his farm so his business can continue to flourish once Britain leaves the EU (SWNS.com)

Derek said: "The reason we're doing it is because farming is becoming increasingly uneconomic.

"Without the EU subsidies, if we continued to farm we would be unprofitable."

The breed of cows is aggressive and horned - and are thought to be the closest living relative to a historic species of bull called Aurochs.

"The cows are very large, they resemble cave paintings," Derek said.

"The Nazis wanted to go out and hunt them, that's why they were made."

Derek said the cows were engineered because the Nazis wanted a large breed of cows to hunt (SWNS.com)

Most of the breed were slaughtered after the Second World War, but after a lot of experimenting Mr Gow now has 13 of them on his land.

"It's been an awful lot of work but I hope people will find it interesting."

Derek, who is originally from Dundee, is renowned for his work reintroducing animals into nature.

(SWNS.com)

He pioneered the captive breeding and reintroduction of water voles and played a key role in the return of beavers to Britain.

Last year Mr Gow had drawn up a briefing for ministers about the potential reintroduction of British wildcats.

It is believed that wildcats could help to cull grey squirrels, an invasive species which has driven out native red squirrels from most of the country.

Speaking at the time he said forestry organisations were very keen on the idea.

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