Badgers need our protection
I AM very disappointed, as I am sure many of your readers are, that the Government is pressing ahead with the terminally misguided policy of killing badgers in England.
I cannot call it a "cull" as the majority of those animals killed are likely to be healthy, as evidenced by a study from 2003, which found 80 per cent of those killed were TB-free.
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'Massacred': A badger.
As it is, the decision to allow farmers to shoot badgers on their own land is disastrous both in terms of welfare and potentially spreading the disease.
Badgers are highly territorial and largely stay in one area. However, killing badgers will cause survivors to travel to new areas.
This could have the effect of pushing TB on to farmers' land where no TB exists.
TB infection in cattle is actually falling in the UK – not going up. Overall, there were 438 fewer total new herd TB incidents in 2009 compared with 2008. How can this devastation of our natural wildlife be justified when TB infection is falling?
This wildlife massacre is not only cruel, it is not needed. Scientists in Dublin have perfected an oral vaccine that is effective in tackling the disease in badgers. This new development stops the vaccine being destroyed by powerful acids in badgers' stomachs, meaning it can be fed to them in bait left outside their setts – with no need to catch and inject them. These scientists have said that this method is the only way to control TB in the badger population long-term.
However, the bottom line is that bovine TB is a disease of cattle – and cattle-to-cattle is undeniably the main vector. Killing badgers while ignoring this is akin to fiddling while Rome burns.
It is also worth pointing out that the number of cattle killed each year because of TB is dwarfed by those killed by mastitis, lameness and infertility. Yet we never hear about those.
The decision to stamp out British wildlife against the best scientific opinion smacks of a misplaced allegiance to an industry that can't see the wood for the trees.
Please get involved in the campaign to stop Britain's wildlife being used as the scapegoat for poor agricultural policy and political favouritism. Visit www.viva.org.uk/badgers or phone 0117 944 1000.
JUSTIN KERSWELL
Viva! campaigns manager
8 York Court
Wilder Street
Bristol
4 Comments
by David, Devon
Wednesday, September 29 2010, 8:42AM
“I find it appalling that people who want to keep badger numbers high at the expense of reducing this countries ability to produce food think that is OK to propagate science and facts which are considered to be flawed.
The following comments were made by a higher scietific officer who I understand was responsible for staff during the RBCT.
1. Badger removal operations worked well when the land being culled was made fully available, not just the area dictated to us by vets.
2. Where badgers were totally removed from a farm, that farm, after it had its infected cattle culled, often stayed clear of TB for up to 10 years.
3. We stayed on farms for up to three months to ensure that ALL badgers were
caught¿unlike the Krebs eight days per year trapping regime.
4. You do not need large scale culling for it to be effective if the culling effort is
robust from the start.
He ended his comments by saying
"how much weight do you give to the latest ISG report, detailing their "robust" findings to the Minister? If it were down to me and staff, very little."
These comments can be read in the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Publication at http://www.clearstats.co.uk/docs/RBCT%20problems.pdf.”
by mung the badger, the sett
Wednesday, September 29 2010, 3:19AM
“all badgers should be beaten to death , especially the one who posts on here.”
by Miltona, Paradise Found
Tuesday, September 28 2010, 6:46PM
“Thanks for your letter explaining things clearly, Justin. I strongly agree that the badger killing needs to be stopped.”
by Mr. Sensible, The Real World
Tuesday, September 28 2010, 3:18PM
“This is a bad policy which doesn't really have scientific justification.”