Badger Cull

[jazzy_dave]

Oh and talking of our uncaring government here is another stupid policy, the Badger Cull. Here is a precis from my bro's blog.

http://abulldoginbrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/our-badgers-are-dying.html?spref=fb

"Despite the best efforts of Network For Animals, Team Badger, and thousands of motivated people around the UK, the 2014 badger cull finally began last night, Monday 8th September.

Over the next six weeks, up to 1876 innocent badgers will be shot by government employed marksmen, either trapped in cages that could have been used to vaccinate them, or fired upon from up to 70 metres away while meekly foraging for food.

Parliament voted in April by 219 to 1 that the culls should not continue. Public opinion is firmly against culling. Majority independent scientific opinion suggests badger culling could make bovine TB worse. And hundreds of thousands of us have spoken out, time after time.

I listened this morning on the radio to Elizabeth Truss, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, uttering the same verbal diarrhoea that we used to suffer from Owen Patterson and no doubt spoon-fed to her by the NFU. The blind arrogance of these people is overwhelming.

In May 2015, the United Kingdom will elect its next government (with or without Scotland). The general election is now the vehicle for change that we must embrace. A pledge to end the badger cull will need to be written into any political manifesto that expects my support.

I trust that you feel the same."

http://abulldoginbrighton.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/our-badgers-are-dying.html?spref=fb

They will have my support too.

Comments

[quirkytizzy.livejournal.com]

But...why? Are badgers particularly prone to waging rabid war on the local population over there?

[swordznsorcery.livejournal.com]

Good question! I'm afraid it all boils down to the government's desire to placate farmers. Badgers are carriers of bovine tuberculosis, and as such are farmers' favourite scapegoat for the current levels of TB in cattle. They do undoubtedly occasionally infect cattle - but a far greater culprit are rats, along with bad practice amongst farmers themselves (failing to clean boots and equipment, etc), and the conditions in which many cattle are kept. Badgers are the easiest of those to do something about! In the seventies, the then Labour government decided to eradicate them completely, and whole setts up and down the country were gassed with carbon monoxide. Public opinion was against the killing then, and eventually it was stopped. Apparently forty years is enough time for politicians to forget what a bloody silly idea it was. With the amount of scientific evidence against a cull now, though, it would be farcical if it weren't so tragic.

Why indeed

[coming42.livejournal.com]

Mark Jones, a vet and executive director for Humane Society International/UK, said: "Independent scientific advice that killing badgers is a waste of time has been eschewed, independent oversight of the culls abandoned, kill targets have been set without an accurate idea of actual badger numbers and farmers continue to be misled into thinking that killing these animals will help solve bovine TB when all the evidence points to the contrary."
Dominic Dyer, of the Badger Trust and Care for the Wild, called the cull "a triumph of politics, pride and persecution over common sense and science". He said: "Potentially, almost 2,000 badgers could die – that's more than last year – and for what? These culls are ill-conceived and incompetently managed and will contribute nothing to reducing bovine TB in cattle."

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Why are they doing this?! Makes no sense...

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

See the above two comments for the reasons why, and why it is so wrong.

[kaishin108.livejournal.com]

That is horribly sad and mean :-(

Do you really think this will go thru, the whole Scotland thing on Sept 19th? What would they do for money, the Euro? That could be a huge mess I would think. Not that I know!

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I've been following this on Twitter since last year sometime, and it (along with the murder of foxes in snares, with clubs, by dog, etc.) makes me ill. I really don't get how Parliament can vote against it and still it goes on. And of course the "science" behind it is as asinine and wrong as the supposed science between the US Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision. The whole world is so beyond fucked up that I really don't think there's any fixing it.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

They do that same bull crap here in the states but with bison instead of badgers. They claim the wild bison carry bovine TB and can infect the cattle herds. Which makes me wonder why they aren't vaccinating the cattle herds!

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

The old standby vaccine isn't all that great, and I don't think any of the more recent vaccines have been an improvement.

[thespian15.livejournal.com]

Sounds like our battle here over wolves. Too many people will not be happy until they are wiped out.
After the wolves are gone, who's going to be your enemy? Same for your badgers. :o
ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugs, Jon

[silme.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine volunteers with Harper Asprey, the animal rescue charity that Brian May supports. May has done some incredible things to educate people about badgers (Save Me); unfortunately, the Tories seem incapable of learning anything. :(

[chaotic-binky.livejournal.com]

It's typical of this government - they listen to no one but themselves.

[kabuldur.livejournal.com]

Whaaat???

Why are they culling them? Scrub that. I see. Tuberculosis. Why don't the farmers just innoculate their animals (milking cows) like here? There is TB in feral animals up north - buffalo, I think. So, making them immune makes the best sense. It sounds like the bad publicity from the govt given to bats here. They are blamed for the Hendra virus, which is actually spread by rats visa their droppings in their food. Of course rats are attracted to grain and stuff. It makes sense.

Aren't badgers a national animal?

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Here in Wales the Assembly Government decided not to cull badgers and instead opt for more frequent testing of cattle to quickly identify problem farms and vaccinate badgers against TB. Currently, we can't vaccinate cattle due to EU legislation. Vaccination means that tests can't easily distinguish between vaccinated cattle and those which actually have TB. However, a quick Google suggests that vaccination trials may take place. I'm sure farmers would prefer that than having to slaughter their animals, though as you say, some farmers just like to look for an easy scapegoat.

[kabuldur.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your informative reply.

Yes, here they test for TB, too, as well as innoculate. And pasturise the milk so that we ant get it by drinking contaminated milk.

And it's the government, not the farmers, who are putting out all the bad publicity about bats. Well, a few horse owners complain if fruit bats are roosting in the trees above where they yard horse, but that's only a few cases.

[malterre.livejournal.com]

Badgers too?!! I know a number of them are raging a war on Raptors as well-that actually eat pests.

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

It's inhumane and ineffective and infuriates me

[mort-83.livejournal.com]

I'm a TB researcher and I've followed the bovine TB story in the UK and in New Zealand off and on..(I have colleagues in both places who work on bovine TB). In New Zealand, the culprit is the possum and there isn't the backlash there against possum culls like one sees in the UK with badger culls. I've been told that it's because people in the UK have an affection for the badger. Is this particularly true?