Jazzy D's Soul Notes

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.