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

[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.