Badger Cull |
Your Say Counts! |
|
ADRIAN'S PHOTO'S |
 |
The Coalition Government has again announced plans to have a "scientifically led" Cull of Badgers, in targeted hotspot areas in England. The plan is to eradicate the disease of Bovine TB in cattle, which has had such an impact on farmers, livestock and wildlife.
However due to the Win over the Welsh proposed Cull, by the Badger Trust, English Government have had to try to make their plans water tight. Part of their plan was to cage trap badgers and then shoot them but because that would cost lots of money they want land owners to shoot "free running badgers." Therefore because this has never been done before the idea is to carry out trials in two "Hot spot" areas. Carolyn Spellman on 14th Dec 2011 announced the go ahead for this trial. Over a period of 6 weeks, Badgers will be enticed to a feeding area and shot. 70% of the badgers in that area have to be killed within the 6 week period and they are to be tested to see if the animal died "humanely" or not. They don't appear to be carrying out tests to see what percentage of those badgers were actually carrying BTB. Bearing in mind these tests will be carried out in remote areas, at night, how will this be effectively monitored?
Defra also during dec 2011 announced a National Badger Survey presumably to estimate the number of Badgers in England so as to comply with the Bern convention.
There is no doubting that Badgers can suffer from BTB. Due to their very nature, they forage for grubs and beetles in the Bovines (cows) dung. It is certain that the disease came from Cattle but it is still unclear quite how it is passed (if indeed it is) back to cattle. It is assumed, as Badgers have been filmed entering grain stores and cattle feed troughs and defecating in them. By increasing farm bio security this possible risk is drastically reduced and would seem to be good practice in any case. Other Mammals such as farm cats, dogs, Deer, and Lamas all have tested positive over the years for TB so why is the government blinkered on culling the Badger?
Vaccines are available for not only the Badger but also for Cattle. The Cattle vaccine is not used because the EU have not got a test (DIVA) that will distinguish between a cow with TB and a Cow that has been Vaccinated! The Government should be spending its resources in developing this test not killing our native wildlife!
As was the case with Rabies, history shows by vaccinating mainly foxes, with bait left out, the disease was drastically reduced, further reductions were then made by tight restrictions imposed on animal movement. Vaccinations are available for the badgers and there were plans to test these in 6 areas during the summer of 2010 but due to the coalition government pulling funds, this has been reduced to just one area.
Stricter penalties for failing to meet DEFRA guidelines, moving Cattle from infected areas and missing BTB tests amongst Cattle is a must, even rewarding those Farmers who have tighter bio security measures and good animal husbandry, not paying subsidies for sick animals to be killed.
Lord Krebs, author of the Scientific badger cull trial 1997 and Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientific adviser, both questioned the proposed cull scheme.
On 16 November 2010, in the House of Lords, farming minister Lord Henley said the scientific advice was "quite clear" that badger culling could be effective. He said that more than 25,000 cattle had to be compulsorily slaughtered last year and described bovine TB as "Britain's biggest endemic animal health issue".
HOWEVER.....
| 38 degrees have a petition |
|---|
| Sign it here and have your say! |
In 2008, 75,000 were slaughtered because they were "not in calf"
In 2009, 120,000 cattle were slaughtered because they were infertile.
50,000 because of mastitis; 25,000 because of lameness;
and 7,000 because they were "low yield". Not to mention the male dairy calves that are killed at birth because they are unprofitable.
Lord Krebs asked him: "Do you agree with the estimate of your own officials that, based on the results of the randomized badger culling trials, long-term intensive culling of badgers would lead to a 16% reduction in the incidence of TB in cattle over a nine-year period?" "Even this very modest reduction, leaving 84% of the problem unaffected, would be only achievable with highly-effective, large-scale long-term culling, otherwise culling will make the problem worse."
Lord Henley replied: "On-going monitoring since the end of those trials has indicated that the positive impacts on herd breakdowns within the culled areas have continued to last a considerable number of years after they ended and have seen a reduction of some 28% in those areas "So, there is a reduction and it is a considerable reduction. We have never said that culling is the sole answer. "We have always made it clear that we believe that there will be other measures that need to be taken and we need every tool in the toolbox."
Please read through the control measures document for a better understanding.
http://www.save-me.org.uk/
http://www.backoffbadgers.org.uk/england/index.php
http://www.badger.org.uk/Content/Home.asp