I have real worries about the badger cull. I’m not pretending that my anxiety can be as great as those farmers who are suffering when they lose their cattle to bovine TB, but I fear that the cull could make things worse. See previous comments here, here and here. We have made detailed considered responses to the Government on this issue over a number of years.
The situation is volatile with rumours that the cull might be postponed or the pilot culls might start very soon. If they do go ahead, I am concerned at the risk of trouble. Let me be very clear about this. The RSPB is opposed to the cull but we do not support the intimidation of farmers who are carrying out a cull under licence. It is difficult to see how you can have a safe protest in a situation where firearms are being used, especially at night, so whilst we appreciate anyone’s right to legally and peacefully protest we urge people to consider their safety, and the safety of others, and not interfere with culling operations.
There are other ways you can show your opposition to the culls. The first of these is through the Government e petition, anyone opposed to the cull should sign this petition, if they have not done so already. Already over 150,000 people have signed and many have been asking what else can they do. The petition should result in a debate in the House of Commons, which could happen as early as 25 October.
We hope that this is an informed and searching debate. There are still many questions about the effectiveness, practicality and impact on the badger population of the pilot culls and the projected programme of control in the future. Here are three key questions that we think MPs should be asking:
It will also be important for government to ensure that concerns over biosecurity are addressed and that the red tape that is currently preventing cattle vaccination from being used in the UK is removed as swiftly as possible.
If you want to get in touch with your MP about the debate you can find out who they are and how to contact them here.
What are the key questions you think MPs should be asking about the badger cull?
It would be great to hear your views.
Just reminiscing! In the 1950-60s I was involved in testing cow's milk for bovine TB (and brucellosis) for Council Weights and Measures depts. who were responsible for milk quality. There was, at that time, much raw milk still for sale and bTB could be transmitted to humans leading to a rather unpleasant throat infection. Pasteurisation completely inactivates bTB. Finding bTB was not uncommon but as I recall farmers were then only required to ensure their products were pasteurised before being sold. Never heard that badgers or other mammals were vectors or that the cattle were culled. Others may remember better!
It looks as if the government are backtracking a bit about their culling regime, see this article in today's Guardian: www.guardian.co.uk/.../cattle-movement-bovine-tb-testing The BBC programme, Material World yesterday had an item on Badger Culling led by John Krebs restating his complete objection to the cull. The government (DEFRA/NE) vet initially agreed to appear but withdrew at the last minute so no agument for the cull was put forward. The programme is available on the BBC iPlayer.
The key seem to me to be bio-security and rigorous controls on cattle movements. farmers have to stop tolerating the minority of miscreants in their ranks, the key lies in this fairly large minority sub culture that disrespects bio security and "government".
Peter Plover
We have gone seriously backwards on the Badger BTB problem over the last half century I believe as I am led to understand that in the 60s if a cattle farm had BTB reactors then it was assumed that the Badgers were infected and were culled.Now I agree this was not ideal but it did work and was at least likely to keep both cattle and Badgers disease free.Certainly it was more likely to cull the suspected animals than a area cull which is bound to have many disease free animals..At least if we have to have a cull lets target the most likely diseased Badgers and that must be those with setts on farms whose cattle have had the disease.
Cannot help but think if I was still farming and we had no BTB and Badgers on the farm the whole family would have prevented anyone culling what we considered our Badgers,it would have been just a case of keeping our own group which probably stopped others coming in.
Interesting point Bob, yes it looks like the Government is committed to pursuing the two pilot culls. Isn't it appropriate for for those don't support this to put their hand up and let the Government know?. Isn't it also worth Parliament asking some searching questions and getting the justification, the costs and the potential pitfalls on the public record? In addition, this is only the pilot culls,perhaps the Government has made up its mind about rolling the cull out further, but they are committed to evaluate the pilots before making a decision. The public and parliament should be asking questions about how the effectiveness, safety and humaneness of the pilots will be assessed and about the potential impacts on the badger population if the cull is rolled out to 40 areas of the English countryside over the next few years.