Yesterday's news brought the sad and disappointing news that the government are pushing on with their plans for a cull of free-ranging badgers. You can read what Martin Harper our director of conservation has to say on this here. This was also discussed in the media here and here.
This brings up all sorts of arguments, emotions and point's of view but the one question that is baffling me right now is why spend £4 million on policing a high risk strategy that does not have public support when that £4 million could be spent on furthering the progress of the vaccine that has had positive results so far...what do you think?
You may be interested in a 38 Degrees petition against the cull which you can find here.
Warden Intern at Otmoor.
It is appaling that in this day and age and with all the knowledge we have, that they dont say lets use a vacine on the badgers, we do with all bovines, but no its get your guns out lads a bit of sport to be had, I find it very hard to swallow, I used to work on a dairy farm with a pedigree herd of friesans, we had badgers in two of our fields, never once did we have any of our cows proved positive with T.B. so what has happened in recent times to change all this, could it not also be caursed by something else, because the ammount of stuff the farm animals are given, its no wonder somethging is going wrong.
Two years ago I cannot remember the details, but an allotment down south had been destroyed with a weed killer, it turned out by an investigation by the allotment federation, that sometrhing the farmers had been giving the cattle, when it had gone through the stomaches, had turned into some kind of weed killer, which in turn killed all plant matter on the allotment, a lot of our local allotment holders, do noy use cattle manure, only sourcing manure from a local stable. So come on someone lets get to the bottom of all this malarky, before something bad happens.
There does seem to be mixed views on this from all sides of the fence.Not all dairy farmers are convinced it will work but not sure on Harriers idea hat they will be making sport of it.I would support Ians view that the money would be better spent on researching the vaccine.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
Of course however unfortunate it may be Badgers are the main cause of the disease and that does not mean that all badgers infect cattle and indeed could be that originally Badgers caught the disease from cattle.We farmed for 37 years with cattle and Badgers on the farm so obviously some areas are clear.Of course it is ridiculous to think that farmers want a bit of sport otherwise they would have already shot the Badgers that are threatening their livelyhood.This is also a red herring about what cattle are fed as all of us and our pets consume stuff of dubious origin without getting TB.
Farmers would in most cases prefer the vaccination route if it is effective.
Before anyone makes funny remarks on this serious disease they need to study the facts which some RSPB employees have.
There is absolutely no doubt that wildlife which in the main seem to be Badgers are the things spreading BTB and now that Badgers are getting into Scotland I understand suddenly cattle getting BTB.
Sorry I did not mean it litaraly, what I meant is it seems to be the answer to everything, if not sure kill it, and sorry sooty I did not mean the farmers, I meant the gunho brigade, as I said we had badgers on our farm, and we got on perfectly well with them, and the way the ministry deal with badgers is barbaric, with gasing. I feel there is an answewr out there and as Ian said the monies would be better spent on finding a solution. I would have thought an anti body could be given to badgers as well as the cattle.??
My concern with this one is that even when the Vets Association supported this announcement they said it would cut Tb by 10%. That still leaves 90% which it would be easy to say is caused by the farmers themselves but of course that is unlikely to be true.
Noone does seem to be getting to grips with other causes of BTb (if the vets are right, badgers cannot be the main cause) Luckily Tb seems to be decreasing even without a cull.
The Cotswold Water park sightings website
My Flicker page
This is such an emotive issue and has no palatable answer for anyone with a degree of common sense and a love of our environment.
Is there no way a cull could be humanely carried out in high infection areas while this vaccine could be perfected to maintain the Badgers left healthy?
Surely it is sensible to maintain a balance between the immediate need for action and the long term action needed to re-establish a healthy Badger community that can be appreciated by all parties including those most affected financially.
I have what may be a peculiar question. There are TB free communities of badgers living around cattle. If badgers are culled in TB areas and new badgers move in to the area there is a risk of them contracting TB? - If the answer is yes that would imply the bacteria can survive in the soil, therefore it makes more sense to vaccinate surely.
Cin J
Yes everyone would surely choose the vaccination route and considering farmers have lived with Badgers all their lives it must be wrong to think they would want a cull by choice.It would be relatively easy for farmers if so minded to already have killed Badgers.Farmers feel between a rock and a hard place with fast becoming the only solution to get out of cattle farming then there would soon be serious shortage of milk and beef.
Anyone who even starts thinking farmers spread this disease by as some Badger lovers suggest by cattle movements should google in the rules and law on this and they will find it is almost impossible to get round the rules even if anyone was stupid enough and would anyone with a herd worth at least say £200,000 even consider bringing BTB into that herd,no of course not the argument does not stack up.
The other statistic that does not stack up as well is that during the period approx 1965 to 1997 quite a long period with very limited culling of Badgers the disease stayed at very very low levels almost wiped out in U K herds then culling stopped and the graph went up really dramatically.
Do not think anyone has ever explained this when saying culling will not work.
No doubt about it we would choose the vaccination route if effective but farming and the Badger population need a quick answer as thousands of Badgers must be dying awful deaths from this disease and spreading it to many others.Doing nothing is not good for the Badgers either.
I think this argument will go on and on, with farmers on the one hand saying as sooty has so elequently put it, but it seems that only the farmers should have a say, no I am sorry everyone has a point of view, and with all the means at their desposale, can look up any facts on file, in my opinion, and by the way I am on my side and its my opinion, it all boils down to money, I also used to be very involved with the R.S.P.C.A. and all the years I was involved we only had one case of a badger with T.b. I am not saying they dont have it but to make a statement that thousands of badgers must be dying in agony is very irisponsible, without putting facts to the fore, and to put forward the amount of dead badgers that have been found over the years and the ratio of ormal deaths and ones who had this disease.
Sooty, I have to agree. Grudgingly but honestly there are times we have to be decisive to defend the future agaist horrible diseases and such things as invasive species. I remember being told as a lad that nature is red in both tooth and claw and I think we need to be proactive on this and not reactive in ten years time.