The government and the NFU are about to slaughter 7,000 badgers and in spite of all the published and credible science being against the cull and 92% of the public being against the cull they intend to proceed. The NFU set up Vote OK to campaign and support MP's in parliament who would follow their orders and they are calling in their debt.
Click here to sign Governments petition http://teambadger.org/petition.html
Save me and Team Badger are opposed to the cull and will continue to fight. Please join us by signing both these petitions.
Bovine TB or Mycobacterium bovis or bovine tubercle bacillus is part of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. The organism is carried by many animals including deer, Cats ,Dogs , Pigs , Alpacas , Sheep and of course cattle . Mycobacterium bovis is an aerobic bacterium and the cause of TB in cattle . Bovine TB can jump the species barrier and cause tuberculosis in humans and this is where the problem has historically been. In the 1930's and 40 it was responsible for over 50,000 case a year and 2500 deaths annually . By 1960 all herds had been tested twice for TB and all animals which had tested positive, or 'reactors', were slaughtered and it became a notify able disease. The government introduced compulsory cattle testing and devised compensation program for all destroyed cattle In the last decade human contraction of Tb from animals has seen only handful of cases.
Pasteurisation of milk, immunisation and healthy diet has seen the number of cases reduce dramatically over the last 100 years and in most circles it is consider no longer a human concern.
For the farmers it is a different issue . Cattle with Bovine Tb cannot be moved READ MORE and cannot be sold in Europe causing great financial strain on farmers. Whilst vaccination BCG is available for cattle there is currently no approved test to differential between wild Tb and vaccinated TB although one has been researched READ HERE
It should be noted cattle with bTB lesions do routinely and legitimately enter the food chain .
Save Me fully sympathises with farmers who are effected by this awful disease but it does not believe, based on scientific evidence, the solution lies in the culling of badgers. It believes culling could make matters worse.
The Krebs Review on Bovine TB in Cattle and Badgers reported in 1997 and concluded that despite there being “compelling” evidence that badgers were involved in transmitting infection to cattle, the development of a control policy was made difficult because the effectiveness of badger culling could not be quantified with the data available. It therefore recommended that a large-scale field trial - the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT) - be set up to quantify the impact of culling badgers on incidence of TB in cattle, and to determine the effectiveness of strategies to reduce the risk of a TB cattle herd breakdown.
The Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG), which included several members of the Krebs Review group, was formed in 1998 to plan and subsequently provide independent oversight of the RBCT. It also provided advice on the content and direction of Defra‟s (then MAFF‟s) TB research programme. The ISG published their Final Report on 18 June 2007. This trial slaughtered 9818. It stated that "culling Badgers would have no meaningful effect on bovine TB in cattle " . You may have expected that to be the end of culling badgers however..........
On the 19th July 2011 Caroline Spelman announced that the government would carry out two pilot badger culls in the areas shows below. this was part of the governments bovine TB eradication program
Caroline Spellmans announcement of the proposed pilot badger cull.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN :-
Landowners who wish to cull badgers would need to apply for a licence from Natural England
The trials will asses the humaneness, efficacy and safety of the free shooting of badgers.
Groups of qualified landowner under licence will b able to shoot badgers at night with a high velocity rifle.
70 % of the badgers in any trial area must be slaughtered.
Each trail area must be at least 150 sq.km
SAVE MEis shocked the government would ignore all scientific advice and evidence and proceed with these trial culls. We will campaigns to prevent these pilot culls going ahead.
