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Badger Trust letter to Editor of The Times

Letter from Badger Trust to Editor of The Times, in response to article written by Ron Webster July 6th.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES
10 July 2011

Sir.

Ron Webster's article about badger culling (July 6) was reasonably balanced, but with one huge exception. With it is a picture of a badger with a caption claiming that half of the 25,000 infections of cattle with bovine TB were blamed on badgers. There is absolutely no justification for this assertion and it is hard to believe that Defra was the source as stated. Defra themselves have just announced that at best the reduction would be 12-16 percent and that is nine years after the start of the cull.  Only an estimated one in seven badgers carry the infection even in areas with a high incidence of the disease in cattle.  On the other hand, a cull would eradicate six out of seven healthy badgers.

According to the Government the only sufficiently rigorous scientific report on culling says: “While badgers are clearly a source of cattle TB, careful evaluation of our own and others’ data indicates that badger culling can make no meaningful contribution to cattle TB control in Britain. Indeed, some policies under consideration are likely to make matters worse rather than better”.

 

David Williams,
The Badger Trust

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