Website Content

Jump to footer

Badgers need our protection

THIS IS NOTTINGHAM
28 Sept 2010

Letter from Viva! Campaigns Manager:

I AM very disappointed, as I am sure many of your readers are, that the Government is pressing ahead with the terminally misguided policy of killing badgers in England

I cannot call it a "cull" as the majority of those animals killed are likely to be healthy, as evidenced by a study from 2003, which found 80 per cent of those killed were TB-free.A

s it is, the decision to allow farmers to shoot badgers on their own land is disastrous both in terms of welfare and potentially spreading the disease.

Badgers are highly territorial and largely stay in one area. However, killing badgers will cause survivors to travel to new areas.

This could have the effect of pushing TB on to farmers' land where no TB exists.

TB infection in cattle is actually falling in the UK – not going up. Overall, there were 438 fewer total new herd TB incidents in 2009 compared with 2008. How can this devastation of our natural wildlife be justified when TB infection is falling?

This wildlife massacre is not only cruel, it is not needed. Scientists in Dublin have perfected an oral vaccine that is effective in tackling the disease in badgers. This new development stops the vaccine being destroyed by powerful acids in badgers' stomachs, meaning it can be fed to them in bait left outside their setts – with no need to catch and inject them. These scientists have said that this method is the only way to control TB in the badger population long-term.

However, the bottom line is that bovine TB is a disease of cattle – and cattle-to-cattle is undeniably the main vector. Killing badgers while ignoring this is akin to fiddling while Rome burns.

It is also worth pointing out that the number of cattle killed each year because of TB is dwarfed by those killed by mastitis, lameness and infertility. Yet we never hear about those.

The decision to stamp out British wildlife against the best scientific opinion smacks of a misplaced allegiance to an industry that can't see the wood for the trees.

Please get involved in the campaign to stop Britain's wildlife being used as the scapegoat for poor agricultural policy and political favouritism. Visit www.viva.org.uk/badgers or phone 0117 944 1000

JUSTIN KERSWELL
Viva! Campaigns Manager
Bristol

Past News

brianmay.com
Bookmark and Share