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Natural England lacks confidence in badger cull plans

FARMERS GUARDIAN
24 August 2011 | By Alistair Driver

THE body that would be responsible for issuing badger culling licences in England has said it has little confidence in the proposed policy.

In response to Defra’s consultation on implementing and enforcing the badger cull, Natural England raises a number of concerns about the scientific justification and practicalities underpinning the proposed policy.

NE’s response highlights the contradictions inherent in a body set with the remit to ‘protect and improve England’s natural environment’ being given the task of administering a policy of culling badgers.

The agency’s discomfort with its proposed role is laid bare throughout its 12-page response.

Its key concern is that the approach proposed by Defra Ministers is untried and deviates from that deployed in the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT), which it says remains the best source of evidence of the effects of badger culling on cattle TB incidence in England.

It acknowledges that the RBCT showed proactive culling can deliver a disease reduction in cattle and this ‘success’ could be repeated if a future cull was modelled on it.

However, it sates that it has a ‘low level of confidence that the predicted benefits can be delivered consistently’ under the proposed policy.

“This stems from the lack of evidence that a farmer-led cull can replicate what has only previously been undertaken by government (and even then on a smaller scale) and the complexity of the regulatory regime required to ensure successful outcomes,” NE says in its response.

It argues that asking farmers to lead the cull is a ‘significant departure’ from the conditions of the RBCT and ‘introduces uncertainty’ about the outcome.

It adds that Defra figures indicates the financial costs for farmers are likely to exceed the benefits, suggesting this could affect farmers’ willingness to participate. 

Natural England also argues that there is no evidence base to assess the humanness of ‘controlled shooting’ of badgers, and welcomes the decision to kick off with ‘pilot’ culls to assess this.

It calls for a number of changes to be made to protect badger populations where culling takes place. These include an upper limit on the size of individual licensed cull areas, reducing the number of areas licensed per year from the proposed 10 and a tighter definition of where culling should be allowed to take place.

 

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