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Rooker backs cull plans

Disgracefully the former Labour Minister Lord Rooker has backed coalition government plans to slaughter badgers.  He chose to use the ending of the consultation to try and give maximum support for the government to kill thousands of badgers.  Rooker totally ignores the science and uses totally unscientific statements whih are without foudation.  Lord Rooker is well-known as a supporter of slaughtering badgers and is also pro-hunting.

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FARMERS GUARDIAN
9 December 2010 | By Alistair Driver 

FORMER Farming Minister Jeff Rooker has warned that Ministers should not allow Natural England to dictate policy on the issuing of badger cull licences.

He said he supported the coalition Government’s preferred option for a policy that combines badger culling and vaccination. “I support the process and cannot find fault with the range of options, assumptions or costs,” he wrote.

But on the subject of cull licences, which will be issued by Natural England, he warned: “I agree with the approach on issuing licences, but would not support Natural England overriding Ministers if they take a different view.”

He added that the costs of the licences must be met by the animal keepers but recommended that Defra meets additional security costs ‘to allow animal keepers to go about a lawful activity if there is illegal interference’.

He also stressed the importance that farmers and landowners are tied in with ‘clear solid financial promises’ to cull on a regular basis for up to four years. “They should be legally bound in this respect,” he said.

During his time as a Defra Minister from 2006 to 2008, Lord Rooker openly advocated a farmer-led, licensed badger cull policy but was overruled on the issue by former Defra Secretary Hilary Benn.

In his consultation response, Lord Rooker stressed that he was ‘not in favour of going for total extinction in an area but said badger density needs to be reduced.

“No one wants to needlessly take out wildlife whom we share the planet with, but too few worry about the food production animals so we need a balance here.

“There is no single solution here and it is important to point up the incidence in wildlife of Bovine TB and a spread to domestic pets and food animals other than cattle.

“Targeted culling is only part of the process but without it Bovine TB will remain with us at massive cost to public purse, distress to animal keepers and illness in the food animals.

He commended Defra and coalition Government Ministers for ‘seeing the science can allow a targeted controlled cull, which, he added, was ‘dismissed in a cavalier fashion some time ago’.

“It is equally untrue to say the science is for a cull as much as it is to say the science is against a cull. The science is not clear,” he added.

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